Zucchini and Feta Fritters (cont'd)
Preparation:
Spicy Tomato Sauce: In a saucepan heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and chilli and fry gently until garlic is fragrant. Take care that garlic does not burn, it will become bitter. Add tomatoes and cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes or until tomatoes fall apart. Sauce should still have nice chunks of tomatoes in it. Season with salt and add black pepper, if necessary.
Zucchini Fritters: Put grated zucchini, salt, lemon zest and chopped scallions in a bowl. Mix well and let stand in a sieve for about 20 - 30 minutes to draw the zucchini juices out. In the meantime mix flour with the eggs. Add feta cheese and parsley. When 30 minutes are over, squeeze the grated zucchini mix with your hands to extract as much juice as possible. This will avoid that zucchini fritters break up due to excessive moisture in the mix. Add flour/feta mix to the zucchini. Do not add extra salt, as feta and the residual salt on the grated zucchini will be enough. Add pepper, if you like. Mix well.
Warm olive oil on medium heat. Fry zucchini patties, dropping a tablespoon of the mixture into the frying pan - one at a time. Flatten top of the patties gently to obtain round pieces. Fry until bubbles start to appear on top side. Do not overcrowd the frying pan. It will be difficult to turn the patties on the other side. Turn over and fry on the other side. Fritters should have a nice brown color on both sides and cooked through. Drain on paper towels.
If you are not sure of the density of the zucchini mix, fry one patty first as a trial. If you notice that it will break when turned on the other side, add one more tbsp. of flour to the mix. Fry one more patty again. If still not satisfactory, add 1 another tbsp. of flour. You avoid disappointments when continuing to fry the rest of the fritters.