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Recipe: Even More Fun – Egg Fritters

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Egg fritters are a new discovery of mine. I encountered them on some travels in the last year or so and have been enjoying them ever since. In addition to enjoyment, there is the nutrition aspect too. I may sound like a stuck record when I talk about increasing protein intake, but I truly believe that it’s a necessity for most if not all of us. This is true especially if we do any form of exercise, but even otherwise. We need to rethink our thaalis and our misconception that dal fulfils our protein requirements. The entry of more egg dishes into my own diet is how I’ve been meeting these needs. These egg fritters also bring some novelty in for me, something different from the same old, same old (which can get boring). That sense of uniqueness is what makes exploring new dishes interesting.

I first tasted egg fritters in London, where I had ordered them off the menu because I was intrigued by their name. I was quite pleasantly surprised by how good they were. As I ate, I tried to deduce what had gone into the recipe. This is a habit of mine when I go out to eat and when I particularly relish a new dish or a refreshing version of a familiar one. I have a constant curiosity when it comes to anything culinary, and where it isn’t possible to ask for a recipe (as I would if I was eating in someone’s home), I usually try to figure it out myself.

I did the latter in this case, and that is how I came up with an egg fritter recipe that sated my curiosity, my cravings as well as my nutritional needs.

This is a relatively new recipe to me, so I have yet to make a lot of memories with it at home, with my friends and family. I love this rendition, but I do still order the egg fritters at the eatery in London where I first tasted them whenever I’m in the city.

In this version, I have used green vegetables because they are aesthetically attractive, as well as really good for us. You may want to substitute the vegetables I have listed for ones that you prefer. Colourful bell peppers may work nicely. Just make sure that all the veggies used are chopped well so that the fritters cook better.

These egg fritters are obviously a breakfast dish, but they’re also great in case you need to pack something quickly for a commute. I think they would also work very well in lieu of a burger patty. That’s something I’d love to try out myself. It could also be interesting to have them on an open sandwich along with toppings or dressing. Now that these egg fritters have entered my life, I’m excited about the many ways I can enjoy them!

Egg Fritters

(Yield: 6 pieces)

3 eggs
Salt to taste
1 full cup zucchini (grated)
½ cup onions (finely chopped)
2 tablespoons coriander leaves (finely chopped)
½ cup broccoli (grated)
2-3 tablespoons rice flour
2 tablespoons bell peppers (finely chopped)

In a bowl, add the eggs, grated zucchini, broccoli, coriander leaves, onions, rice flour, bell peppers and salt. Mix well.

Add some oil in a heated flat pan. Using a ladle, drop a big spoonful of the mixture onto the pan. Press with the back of the ladle to make a thick fritter. Use a cup or a ring if you can. Here is a tip: while pouring the batter on the pan, the egg may drain on the sides. Once the egg cooks a little push it back with the help of the ladle. This will help in making the fritter achieve an almost round shape.

Add as many as you can on the pan. Cover for a few minutes on a low flame and allow to cook on the inside. Remove the lid and allow to cook until golden on one side. Flip and repeat on the other side.

Enjoy these tasty egg fritters by themselves, on toast or a bun, as a side to a meal or any way you like them! You may also want to check out a few other recipes I’ve shared earlier in which eggs are a core ingredient!

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Recipes

Recipe: For Festivals And Cheat-Days – Banana-Methi Fritters

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If you’ve been following my blog, you’d have noticed that despite my quintessentially Gujarati sweet tooth, my culinary adventures are often based on healthy eating. I hardly ever reach for a fried item first, but these banana-methi fritters are a part of our wide kitchen repertoire at home during Diwali. Perhaps one just can’t feel guilty about indulgence when it comes to special occasions! The festive season isn’t far away, so you may want to try your hand at these fritters and see if you’d like to share them with your friends and family too this year.

Growing methi (known in English as fenugreek, and in Tamil as vendeyakeerai for the leaves and vendeyam for the seeds) is as easy as throwing a few seeds in the soil and allowing them to sprout in a matter of days. This is why I can use freshly-plucked methi leaves for so many of my dishes. Alongside tulsi, lemongrass and numerous herbs, fruits and vegetables, it flourishes right in my home. Whether it’s a traditional Indian staple or a salad (Chennai’s weather makes fresh lettuce difficult to find in the city sometimes, and I love experimenting with healthy substitutes), these pretty greens are a familiar ingredient in the re:store kitchen.

Methi has an array of health benefits. Among them, it helps improve digestion, tackle respiratory allergies, cure anaemia, and lower cholesterol and blood sugar levels (which is why it is used in diabetes management). Due to its high estrogen content, it even helps lactating mothers in the production of milk – I remember being given lots of methi laddoos after giving birth. In addition to these benefits, methi is also known to have a beautifying effect on the hair and skin when used in a paste form as a mask or conditioner.

I’m telling you all this to put a healthy spin on the recipe below – which is a fried indulgence!

The other ingredient in this spicy, crispy snack I’m about to share with you hardly needs to be promoted on the basis of health, because it is so very sweet and tasty. That filling, versatile, portable and very nutritious fruit – the banana! It just so happens that bananas are rich in potassium, fibre, antioxidants and share blood sugar-lowering, cholesterol-management and overall wellness-boosting benefits with methi.

Hundreds of banana varieties are grown in India through the year, and with Tamil Nadu being the source of 23% of the country’s supply, we really have our pick of the fruit here. In fact, the banana tree is auspicious in many Indian cultures, and has a place in wedding and fertility rituals. Similar to the coconut, its various parts have many uses. The banana flower, known as vazhaipoo, is diced and eaten in Tamil cuisine – and traditionally, South Indian food is always served on a banana leaf.

So we have here two key ingredients so nourishing that you can forget you’re chomping on fried deliciousness. Without further ado, here are my banana-methi fritters, served with a green coriander chutney.

 

Banana-Methi Fritters With Green Coriander Chutney

(Yield: 20-25 small fritters)

Fritters
¾ cup chickpea flour
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1 finely chopped green chilli or 1 teaspoon chilli ginger paste
¾ cup methi leaves, washed and finely chopped
½ cup ripe banana, pulped or finely chopped
2 cups of oil + 1 tablespoon hot oil
¼ cup water

Chutney

1 cup coriander leaves, washed and finely chopped
1 green chilli
1 tablespoon peanuts
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2-3 tablespoons water
1 generous slice raw mango (optional)
Salt to taste

In a mixing bowl, add the flour, salt, turmeric, cumin, grated ginger and green chilli and mix. To this, add the banana and the methi leaves. Mix them well with your hands, adding enough water to make a paste-like consistency. Allow this batter to sit for a minimum of half an hour.

Heat the 2 cups of oil. Add 1 tablespoon of hot oil to the batter. The hot oil in the batter helps make the fritters soft. Blend well with your hands.

The remaining oil should be in a pan on the stove, and you can check its heat by adding just a drop of the batter into the oil to see if it sputters. If it does, the oil is ready. Lower the flame and add small spoonfuls of batter into the oil.

Keep the flame low and allow the fritters to fry well. Once the fritters have cooked on one side, flip them over using a butter knife. At this point, you may increase the flame slightly then lower it again, ensuring that the oil doesn’t get so hot that the fritters burn and blacken. You want them to be fried to a golden colour on both sides. Once this colour is achieved, remove the fritters from the stove and drop them onto an absorbent paper to remove excess oil.

Serve hot. I like to complement these crispy banana-methi fritters with a green coriander-based chutney. For this, I use coriander, green chilli, ginger, peanuts, salt, lemon juice and water, usually with a generous slice of raw mango. Simply blend all the ingredients together well in a mixer-grinder. The result is a flavourful chutney that perfectly accompanies the fried fritters.

Between the sweetness of the banana, the bitterness of the methi and the tangy kick of the chutney, you won’t be able to stop at just one! Try it for yourself and see. Let me know what you think in the comments.

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