Mythos-battered zucchini and dashi yoghurt
IN GREECE it’s very common to flour and fry zucchini, but for this recipe I’ve put them in batter so there’s more crunch to them. They’re great for dipping in the yoghurt.
I love dashi yoghurt. It’s the best combination of sour with the sweet-but-meaty flavours of dashi. You can use it as a dip and it also goes beautifully with fish. SERVES: 4
Ingredients
125g (1/2 cup) thick, Greek-style yoghurt
2 tsp dashi powder
Juice of 1/2 lemon, plus extra wedges to serve
20g (1/3 cup) dried wakame
1 x 330ml bottle Mythos lager or any light lager, chilled
150g (1 cup) self-raising flour 100g tapioca flour
1 tsp salt
Sunflower oil, for deep-frying
4 zucchini
Method
Whisk together the yoghurt, half of the dashi and the lemon juice until the dashi has dissolved. Refrigerate until required.
Place the wakame, remaining dashi and a generous pinch of salt into a mortar and pestle, and grind to a fine powder. Set aside.
Make the beer batter by gently whisking the lager, flours and salt until just combined. Don’t overwork the batter; a few lumps of flour are fine.
Half-fill a saucepan with oil and place over a medium heat. Warm the oil until it reaches 180C on a cooking thermometer.
Slice the zucchini at an angle into 5mm thick slices. Dip the slices into the batter, allowing any excess to drip off, then gently place into the hot oil.
Cook until crisp and golden brown. Remove from the oil and drain on a wire rack. Repeat until all the zucchini slices are cooked. Season with the wakame seasoning.
Serve the zucchini chips hot with the dashi yoghurt and lemon wedges on the side.
TIP: Draining on a wire rack instead of paper towel ensures things stay crisp.
THE AUTHOR: George Calombaris is one of Australia’s top chefs, and undoubtedly its most recognised one. From 2009 until 2019 he was a judge on MasterChef Australia. This is an edited extract from
Just George by George Calombaris, published by Hardie Grant Books, $50, available where all good books are sold. Photographer: Armelle Habib