I knew I wanted to try a bunch of recipes from Bon Appetit's latest issue because it got me that excited so I picked up a bunch of zucchini and dill so I could make the Zucchini Keftedes yesterday. My girlfriend was coming over for a Harry Potter marathon, and she doesn't cook a lot at home, so I like to try out new recipes on her. She is also one of those people who has said she will try anything once. Good, because I know Adam and I won't.
I started prepping for the keftedes, or fritters as I called them, right after I put the Impossible Pie in the oven. While holding a bunch of mint, I hacked into my finger nail. Terrible.
After you grate a bunch of zucchini, you sprinkle it with some salt, let it sit for about an hour on a dishtowel, and then squeeze the hell out of it to get the water out. This proved more difficult than expected because I was scared my fingernail was going to fall out, so I squeezed more delicately than normal, but I still got a lot of water out.
Mix up the zucchini with dill, mint and scallions! GREEN! MY FAVORITE!! Oh, and lemon zest, garlic and pepper.
Gently mix in a beaten egg and a cup of panko, and then even more gently fold in a cup of crumbled feta (not pictured).
Assemble into baby patties and let them sit in the fridge for a few hours. This is crucial because they were starting to get pretty soft, and if you tried to fried them, they would just fall apart. I think I left mine in the fridge for three hours.
I panfried them in an iron skillet with some canola oil. However, at first I automatically threw in olive oil because it was right there, it's what I use the most, and then I realized I picked the wrong one. I had so many keftedes to make that it was fine, eventually, but who the hell pan fries with olive oil? NO ONE.
They were fucking delicious. Definitely not a weeknight thing, but perfect for a nice Saturday with friends. Also, that little bit of lemon zest? Perfect.
