Zucchini Fritters

UPDATE:

Watch the recipe video here –

This recipe has quickly become one of my absolute favorites. Its a funny story,until a couple of months ago, I didn’t really care much for Zucchini. They aren’t easily available in Mumbai but I’d had it as a side dish at a couple of restaurants and every single time, I personally found it revolting. I couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about in blogland. I saw so many blog posts with so many absolutely delicious recipes, I figured it was just me, something I didn’t like and was going to have to live with it. Again, this was hard for me to understand, because there aren’t too many things that I don’t like. Anyway, life went on. And then when I moved to Sydney, my aunt invited us to spend the day with them at their place in Woy Woy. At dinner, one of the sides that my uncle whipped up was a simple veg. stir fry, which had zucchini in it and you know what, I loved it, much to my surprise. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t a one off thing, so I decided to try my hand at cooking it myself.

After a few minutes online, I had found a recipe I knew would be nice. I bought some zucchini from my favorite Paddy’s market (Haymarket). I had the rest of the ingredients on hand. This recipe is fairly quick to put together, apart from hand grating the zucchini. If you have a food processor that can do the job for you, go for it. Nothing like saving time and effort. Its simple and quick to put the batter together and then all you do is fry it up. Within a short while, you will be sitting down to some pretty amazing fritters. My husband and I love these little guys so much, I’ve made them thrice already. And trust me, I can see myself making these fritters many more times to come. Try it out for yourself and see how good these are.

Zucchini Fritters

2 medium zucchini
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 chilly, finely chopped
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup grated cheese
1 egg
2 tbsp. fresh coriander, finely chopped
1/2 tsp. dried oregano leaves
1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup of bread crumbs, approx
2-4 tbsp olive oil

Grate the zucchini coarsely. Sprinkle a little salt (about 1/4 tsp.) over it and let it stand for about 10 minutes. The salt will draw out all the excess liquid. Place in a colander and squeeze to drain out as much excess liquid as possible.

Place the grated zucchini in a bowl. Add the onion, chilly, flour, cheese, salt, coriander, oregano and bread crumbs. Whisk the egg and add to the batter. Mix all the ingredients together. If the batter is to wet, add a tbsp or 2 of bread crumbs.

Heat a tbsp of olive oil in a pan. Place spoonfuls of the batter onto the pan and using the back of the spoon, flatten it out a bit and shape into fritters. Fry on medium heat till it turns golden brown. Flip and cook on the other side till it turns golden brown too.

Drain on kitchen paper and serve hot.

Yummy, yummy, yummy!

** I have tried this recipe using cream cheese as well as grated cheese and both times, it was delicious. Feel free to experiment with your favorite cheese.

This recipe has been shared at –
Show Me Your Plaid

Week 4 of 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats: Chocolate Covered Pretzels

If you’ve seen a lot of my posts on 12WOCT in the past couple of years, you will have noticed that a lot of the traditional Goan Christmas sweets are very time consuming and labor intensive. Needless to say, the end results are absolutely delicious. But sometimes, you just don’t have the time or there’s too much on your plate and you still want to put together a fabulous home made Christmas platter without having to fuss about to much. Is that even possible?, you might wonder. Well I’m happy to tell you that it most certainly is. For this years edition, my focus has been on treats that are quick and easy to make and taste delicious. So whether you are a novice in the kitchen or are simply short on time but still ant to impress, you’ve come to the right place. For this weeks reveal, I’ve put together these yummy pretzel treats. They are so versatile and can be dressed up for pretty much any occasion. Simply switch up the sprinkles or use some colored sugar and you have something fancy you can put together for Halloween, Christmas, Easter or even color co-ordinate them for showers or birthday parties, the options are endless.

I’m not too happy with the evenness of the chocolate coating on some of them, but I think they still turned out alright. The next time I make these, I’ll either double dip them in the chocolate or I’ll cool the chocolate down a little to thicken it up a bit. I’m also very eager to try candy melts the next time around. I used mini pretzels and I think they’re just way cuter since they’re smaller. But these turned out really well. While I was dipping these in chocolate, my husband decided to help out by supposedly “tasting” some even before the chocolate had an opportunity to set up. In my experience that’s good news. He has really good taste. He isn’t fussy about food and will silently endure all the torture I put him through while I’m experimenting with new ideas. But when he really enjoys a dish, I can tell, and it makes it all worthwhile. Let me tell you this much, its hard to stop at one, or two, or even three with these bite sized treats.

Chocolate Covered Pretzels


1 packet of mini pretzels
A bar of white chocolate
Sprinkles of your choice (I used some chocolate strands and some hundreds & thousands)

Break the chocolate bar into smaller pieces and place in a microwave safe bowl and microwave on high for about 30 seconds. Stir and continue heating in bursts of 30 seconds till it melts and stir in between each zap, to ensure the chocolate doesn’t burn.

Prep a little assemble line of sorts on your table / counter / work platform. I placed them in this order – pretzels, melted chocolate, plate lined with baking parchment, sprinkles.

Dip the pretzels in the chocolate, and using a fork, pick it up and place it on the lined plate. Sprinkle the ‘sprinkles’ over it as desired.

Leave it to set. I usually pop it in the fridge for about 20 minutes.

There you go. That how quick, simple and easy this is. Repeat the process till you’re done. You can also use milk or dark chocolate if you prefer.

Don’t forget to check what the others have put together this week. We will be posting one new recipe every week for 8 more weeks so don’t forget to stop by every Wednesday for a new idea. If you’d like to join in and cook / bake with us, you can sign up at Brenda, our hosts blog, Meal Planning Magic.

Two Minute Chocolate Mug Cake

Over the last few weeks, I’ve found myself craving for some chocolate cake. Now I could very easily just pop over to one of the shops not far from where I live and pick one up. Believe me, there is no shortage of cake shops and cafes in Sydney city. But all of these are a little bit of a walk away and I really wanted to bake one myself. Now seeing as to how I don’t have access to an oven, that was going to be a bit of a problem. But then I remembered seeing some posts on a number of blogs that featured microwave mug cakes, small portions of yum that I could be biting into in a matter of a few minutes. That would be much quicker that getting to a cafe to buy some cake. So I began my hunt on the internet and found a recipe that I decided to try. I was really excited about it. Its as simple as putting the ingredients into a microwave safe mug, whisking it up and baking it for a few minutes. And you have about enough time to whip up a nice cup of tea while your cake gets ready. Oh, please don’t be over eager like me. You have to let the cake stand for a while after baking, or else you’ll be left with a burnt mouth. The cake does get insanely hot, so please do yourself a favor and try to wait, no matter how difficult that may seem at the time. Anyway, I do hope you try this recipe.

I pretty much stuck to the recipe, with the exception of chocolate chips. I didn’t have any so I just left them out. And it still tasted pretty good. Also, I didn’t think the mix would fit into the mugs I had, so I mixed the batter in a larger bowl and then poured it into the mugs. Now its not as perfect as the ones I’ve baked in an oven, but it was good. And now that I know that something like this can be whipped up in minutes, I’m gonna have to try extra hard to not make this too often, for the sake of my waist; if you get my drift 😉

Two Minute Chocolate Mug Cake
Recipe from: Completely Delicious
Yield: 1 large mug or 2 small mugs

3 tbsp veg. oil
3 tbsp whole milk
1 large egg
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp all purpose flour
4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
A pinch of salt

Place the oil, milk, egg and extract in a large microwave safe mug and whisk together using either a whisk or a fork until combined.

Add the flour, sugar, cocoa powder and salt and mix until combined.

*If you’d like to add chocolate chips, stir in 3 tbsp chocolate chips.

Microwave on high for 2 minutes.

There  you go, your cake is ready!

Enjoy!!!

Week 3 of 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats: Coconut Ladoos aka Coconut Snowballs

At the start of this years edition of 12 WOCT I said I would bring you recipes that were quick and easy to put together at home. Todays treat definitely fits the bill. It is quick and easy to prepare and so very delicious (ofcourse, I’m biased towards coconut). Nevertheless, these dainty treats will sure look so festive on a Christmas platter. Typically in India, they make these ladoos for Indian festivals like Diwali, but you’ll also see them make an appearance on some Christmas platters. In the past I have made other coconut treats like this Coconut Toffee for which I use a candy thermometer. This deliciously coconutty treat doesn’t need one and that suits me just fine since I’m starting out all over again without the luxury of my fully equipped kitchen back in Mumbai. So without any further delay, here’s this weeks treat – the humble Coconut Ladoo.

Coconut Ladoos
Yields: 12-15 pieces

125g desiccated coconut
1/2 tin of condensed milk
4 pods of cardamom

Peel the cardamom pods and powder the seeds.

Mix 100g of the coconut, the condensed milk and the powdered cardamom seeds in a non stick pan.

Place it on medium heat for about 5 minutes (or till the mix can be rolled into little balls), stirring frequently.

Leave it to cool for about 5-10 minutes or till it is cool enough to be handled.. The mix needs to be warm while shaping.

Take a spoonful of the mix into your hands and shape into balls and roll it through the remaining desiccated coconut.

Repeat with the rest of the mix.

Enjoy!!!

Don’t forget to check what the others have put together this week. We will be posting one new recipe every week for 9 more weeks so don’t forget to stop by every Wednesday for a new idea. If you’d like to join in and cook / bake with us, you can sign up at Brenda, our hosts blog, Meal Planning Magic.

This recipe is linked to –
Tuesday Talent Show


Diwali Delicacies @ Spicy Treats and Priya’s Versatile Recipes

SRC: Blueberry Pancakes

Here we are at October’s SRC reveal. How I love reveal days! I’m happy to say that this month’s reveal treated me to the yummiest breakfast in a long, long time. For this month, I was assigned Kim’s blog, Everyday Mom. Kim’s blog has so much deliciousness packed in one place, I was spoiled for choice. She cooks and bakes with her 3 gorgeous children and you will see them featured in her posts. I was torn between quite a few of her recipes, like this Crunchy Kale, and this Chicken Satay Salad, and the yummy Mango Panna Cotta, these super fun Tortilla Bowls, Zuchinni Fries and these Black Bean Sweet Potato Quesadillas. Can you imagine the dilemma I was faced with? It was hard to pick one for the reveal. I will be making a few of these in the coming days but for the reveal I went with an absolute winner – her Pancakes. Now if you’ve been around for a while, you know I’ve posted pancake recipes in the past, namely my Coconut Pancakes, these Almost Vegan Pnother aancakes and Nigella Lawson’s Pancakes. So why another post on pancakes, you might wonder. Well, until now, I’ve never had the opportunity to make pancakes using buttermilk. And for the first time I had access to some yummy blueberries, that I’d picked up on a trip to Sydney’s Paddy’s Market at Haymarket.

An easy recipe to put together and a treat for breakfast, this recipe ticks all the boxes for me. The buttermilk does its magic and makes such fluffy pancakes, I was thrilled. Never before have I had such fluffy pancakes. I stuck to Kim’s recipe but halved it, since it was for just the two of us. I made some plain buttermilk pancakes (just incase my husband wasn’t feeling like the blueberry ones – he’s undecided on whether or not he likes blueberries). To the rest of the batter I added a handful of blueberries, but no other changes were made. We had the pancakes with some honey drizzled on top. They were so delicious, even my ‘undecided about blueberries husband’ enjoyed them. This will be my go-to recipe for pancakes from now on – Thanks Kim.

In the pan – on its way to becoming some brekkie deliciousness
Here are some of the plain buttermilk pancakes. You will notice the all of the pancakes are a little more on the brown side. We absolutely love the light crunch and caramelisation that this adds to the pancakes. You can pull them off the pan earlier to suit your liking. 

And last, but definitely not the least, some blueberry pancakes.

Blueberry Pancakes

1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cup buttermilk
2 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste / vanilla extract
Maple Syrup, to drizzle over
A handful of blueberries (Approx. 1/4 – 1/3 cup)

Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Combine the wet ingredients and add to the dry ingredients. Whisk together till combined.

Gently fold in the blueberries.

Heat a pan, spray some oil to coat the pan.

Pour a ladlefull of batter onto the hot pan. Leave some space for the batter to spread a little.

When you see bubbles appearing and bursting on the top, flip the pancakes over and cook till done.

Serve with some maple syrup! Yumm!!!

Thanks Jane – The Heritage Cook for hosting our very own Group A month after month and April – Angel’s Homestead for making sure that our fun Group here at the Secret Recipe Club runs smoothly and continues bringing a ton of yum to our tables every month. 

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