Courgette Thai-Style Fritters

For the last few weeks I’ve been mainly eating vegetable pancakes / fritters inspired by this recipe for Korean courgette pancakes. (Thank you for the recommendation Dee). I just use plain flour in place of the korean pancake mix and all sorts of vegetable in place of the courgettes.

The recipe works beautifully with kohlrabi, turnips, swede and courgettes - or a combination of any of these!

Given that I’ve had a variation of this recipe most days over the last fortnight, today I was ready to branch (just out a bit!). I felt inspired by my love of Thai fishcakes (aka Tod man pla) and decided to make a courgette-based pan-fried version. And here it is. Serve with jasmine rice, a dipping sauce made of soy sauce, black rice vinegar and chilli oil, and this tasty cucumber salad.

Serves 2

1 small courgette (or half a large one), cut into thin strips
1 small kolhrabi, or turnip, peeled and cut into thin strips
green bits of a scallion, roughly chopped
1 small egg
3 tablespoons plain flour (gluten free flours would work fine)
a dash of fish sauce (or soy sauce or salt if you’d prefer)
a handful of thai basil, finely sliced (or a few anise hyssop leaves, finely sliced) (optional)
1 teaspoon Thai red curry paste (note: good versions tend to contain fish, so check if you’re a vegetarian)
sunflower oil for frying

1) Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl

2) After a while the vegetables will go a bit soggy (that’s what you want!)

3) Heat a little sunflower oil in a frying pan over a medium. Add spoonfuls of the courgette mixer and press down to make round, flat fritters. Fry for around 3 minutes on one side (until golden brown) and then flip over and cook the other side.

4) Serve immediately with jasmine rice and cucumber pickle.