Zucchini, Corn & Mint Fritters

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Zucchinni Fritters 2wm

Zucchini, Corn & Mint Fritters

I was playing with corn fritters a few months back but wasn’t quite happy with the result. Then today I was standing in the kitchen once again looking at the 2 gigantic zucchinis I just got from my father in law and a load of corn in the fridge that needed using up. I then wandered through the vegie patch for some inspiration and realised I have not 1, but 2 mint patches and so decided to have another crack at these fritters.

It only took 1 practice batch and then another batch with a little less of this and a little more of that and I have ended up with a cracker fritter.

Not only are these delicious but they are super easy to make, garlic free, gluten free, dairy free, egg free and easily made low fat

 

YOU NEED

1 cup of grated zucchini

1 cup besan flour (also known as chickpea and/or garbanzo flour and is found in most health food and Indian grocer shops)

1 cup (2 cobs) corn kernels, cooked

¾ cup of water

1 cup fresh mint leaves, washed and pat dried with a tea towel

¾ cup spring onion (also known as scallions), finely sliced

1 teaspoon salt

Extra salt for dusting

Pepper to taste

 

YOU DO

Strain all the excess of water out of the grated zucchini using a nut bag, chux or tea towel. Discard the water that comes out of the zucchini and set the zucchini aside.

Sift the besan flour into a large bowl and whisk the 3/4 cup of water into, it until you have a smooth batter.

Add the remaining ingredients, including your zucchini into the batter and stir well to combine.

Heat a pan with a little bit of oil and cook in batches. Drop a generous tablespoon of the batter into the pan. Cook until browned and turn to brown the other side. I find the trick is to have the heat slightly higher at the start so you get a nice colour and the fritters don’t soak up a load of oil and then once both sides are nicely browned, turn the heat down a little and cook a bit further, so that the insides are cooked through.

Drain on a clean tea towel. Lightly sprinkle a little salt over each fritter, while they are still piping hot.

Serve warm with salad and chutney.

 

Yields: 12 fritters.

Time: 15 minutes preparation. 5 – 10 minutes cooking (if frying)

Freeze: I wouldn’t.

Note: Don’t use canned corn. You get a much more plump and sweet corn kernel, if you cook a couple of cobs and cut off the kernels.

Be careful when cooking your fritters as the corn can pop!

# I tested a couple out in the oven for a fat free version on 175c for about 15-20 minute and they worked out fine. The texture was obviously a little different but they still had a nice crunch.

Fresh Apricot Pops

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YOU NEED

1 overflowing cup of fresh apricots that have had the stone removed and cut into chunks

1 cup of your favourite vanilla plant based ice cream

1 tablespoon of pure maple syrup (I used this because I wanted the sweetness to be highlighted once the cold had dulled it down slightly during the freezing process).

 

YOU DO

Put the apricots into a blender and blend till smooth. Once they are smooth scrape the puree into a 1 cup measuring cup. You want the puree to equal 1 cup. So if it doesn’t just put the puree back into the blender and add a couple more apricots to top it up and blend till smooth.

Soften a little vanilla soy, cashew or coconut ice cream. Measure out a cup and put it in the blender with the apricot and blend till smooth.  Add the maple syrup  and pour the ice cream mixture  into your icy pole moulds and place in the freezer till solid.

Eat fast because they melted fast!

Serves: I used Tupperware moulds and this gave me 5 ice – creams

Time: It took all of a few minutes aside from the freezing time. My husband LOVED them. My toddler was sadly suspicious because they weren’t “white ice cream” 😕

Note: By blending frozen banana and fresh apricots along with a couple of soaked dates you can also create raw ice creams.

Home Made Cinnamon & Maple Granola

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There is something so rewarding and beautiful about anything home made. The best part of this recipe though is the warm, sweet aroma of maple and cinnamon that floats through the house as it bakes. This is perfect for breakfast or as a part of a trail snack between meals.

 

YOU NEED

1/2 cup of hazelnuts

1 cup of slivered almonds

1 .5 cups of rolled oats

1/2 cup of wheat germ

1/2 cup of pure maple syrup

1/2-3/4 of a  teaspoon of ground cinnamon

pinch of salt

 

YOU DO

Preheat your oven to 175c.

Line a large baking tray with baking paper.

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl until everything is well coated in the maple syrup.

Pour the mixture onto the tray and spread it out so that it is even. Place the tray in the oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes check your granola and turn the tray if it is browning too much in one area. Put the tray back in the oven and cook the granola for another 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow the granola cool.  Once it has cooled, break it up and store it in an air tight container.

Enjoy with your favourite dairy free milk.

 

Servings:  Enough for 5 – 7 small serves

Time: Takes about 30 minutes.

Freeze: N/A

Mango Banana Soft Serve Ice-Cream

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Raw banana ice-cream is a great way to use up super ripe bananas that may normally have hit the compost or sadly the rubbish bin. When your bananas get so ripe that you don’t want to eat them, quickly peel them and pop them in a bag and into the freezer and make ice cream with them. It’s a quick, healthy, super easy snack, dessert or breakfast idea.

It is also a great way to get fussy children to eat fruit. My fussy 4 currently refuses to eat bananas and has never wanted to try mango but has finally decided he likes raw ice cream. I just kept making it and kept offering it and one day he decided to give it a try and now he is asking me for it!

 

YOU NEED

1 large, peeled, frozen banana

1/2 cup of fresh peeled mango

 

YOU DO

Cut the banana into chunks.

Blend the banana and the mango in a food processor until you get a smooth creamy texture.

Serve immediately and eat before it melts.

 

Yields: 1

Time: 5 minutes

Notes:  I use organic fruit so I mix whatever is in season with the banana.

Apricot Balls

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TWO ingredients and a few minutes.

I had a random hankering to make some apricot balls recently, despite my intense dislike for dried fruit!  I had never made them before, so I did some research. All the recipes I found had butter, condensed milk though so I figured I would just source plant based alternatives. I also wanted the Apricot Balls to have a lovely smooth texture.

In my 1st attempt I skipped the butter but bought some soy condensed milk and they were nice. Then I made some without any sweetener. The apricots are sweet enough so I figured why add sugar. Because I didn’t add a sweetener I needed less coconut, so these are quite soft. After some refrigeration that they will firm up though.

 

YOU NEED

1 X 225 gram pack of “soft and juicy Mediterranean” apricots. (I used Angus Park brand which I picked up in the supermarket)

½ cup desiccated coconut

An additional ¼ cup of desiccated coconut

 

YOU DO

Blend the first 2 ingredients until they are combined and smooth.

Place the additional ¼ cup of coconut into a shallow rectangle Tupperware container (or small tray).

Ball the mixture, (about a heaped teaspoon per ball) and place the balls into the container along with the coconut. Shake the container back and forward until all the balls are covered in coconut.

Cover and refrigerate.

DONE.

 

Serves: Makes 24 balls

Time: Takes circa 7 minutes

Note: There is no reason you can’t blend your mixture for less time so that you have chunks and if you can’t find “super juicy apricots” which are much sticker than normal apricots just add a little pure maple syrup when you blend the apricots. Or coat the balls in a little water so that the coconut sticks.

Spring Onion Pancakes

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Spring onion pancakes are a Northern Chinese dish, that you often see being cooked on the streets. I made these a couple of weeks ago while my parents were here, because they spent many years living in Hong Kong and Beijing.

They are called pancakes but have a pastry like texture. Some eateries in China make them quite thick and others cook them paper thin.

 

YOU NEED

250 grams of plain flour

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 tablespoon of oil

220mls of boiling water

1 and a 1/2 cups of washed, VERY well drained and finely sliced spring onions

sesame oil for cooking

 

YOU DO

Place the flour and salt into a bowl and mix to combine. Add the tablespoon of oil and the boiling water and mix everything with a wooden spoon. Once the mixture resembles dough, pop it onto a floured bench and knead it for a few minutes. Set it aside and let it rest for 15 minutes.

Place the dough on the bench and shape it into a long roll. Divide this roll into 24 pieces.

Using a rolling pin, roll each piece into a small circle. The circle should be approx 10cms in diameter.

Sprinkle some spring onion onto the circle and roll the circle into a skinny log. Gently press down on the log, to lightly flatten it. Then roll the log onto itself from one end to the other to form the shape of a snail and set it aside. Repeat this process with all the circles. Once they are all in a snail/coil shape. Allow them to rest for 15 minutes.

Finally, place the coils on their side and roll them back into a thin circle. Stack the completed circles of dough on top of each other, separated by floured baking paper. Allow them to rest for a final 15 minutes.

Heat a small pan with some sesame oil and cook the pancakes one at a time. Cook one side till golden, then flip them over and cook the other side. I like to sprinkle a little salt on them as I cook them, to bring the simple flavours out.

Serve straight away. They are beautiful served with a curry or rice or noodle dinner. Or just as a snack.

This is one of my more time consuming recipes, but if you love spring onions like I do, love Chinese food and you enjoy cooking, you will enjoy making (and eating) these too. They are simple, fragrant, crispy and delicious.

 

Yields: 24 pancakes

Time: 30 minutes of preparation and cooking, plus the resting times.

Notes: Make sure your spring onions are as dry as possible. Keep your bench clean, dry and well floured. 

Little Treats for Little People

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Little treats packed with, protein, calcium, minerals, fibre, vitamins & omegas 🙂 AND SUGAR FREE 🙂

Like many of my recipes this one came about today because I had a few things that needed using up. I also made it because my son is obsessed with chocolate but not so obsessed with the things I want him to eat like dates, tahini and nuts. I hide thin layers of nut spreads and tahini under his peanut butter on rice cakes but wanted to get a big hit of these other nutrients into him.

I just rolled them in cocoa when they were finished and told him they were chocolate 🙂

 

YOU NEED

3 tablespoons of hazelnut spread (the kind found in the health food section of supermarkets and health food stores)

1 teaspoon of tahini (you will find this in the same places as above)

1 tablespoon of almond chia spread (you will find this in the same places as above)

1 tablespoon of peanut butter (I use one that is sugar, salt and oil free. Just peanuts. Strange but true)

10 dates, roughly chopped

2 heaped teaspoons of desiccated coconut

 

YOU DO

Blend all ingredients together in a blender or with a hand blender.

Place some cocoa onto a plate, pop the balls on the plate and move the plate around in circles on the bench till the balls are covered.

I like the fact that these aren’t sweet and that you can taste an earthy nutty flavour, but if you want your balls a little sweeter or a little more moist just add a little brown rice syrup, pure maple syrup or agave.

 

Servings: 15 balls

Time: 5 minutes

Freezing: Haven’t tried freezing this one.

Black Sticky Rice & Mushroom Gyozo

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As with most of my recipes, they begin with something I need to use up. Today it was mushrooms.

I started out with the intention of making a mushroom soup but felt inspired to find a use for some black sticky rice I recently purchased. I also was curious to make gyozo for the 1st time.

It was so much easier than I had imagined. I hope you give it a shot.

 

YOU NEED

1 packet of round dumpling skins. (You won’t need them all)

1/3 cup of black glutinous rice, rinse well then cook in plenty of boiled water until tender. (The packet didn’t have instructions in English but mine took about 30-40 minutes.)

2/3 of a cup of water chestnuts, washed, chopped into small dice

2/3 cup of spring onion, washed and finely sliced

2 large cloves of garlic, peeled and minced

1 teaspoon of minced ginger

1 small brown onion, peeled and finely diced

1/2 teaspoon of fresh red chilli, finely diced with seeds and all

1 cup of mushrooms roughly chopped into small bits. #I used field mushrooms, as that is what was in the fridge

1 teaspoon salt

oil for cooking

 

YOU DO

While your rice is cooking, heat some oil in a pan, turn down to a medium heat and cook the onion until it starts to colour, add the garlic and the ginger and continue cooking for a couple of minutes.

Add the chilli and the mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms have softened coloured and cooked right down.

Throw in the spring onions, water chestnuts and salt and cook for a another couple of minutes and set aside

Once the rice is cooked add it to the mushroom mix and stir well to combine.

Lay out your dumpling skins. Place approximately 1 teaspoon of mixture in the middle of each skin. DON’T be tempted to overfill them because you will tear the skins and/or struggle to seal them.

Wash your hands and get a small dish of cold tap water and place next to your dumpling rows. Wet your fingers with the water and dab you fingers around half the dumpling skin circle on the side furtherest away from you.

Doing 1 dumpling at a time, gently pick up the side closest to you and gently fold it over the top of the filling…folding away from you. Gently press the flat half moon side of the gyozo. Repeat this process untils all your dumpling skins are now little half moon gyozos.

Using a fork make small indentations on the flat part of the gyozo. This helps close the seal and also decorates it. As you finish your batches pop the aside on a spare bit of bench or plate and lay out your next batch.

Once all your gyozos are assembled, put a large non stick pan on the stove top and add approx a centimetres worth of water into it, along with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and bring to the boil. Place your gyozos in batches (not touching) into the pan, flat side down and cover with a wok top.

Cook on high heat with top on for a few minutes, then remove the top and allow the water to evaporate. As the water gets lower turn the heat down to a simmer until all the water is gone. Check that your gyozo are not sticking. If they are just add a little more oil and continue cooking until almost all the water is almost gone and the bottom of your gyozo are coloured and put aside. Repeat this process in batches until all your gyozo are cooked.

You should end up with sticky, steamed tops and crunchy, coloured bottoms.

Serve immediately with soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce

 

Servings: Made approx 30. Maybe a couple more as I was testing them on the way 🙂

Time: Haven’t timed

Freezing: Perfect for freezing. I popped a lot in the freezer on a plate (not touching) and once frozen popped them in a sealed container for a quick dinner or snack for another day.