Bread Fritters

I'm really on this stale bread kick, aren't I? I mean, there always tend to be little themes that I pick up and follow for a while; but why stale bread in the middle of the summer I really don't know. Blame it on the Fattoush, I guess. Also this summer's herb theme continues, although these are really flexible in terms of how you season them and you could do other things than what I did to good effect.  I can see using poultry seasoning for stuffing-like fritters, or curry powder, or a mix of Italian herbs, or...? I'll probably make this again and use the water drained from tomatoes as the liquid - there's a fair bit of that going on at the moment, as we process our tomatoes - and in that case I might add some fresh basil (and reduce the salt). I used chicken stock but water would work perfectly well; the chicken stock was really not noticeable.

Anyway, this one is more Turkish than Lebanese and if you wanted to serve it with yogurt infused with crushed garlic that would probably be a very good idea. I admit I was too harassed at the time and just passed it with some mayonnaise. Yogurt would certainly have been better but it did the job. 

6 to 8 fritters (2 to 4 servings)
20 minutes prep time

2 cups diced or crumbled stale bread
2/3 cup water, chicken stock, etc.
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
3 small shallots or 1 medium onion
1 cup finely minced parsley
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika
freshly ground black pepper to taste

about 1/4 cup mild vegetable oil to fry

Cut or crumble the bread and put it in a mixing bowl. Pour the water, stock, or other liquid over the bread and mix it in.

Peel and mince the garlic. Peel and mince the shallots or onion. Wash, dry, trim and mince the parsley. Add all these to the bread.

Break in the eggs, and mix them in. Sprinkle the flour and seasonings over and mix them in. Let the mixture sit for about 10 minutes, then heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add enough oil to coat the bottom of it liberally.

Spoon in 1/6th or 1/8th of the batter, smoothing it out to form a neat, flat pancake. Add as many more pancakes as your pan will hold, and cook them for 3 or 4 minutes per side, until nicely browned. Lift them out to a plate and keep them warm in a 200°F oven (if you like - they cook pretty quickly and shouldn't cool off that much if just left on the back of the stove) while you cook the remaining fritters.




Last year at this time I made Watermelon Jelly and Sicilian Watermelon Pudding.

Posted in: Ontario Food