Frittering the hours away

Maybe it was all those images of latkes that floated through my social media feeds or perhaps it was the falafel I ate for lunch a few days ago, but whatever the reason, I have recently been dreaming of fritters. Fritters are fabulous because they are fried, of course, but you can also feel less guilty because many fritter recipes involve vegetables, giving them a modicum of respectability. I would not go quite as far as the website Yummly, which recently posted about “healthy” vegetable fritters.

When browsing for fritter recipes in the EYB Library, I was mildly surprised at how many there were. The Library contains 4,700 recipes for fritters, over 800 of which are available online. Fritters can be savory or sweet, although I tend to go for the savory type. Twenty years of living in Appalachia exposed me to endless zucchini/courgette fritters, and I was not surprised to see that over 15% of the fritter recipes in the EYB Library featured zucchini/courgettes.

Plenty of other vegetables make appearances as well, as do fruits. Meats can be frittered as well although that is not nearly as common. Since there is no strict definition for fritters, some are fully encased in dough but the most common type involve shreds of ingredients held together with a loose batter. Several online recipes caught my eye while I browsed the Library. Some of these received rave reviews from EYB Members, others were recent additions, and a few just struck my fancy. The highlight reel includes:

• Apple fritters from Eat the Love by Irvin Lin
• Turnip and sweet potato fritters with poached eggs and basil oil from Waitrose Food Magazine, October 2019 by Jordan Bourke
• Leek fritters from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi
• Carrot & butternut fritters from Honey & Co. by Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich
• Beetroot and carrot fritters with dill and yogurt sauce from A Change of Appetite by Diana Henry
• Celeriac and Gruyère fritters from Gourmet Traveller Menus by Australian Gourmet Traveller
• Thai corn fritters from In the Kitchen by Allan Campion and Michele Curtis (pictured)
• Lemon ricotta fritters with strawberry jam from Brunch @ Bobby’s by Bobby Flay, Stephanie Banyas and Sally Jackson
• Rhubarb fritters from Taste of Home Magazine