Get your veggies on with a bit of an international twist. Deep fried, golden brown, crispy and delicious vegetables with an attitude! Just add dip…and they’re so sinfully good, you’ll have to ask forgiveness for eating them!
Ingredients:
Vegetable oil for frying
1 to 1 ½ cups besan or gram flour (you can use regular flour, but it’s a bit different in taste).
3 to 3 ½ teaspoons Marsala or *Marsala mix below
2 medium potatoes, peeled, shredded on a grater and squeezed
½ cup zucchini, (unpeeled) shredded, squeezed out and drained well
½ cup bell pepper, finely sliced
½ cup sweet yellow corn
¾ cup onions, diced
*You can substitute for a “like” vegetable if you’d like. Just use the same measurements and play with the flour a little more.
If you have besan flour, great. It is chic pea flour and gluten-free, if this is something that important to you. Again as with Masala, if you can’t get it readily, buy bags of dried chic peas in the legume section of you grocer and grind into a powder in you food processor, electric coffee or spice grinder.
2 cups of chickpeas will grind into about 1 ½ cups besan/gram flour. It’s actually good to have on have as a thickener and to add in place of flour. Grind and store in an airtight jar or container that is dated.
Directions:
Heat enough oil in a pan on medium high heat, (for shallow frying).
In a large bowl, combine flour and spices together first, then add all the fritter ingredients and mix well. Start with 1 cup of flour and add more if needed. Form mixture into patties about the size of hamburgers patties.
Cook fritters in batches until golden brown on both sides. Drain well on paper towels. Serve with dip.
This recipe is a combination of Indian spices very similar to Marsala. If you live as I do, where Indian ingredients are impossible to find, this mixture is a good substitute. Remember Indian food can be spicy, so keep this in mind. You may want to use less or opt out and use, salt, pepper and garlic to taste.
Indian Spice Recipe:
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 ½ teaspoons ground coriander
1 ½ teaspoons ground cardamom
1 teaspoon red chili powder
2 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
1 ½ teaspoons ground pepper
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon chili flakes
Mix all ingredients and store airtight.
For the Dip:
1 cup Greek yogurt
1 teaspoon celery leaf, finely chopped
½ teaspoon garlic mashed into a paste
1 teaspoon masala *see recipe below
Salt and pepper to taste
Mix all the ingredients for the dip and refrigerate until well chilled.
