Tuesday 14 February 2012

The Daring Kitchen: Flipping Fried Patties! (Zucchini, Carrot, Chick Pea and Sweet Potato Fritters)

I was ever so pleased when I discovered that this month's Daring Cooks challenge was to make fritters. The last few have been quite, well, challenging. I know that's the whole point - to extend yourself and add to your culinary skills - but once in a while it's nice to have something quick and simple that you can do some serious improv on with what is on hand rather than having to dedicate four hours of your already-busy weekend to locating ingredients and preparing and cooking something quite complex.

Don't get me wrong - I do like to learn new things and make impressive dishes, but this month's challenge is more my style of cooking, and I generally leave the fancy stuff to the realms of baked goods. Like the time I made Sweetapolita's Ruffle Cake. I think I also enjoyed the fact that I didn't feel like I needed to read every single word on the information sheet in order to successfully complete the recipe, or freak the heck out about doing somethign wrong. Which I think means I will always be placed squarely in the "cook" corner, and not the "chef" one!

The Daring Cooks’ February 2012 challenge was hosted by Audax & Lis and they chose to present Patties for their ease of construction, ingredients and deliciousness! We were given several recipes, and learned the different types of binders and cooking methods to produce our own tasty patties!

I'm on a bit of a health kick at present so I wanted to make something full of vegies but also not light on flavour. Audax and Lisa provided a list of common binders for patties, and I decided to go with sweet potato as well as some blended-up chick peas.

I spent a week or so thinking about what to put in these. Not non-stop, obviously (although, given how often I think about food it wouldn't be entirely surprising if that had been the case!), but there was a certain flavour I was going for - there's this Indian stall at the St Andrews Market (a hippie craft/farmer's/trash n treasure market near where I live in Melbourne) that makes these wraps that have this sort of roasted vegetable fritter type thing, wrapped up in Roti and served with chutney and salad. I thought I'd give the Roti a miss (only cos I was cooking for myself and mum, and mum wouldn't be able to eat them because of the gluten, which would leave me to eat an entire packet of Roti... which, let's face it, would be delicious, but not really in line with my current health kick!).

The ingredients are probably fairly flexible - as I'm sure all the other Daring COoks discovered, making patties/fritters is definitely one of those add stuff "until it looks right" propositions!

1 small-medium sweet potato, peeled and steamed/boiled until soft
1 can (400g-ish) chick peas, drained
2 medium zucchinis, grated, liquid squeezed out to within an inch of its life
1 medium carrot, grated, liquid squeezed out
1/2 medium brown onion, grated, liquid squeezed out (that'll test ya! Or, see below note on blending)
2 cloves garlic, you guessed it, grated!
1 egg
Sweet paprika (I added about a tablespoon but add to taste)
Moroccan seasoning (I never do spell that correctly... I used about a teaspooon, but again, to taste)

Blend steamed sweet potato, chickpeas and egg (and if you were too scared to grate the onion and okay with your patties being sloppy, blend that too) in a food processor until it forms a smooth paste.

Add it to the grated vegetables and smoosh about with your hand until combined and the different vegetables are evenly distributed. Add spices and continue to smoosh mixture until well mixed.

Divide into six to eight balls.

Heat olive oil in frypan (I used a cast iron one) and place half the patties in the pan. Squash them so they are about 2cm thick. Fry until browned then flip. Continue cooking until the second side is cooked. Repeat with the other half of the raw patties.

Serve with a garden salad and mango chutney such as my BFF Kirsti made me for Christmas.

Tastes good cold, too! Which is just as well, because now that I can't drive for six months (no, I didn't lose my licence! It's a medical exclusion) and therefore have to catch the bus to Barham on Sunday nights, I have to eat dinner on the bus (without the driver noticing - no food allowed on the bus!). The good thing about catching the bus is that I have plenty of time to blog on my way up. Which makes me feel a little queasy after a while, but I'm beginning to think that's more to do with needing glasses... and now I'm rambling... so, ENJOY!

28 comments:

  1. Great job, these patties look amazing, and the flavor in them is awesome, I bet! And I bet sneaking food on the bus is quite the challenge! :)

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    1. I was aiming for them to taste a little like felafel and a little like roasted vegies, and it worked :)

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  2. Yum, what a great combination of ingredients! That week you spent figuring out what to put in your patties was obviously well spent!

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    1. I probably spend a little too much time thinking about food, but it's generally time well spent ;)

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  3. Those look so delicious. I love all the vegetable goodness crammed in there, too. Wonderful work on the challenge!

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    1. Thanks Shelley :) Yep, I was aiming to fit as many vegies as possible into it. I don't have kids but I imagine you may be able to use a recipe such as this to hide vegetables from them!

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  4. Well at least these will be easy to sneak these on the bus LOL. Yes Lis and I wanted a simple yet well used method (patty making) for this month's challenge. I like how you used sweet potato for the binder. yes squeezing onions are tricky LOL LOL. Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia.

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    1. Thanks for the challenge Audax - I love recipes that encourage me to use what I am already comfortable with and then extend it.

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  5. Love these - looks tasty and lots of good veggies in there.

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    1. I didn't realise until afterwards that the only non-vegetables on the plate was the lonely egg binding it, and the chutney, but even that is made of fruit! I'm feeling virtuous just thinking about it :)

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  6. I'm glad I'm not the only one who ponders on recipes for many days :) Love the flavours and the final product looks beautiful! Well done!

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    1. Thanks Nish :) It's good knowing there are plenty of "ponderers" out there.

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  7. They look beautiful! What a fantastic recipe - jam packed with veggies and total comfort food. I must bookmark this for later.

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    1. I hadn't thought of it like that, but you're totally right - it's filling enough to be comfort food but light enough not to feel weighed down by it. It's also equally good hot and cold.

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  8. Gorgeous stuff. Think they might be fabulous as veggie burgers too...?

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    1. Ooh, yes - on grilled turkish bread, spread with avocado on one side and the chutney on the other.

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  9. What a great combination. They look great.
    I agree - it is nice to have challenges like this once in a while where we can draw on some of our "already existent" recipes/ skills, but learn some new tips on how to make them better.

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    1. I'm glad we had this one because now I'm all energised for whatever challenge March brings!

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  10. Nice job on the challenge! Good luck sneaking food on the bus, hehe.

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    1. I find the secret is to not eat anything noisy, slide down in your seat so you can't be seen, and take your rubbish with you (which I would anyway!). Do you have a blog? There doesn't seem to be one linked to your profile.

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  11. Your patties look and sound delicious! When I bussed it for a summer internship out of town, I never tried to sneak food on, continued good luck with that!

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  12. Thanks, Jo :) Just popped by your blog and your food looks delicious!

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  13. We had this for dinner the other night - easy and delicious; a great combination :)

    Sara xx

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    1. Glad you liked them. My favourite part is where they're actually good for you! xoxo

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  14. This looks wonderful! I'm really envious that you are able to reply to comments. I can't get it to work on my blog. Again, love your choice for making a patty!

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  15. Blogger wasn't letting me for a while - it would freeze up and not load the comments window, so I would have to write an entire post dedicated to replying to comments! I think in the new Blogger format there are options about commenting on each post/page. Maybe the wrong box is checked?

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