Carrot Fritters

In my quest to find recipes to use up all the carrots we got from our CSA I found quite a few recipes for carrot fritters. It sounded like such a good idea to me. There are lots of variations of carrot fritters out there; some have you cook & purée the carrots, some just cook them first, some make the pancake sweet, while others add lots of spices. I decided to do just a really basic fritter with uncooked, grated carrot for my first try. I figured that would give us the starting point to change the recipe in the future if needed.

Other than grating a few carrots, these were so simple to put together. The "dough" sticks together well making it easy to form the patties. I chose to pan fry mine on a griddle with just a little bit of olive oil, I didn't think we needed the extra greasiness of deep frying.

(I maybe went a little too heavy on the olive oil)

Oh, did we like these. The texture was wonderful, a bit like a potato pancake or the corn cakes I've often gotten in Thai restaurants. I think the onion in important to the flavor of these otherwise they might have been a bit bland. They were a tasty side dish served alongside some good locally -made sausages & sautéed Yukina Savoy.

This is one of those recipes where I think its really about the technique. I can see some many other possibilities; sweet potato with curry seasoning, zucchini, sweet corn & onion or even better, corn & bacon (oh, be still my heart). I'll be making variations of this side dish a lot more in the future.

Carrot Fritters

1 1/2 c grated carrot, grate this fairly thin
4 green onions, sliced
1/4 c finely chopped yellow onion
1/2 c flour
1/2 t salt
pinch of pepper
1 egg

Mix everything together to form a thick paste like consistency. Form into 4 1/2-inch patties. Just coat the bottom of a non-stick skillet or griddle with a little olive oil. Heat over medium-high. When hot put the patties in the skillet. Allow to cook until the bottom is golden brown then flip. Press down lightly with the back of a spatula. Allow the second side to cook until golden brown, total cooking time about 5 minutes.

Makes 4 fritters