How To Make Fritters from Almost Anything!

All sorts of foods, left over or not, can be used singly or together to make hot, crisp, moreish fritters and there are several ways to achieve this, so here, firstly, is my …

Flexible Fritter Batter

This can be used for most things you might want to fritterise – so long as you adjust the additions and seasonings. 

I say below “approx 600g of additions” but it depends on what kind of fritter you fancy – not many additions will be more like pancakes and nothing wrong with that. See the Cauliflower Cheese Fritters below.

30g self-raising flour
1 egg
possibly a little milk
approx 600g vegetables and additions
salt and other dry seasonings of choice
vegetable oil

~   Mix together the dry ingredients.
~   Stir in the egg.
~   Add the vegetables and any other ingredients.
~   Add a little milk if too thick.
~   Taste and season according to whatever your main additions are. See here for how to season to taste.
~   Heat enough oil in a non-stick pan (or a Scoville Neverstick which I am very impressed with incidentally – this is not an affiliate link or similar, I’m just saying!) to cover to a depth of about 1/8 of an inch or 3 mm
~   Dollop the fritter mix by the tablespoon into the hot oil, and press to flatten a little.
~   Cook over medium high heat till crisp and golden on one side, 1-2 minutes, flip and do the other side.
~   Lift out and drain on kitchen roll, then serve, sprinkled with a little sea salt.

Vegetable Fritters

Use whatever vegetables you have to hand. Grate carrots, courgettes, sweet potatoes, etc; shred leafy veg such as spinach, blanch, drain and shred kale, chard and similar, cut cauliflower and broccoli into tiny florets or grate tender parts of their stalks, drain tinned veg and chop up as necessary, cut cooked veggies into small pieces.

~   Corn Fritters – for these I used 300g of corn kernels.  They can be made as savoury fritters or sweet, just add 1 tbsp soft light brown sugar and serve with maple syrup.
~   Sweet Potato Fritters – add 1 large sweet potato, peeled and grated, together with appropriate seasonings and additions.  A little grated fresh ginger together with some finely chopped spring onions is good.
~   Cauliflower Cheese Fritters

Meat, Fish, Seafood Fritters

I would recommend using only about 150g of these in the fritter batter as they need to be protected, by the batter, from the hight heat, which would toughen them.  Use cooked meat, fish and seafood – dice or shred meats, flake fish, coarsely chop seafood.

Sweet Fritters

As above really, leave out the salt and add sugar to taste.

~   Apple Fritters – peel and either grate or coarsely chop apples and stir into the batter together with a little ground cinnamon and a couple of teaspoons of caster sugar.
~   Banana Fritters – slice or chop the bananas and mix into the batter together with 2 teaspoons of sugar, soft light brown sugar is my favourite, and a drip or two of vanilla extract or rum.
~   Berries
~   Dried fruit or even some alcohol infused dried fruit – drain well. 

Fritter Additions

Depending on what main ingredient your fritters are based on there are lots of additions that can make them even better …

ground spices * spice pastes – such as curry or chipotle paste * chopped fresh herbs
citrus zest * grated hard cheese or crumbled crumbly cheese
garlic in any of its delicious forms * finely chopped onion
caramelised onion * and so on

Other Ways to Make Fritters

~   Mrs. Beeton’s Bread and Butter Fritters – Mrs. B. suggests making jam sandwiches, pressing firmly together, dipping in batter and cooking in ‘boiling lard’.
~   Boxing Day Fritters
~   Soup Fritters!!!!!

Latkes

These are potato fritters traditionally served at Chanukah, ideally fried in Schmaltz (chicken fat) but cooking oil works too, and served with apple sauce and/or sour cream.

Serves 6

650g baking potatoes
1 medium white onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 large egg
2 tablespoons dry breadcrumbs or, even better, Matzo meal
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
schmaltz or cooking oil

Risotto Fritters 2 Ways

Arancini

Arancini means little orange, so that is the size these risotto fritters should be.  They are often stuffed with mozzarella but as this is a blog about spontaneous cooking other cheese can be substituted – or even something else!

Really cold, ie. chilled risotto is sticky and easily holds together to make a ‘little orange’ or other shape.

leftover risotto of your choice – chilled to very cold
cheese of your choice – mozzarella for instance
a little flour seasoned with salt and pepper
1 egg – beaten
soft breadcrumbs or panko (fusion!)

~ Form cold risotto into small orange sized balls.
~   Press a small dice of cheese into the centre of each ball and then reform the risotto around the cheese to encase completely and seal the cheese in.
~  Chill until needed.
~  Coat your balls (!!!) in seasoned flour, then the beaten egg and finally the crumbs or panko.
~  Deep fry till crisp and deep golden.
~  Drain and set aside for a minute or two (giving the cheese a little extra melting time) then serve.

Arancini are sometimes called supplì al telefono referring to the strings of mozzarella that form when bitten into which look like telephone lines so if this is what you want to call them use mozzarella.

Riso al Salto

~   Press cold leftover risotto into cakes about ½”/1cm thick (I know that is not a very precise conversion but I did say “about”!)
~   Fry to crisp an golden on both sides
~   Sprinkle with grate Parmesan cheese and serve.

Good News!

I have read somewhere that the best thing to do when making fritters is to make yourself a taster to check the seasoning, texture etc. before cooking the whole batch – a cook’s treat!