Zucchini Pancakes

I completely forgot I did not put this recipe on yet! I was sure the zucchini pancakes (also called fritters sometimes) were here since forever. Apparently not.

Zucchini season is more or less over now – any season is more or less over, apart from some mushrooms and nuts – but what the hell. This is something that never goes amiss.

These are made pretty much the same as potato pancakes, but using zucchini (surprise! ; it also works with courgettes/vegetable marrows and pumpkin). There are two important tips I have for you to make sure they’re great:

• let the zucchini mass rest for a bit to drain excess juice
• use wholemeal flour

I’m not a health nut, as you may have noticed, and though I like wholemeal flour, I don’t find it mandatory. For most baking recipes, white flour is indeed better, since it’s lighter and gives fluffier results. But the zucchini pancakes are so frail in form (and delicate in taste) that the heavy wholemeal flour makes them hold together much better and generally gives additional robustness.
So, here’s how you go about them.

Ingredients

• zucchini
• wholemeal flour
• egg(s)
• fresh dill
• salt

Preparation

Peel and grate the zucchini. Sprinkle the resulting mass with salt and leave off for a bit, preferably in a sieve or colander or something like that, to drain excess juice. Add flour in small batches (no more than half the volume of the green stuff!) and mix in the egg. While mixing, watch the texture – the firmer the better. Add more flour if too runny, always adding in small batches. Remember that you can always add if it’s not enough, but you usually can’t take it out again if it’s too much. Chop up fresh dill and add directly to the dough mix.

Heat up a frying pan and fry small pancakes. No matter how firm your dough, they will always be at risk of tearing, so the smaller you make them the easier it will be for you.

The taste is delicate and mild, so keep that in mind. They go really great with cream  or quark cheese or both.