Friday, February 05, 2010

Frittering away the summer.

Every now and then, Andy and I make fritters, trying to find the key to a firm but flavourful patty of veggies or mashed potatoes. We've tried gluten flour, chickpea flour, egg replacers, mashed tofu, and a range of other ingredient combinations, but we couldn't seem to find anything that worked.

That is, until Christmas when we got a cookbook from Andy's brother. The book is rather uncreatively titled Vegan, by Tony Weston and Yvonne Bishop. As a British cookbook, it has a combination of familiar Aussie foods as well as things I've never heard of before (but want, like banoffee pie).

One of the recipes is obviously for fritters -- corn fritters, in fact. It basically involves making a savoury pancake batter and stirring in corn kernels. Our first attempt was a resounding success...
With a stuffed capsicum and a salad.

...so of course we decided to experiment. First, I used the batter with grated potato. This had potential, but the potato didn't quite cook properly.
With a chickpea cutlet and a snow pea shoot salad.

Next, we tried mashed potato + mashed sweet potato. This was the winner.

With Thai Style Pineapple Fried Rice (from The Tropical Vegan cookbook), and fat-free garlic bread.

In the past month, we have probably eaten these mashed potato fritters 5 or 6 times, because we both love them that much. And, they reheat really well the next morning for brekky. Our search for the perfect fritters has finally come to a rest.

Fritters:

1/2 c. flour
1 t. vegetable stock powder
1 t. baking powder
1/2 c. soy milk
1 t. apple cider vinegar
1 T. garlic chives (or regular chives, or garlic), minced
1 c. mashed potatoes (or sweet potatoes, or whole corn kernels, or other veggies minced finely)

Combine flour, stock, and baking powder, mix well. Stir in soy milk and vinegar until well combined, then fold in chives and veggies. Heat a large, preferably non-stick skillet over medium-high heat, and add enough oil to thinly coat the whole pan. Drop heaping tablespoons of the fritter mix into the pan, flatten, and fry until browned on both sides. Keep warm in the oven until they are all cooked.

9 comments:

Hannah said...

Hurrah for hard-won cooking successes! Please make the banoffee pie - caramel goodness :P

Maybe you could try putting potato chips in that?

nora said...

yum!
fritter is such a fun word, haha

lisa said...

I love fritters! Cabbage works well with fritter batter - Japanese okonomiyaki style!

Tahn said...

Bookmarked!

Anonymous said...

yum fritters! as with the commenter above me, bookmarked! corn fritters sound particularly amazing. love the entire plate you put together!

Vaala ◪ said...

Those fritters sound awesome. I've always had a soft spot for fritters, especially corn ones and then Mum makes these delicious corn and kumara ones sometimes when I go round to visit. I will definitely give this recipe a go. Sounds like the leftovers would be good for lunch too.

sf|noir said...

The sf|noir brings food and wine together in a unique event as part of the Ninth Annual San Francisco Black History Month Celebration. Join us to celebrate 5 delicious days of food and wine with over 40 premium wineries providing a taste of what makes California arguably the most important wine growing region in the world.

Author and chef of Vegan Soul Kitchen, Bryant Terry, will be there for Friday February 26, 2010 at Marcus Books in San Francisco. He’ll also be participating as one of the chefs at The Shrimp & Grits Taste-Off, which opens The sf|noir Wine & Food Event at the Museum of the African Diaspora.

Please feel free to make a post on your blog for the event.

Thanks.

Vegan Chef said...

Finally someone has got the point of the book which is to introduce you to new methods that will inspire you to follow through and create your own delicious dishes.

Enjoy!

We have a new full colour recipe book (no more creatively titled) the complete book of vegan cooking.

If you prefer obscure titles then try find a copy of 'Rainbows and Wellies The Taigh Na Mara Cookbook'

Trucking Factoring said...

This dinner looks amazing!