Sweetcorn fritters? Yes! These are not just for babies. These are not just the territory of small dictators without many teeth. (What, you mean your baby/toddler doesn’t shout unidentifiable instructions at you every mealtime? Well, you’re lucky). READ MORE
What could be better than to have all the pancake recipes on the blog in one handy place! Your wish is my command. Savoury, sweet… it’s all here. Feel free to add links to any great recipes you know in the comments. Share the pancake love. READ MORE
I had dinner with a friend recently. She’s my Very Amusing Mum Pal. A VAMP if you will. We got to talking about our sons’ behaviour when eating out. Now the reason I love my VAMP is that she always says the things I want to. Not in an annoying ‘Oh I’m just one of those people who speaks my mind’ way, (which is just a euphemism for ‘I am really rude and have no filter’). Oh no, she says it like it is in a funny, observational fashion. In another life she’s have been a stand up comedian. As it is, her sons are just growing up with unrealistic expectations of how funny Mums are. Their future wives have their work cut out.
Anyway, I digress. Her observation was this, ‘Every time another parent comments in a slightly patronising manner that we’re just soooo lucky we can take the boys out for lunch and have a conversation with them and not rely on ipads/phones with apps/Nintendos/other Apple products, I want to shake them by the shoulders and shout WE SPENT YEARS SOCIALISING THESE CHILDREN. THEY DIDN’T COME LIKE THIS YOU KNOW – ABLE TO SIT AND COLOUR IN A HIPPO WHILST WE SHARE GARLIC BREAD. WE HAVE PUT IN HOURS AND HOURS OF HARD LABOUR. SNIPING AT THEM, TELLING THEM OFF IN HUSHED TONES, EATING AT GREAT SPEED IN ORDER TO LEAVE BEFORE A TANTRUM EVOLVES. THEY DON’T JUST COME LIKE THIS. WE JUST DIDN’T TAKE THE EASY WAY OUT.’
Can you see why I love her now? She’s always right about everything. But in an amusing way.
Onto the recipe! These fritters are great gobbled up as they are or with an array of dips. Or with some baked ham and eggs. Babies rather like them, though be careful how many they eat as halloumi is rather salty. Basically, they’re the most versatile fritter in the world. (Alert: over claim). And do feel free to substitute ingredients – like the jam or the cumin or even the veg. Halloumi is well worth getting hold of though as it’s a cheese that loves a frying pan.
Lots of recipes like this in my book, Recipes from a Normal Mum, out now… on Amazon, at Waterstones, WHSmith, The Book Depository and many smaller outlets.
Last January: Lemon & blueberry loaf, my Bake Off Cherry Bakewell inspired cupcakes, plus Sesame bread sticks
Two years ago: Love cupcakes, White chocolate, lemon and macadamia cake and a perfect wintery Roasted celeriac, carrot and parsnip soup.
Three years ago: Bake me not chocolate cake, Jelly and ice-cream meringue roulade, Good flapjack and Banana, butterscotch and fig traybake.
Four years ago: Treasure hunt ice-cream, Rhubarb and ginger chutney and Carrot cake.
Halloumi, courgette and carrot fritters
Makes about 16 though depends on how large you make them
Ingredients:
Grate the courgettes and leave them in a bowl for 10 minutes. In the meantime grate the carrot and the cheese and mix together in a bowl. Squeeze the grated courgettes over the sink to release as much excess water as you can, then stir into the other grated ingredients. Add the cumin, flour and baking powder and stir until the grated ingredients are thoroughly covered.
In a jug, mix together the jam (this is optional, please leave out if you prefer but it does lift the cheese a little), milk and eggs using a fork. Beat for a minute then pour over the grated ingredients and mix to combine thoroughly.
Heat the oil in a non stick frying pan over a medium heat and drop heaped tablespoons of the mixture into the hot oil about 3cm apart. I managed 3 fritters in my pan – any more and it would have been overcrowded and the fritters may have steamed each other rather than fried to create crispy edges. After a minute or so use a slice to lift the fritter and check it has crisped and browned on one side. If it has flip it and fry the other side. If it hasn’t then carry on frying it. Once crisp on both sides remove to a plate and carry on frying batches until all the mixture is used up. You may need a little more oil.
Notes:
You can keep these fritters warm in the oven as you wait for the rest to fry. Just put it on a low heat. You can also reheat these fritters from cold (keep them in the fridge if you can’t eat them all) in the oven or the microwave, though they do have a little less of the ‘crisp’ to them. They also freeze well, in between sheets of non stick baking parchment. You can bake them from frozen or indeed let them defrost overnight in the fridge and bake from chilled.
What a year! What a glorious year. My third baby born, my first book also ‘born’ (ahem), I’ve become one of the Huffington Post’s recipe writers, am proud to be one of Scoff’s recipe presenters and this here blog is going to be 5 years old in 2015. I might even hold it a birthday party.
That’s quite enough showing off for one blog post (no-one likes a show off do they?) Instead, here are your top 10 blog posts of 2015:
1) A very humble ginger cake that I made with the folks at Scoff. You just mix it up (not even with a mixer… just a spoon will do), bung it in the oven and top with a little icing sugar. Easy as.
2) Spiced apple cupcakes with gingerbread buttercream. Another no mixer cake recipe. I am completely and utterly with you on this one – easy wins every time.
3) Psychedelic school fair rocky road. Best to make this in gargantuan quantities and then remove from the house asap.
4) Flourless chocolate cake. Now if you want this gluten free then be sure to source GF chocolate. Not all chocolate is created equally.
5) Cut out vanilla biscuits. The best biscuit dough ever for making cute cut out shapes. Ice or don’t ice.
6) Carrot, courgette and cheese mini pancakes. Mini pancakes or fritters? Whatever you call them, they’re delicious. My sons love them, my Dad loves them. I love them. Canapés that work as weaning fodder get a big tick from me.
7)Lemon button biscuits. Look good, taste good and one from my book. I made these in honour of my very talented Nanna who used to be a bespoke tailor-ess.
8) Easy chocolate cupcakes. Another easy recipe with no mixer required. These are way too easy to whip up. Pass the chocolate ganache icing will you?
9) I’ve written a recipe book! Not even a recipe in sight – just a post about my book, which is out now and is doing well (hurrah, thank you to you gorgeous lot who have bought it!)
10) Lemon drizzle loaf. Classic, simple. Yes please.
What does 2015 hold? Well there will be very few giveaways I’m afraid. They take me way too long to set up and with three boys and loads of other bits and bobs of work I just can’t spare the time. I’ll be trying to shoot some videos (which will likely be dreadful at first so bear with me please) instead and will continue with the weekly recipes I so love to blog. Probably included will be a fair few weaning and finger food recipes, for that is what life is about at the moment. Little Lawrence may even make a guest appearance in some of the recipes.
I wish you all a healthy and happy 2015!
Holly. x
I have lost count of the amount of times I’ve heard intelligent, caring, perfectly competent parents state that they just can’t bring themselves to let their kids help in the kitchen due to the mess, time, possible wastage, etc.
Well I’m afraid I can’t smile sweetly anymore. (Maybe it’s the pregnancy hormones?) Sorry to be blunt, but how on earth do these folks expect their sons/daughters to fend for themselves upon leaving home without such a basic skill? You wouldn’t send them out into the world without other essential skills, like say, breathing, so why is it a badge of honour to proclaim your anal retentiveness is a barrier to allowing the kids to learn another basic life skill?
This isn’t just about preparing kids to fend for themselves. If it were, we’d just teach children 10 basic, super healthy dishes and be done with it. This is about expanding tastes, helping fussy eaters embrace food (for what a little one prepares them seem to be so much more likely to eat) and simply wallowing in the joy that is Good Food.
I do get it, I know they like to spread ingredients about. I know they tend to suggest adding more of pretty much everything, especially when they’re 3, because let’s face it, more is more when barely out of nappies. I know they often suggest odd combinations with such a look of expectation and wonder that it’s hard to say no to cocoa scrambled eggs. There is a way around all this though.
For me it’s about age appropriate helping. When the boys were under two they mostly put the vegetables on the chopping board, we talked about colours, textures and they always had their own spoon, a little bowl and two tablespoons of flour with some form of spice to mix up. They didn’t actually contribute very much to the process of cooking dinner, but they thought they did, and that’s what matters.
They moved on to cracking eggs (and yes, we did sometimes find a bit of shell in our food but hey ho, I’ve eaten worse), stirring, peeling, cutting, layering, marinading – pretty much anything that doesn’t involve heat at the moment. They are interested in food, they like choosing fruit and vegetables at the shops, they especially enjoy making salad dressing potions and washing up, (at the moment), is similarly exciting.
Here are my tips for happy kids and parents in the kitchen and a gratuitous shot of my sons in their new Organix #NoJunk aprons.
Kids do love making fairy cakes and biscuits, granted, but watching their joy at feeding the whole family an evening meal that’s lingered over, discussed and praised is a joy to behold. These little fritters are a great recipe that can be meddled with, whatever your age and are perfect as a snack or starter. Don’t like or have courgettes? Use onion, squash, parsnip, aubergine of whatever takes your fancy instead. Similarly these can be spiced up with chilli, cumin, chives, coriander or whatever else you have in your cupboard.
NB: Photography by Minal Photography.
One year ago: Lemon animal biscuits and Oatmeal & fudge cookies and 5 ways with the humble Victoria sponge
Two years ago: Octonauts cupcakes and Walnut, fudge and fleur de sel biscuits
Three years ago: Mutter paneer and Hot cross biscotti
Ingredients:
Makes 7 – 8
Stir the flour, baking powder, egg, milk, black pepper and garlic to a thick paste. Add the carrot, courgette and cheddar, stir well and set aside for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile heat the oil in a large frying pan on a low heat. Transfer a heaped tablespoon of the mixture into the pan, then repeat until you have four spoonfuls gently frying, well spaced.
After 2 minutes use a slice to flip and fry each fritter on the other side for 2 more minutes. (You can squash the fritters gently to speed the process up at this point.) Remove from the pan and drain on kitchen roll, then repeat with the rest of the mixture. Serve warm as finger food with or without dips.
NB: These keep in the fridge for 3 days, well wrapped. Re-heat in a preheated oven at 180C/gas mark 4 for 5 minutes before serving. If you fancy making these for breakfast weigh out the flour and baking powder in one bowl and the grated ingredients in another (refrigerated) the night before. Then you’re only 10 minutes away from these moreish little morsels.
NB: This was written in support of Organix #NoJunk challenge. Why don’t you sign up and share your #NoJunk recipes?
Holly Bell 