Fried and true: Fritters for all occasions
You drop a dollop of dough into a skillet of hot oil. It sizzles and browns. A crust is formed around a moist interior, and a fritter is born.
Every culture seems to have some kind of fritter, be it European or African in origin, sweet or savory, plain or fancy, dusted with sugar or dipped in ketchup.
Middle Easterners fry chickpeamush into falafel. The Spanish and Portuguese make bacalao balls from salt cod and mashed potatoes. The French concoct beignets out of a sticky flour- and- egg paste that puffs up into something light and ethereal when fried in deep fat.
Fried and true, these and many other fritters have made the journey to the New World, where they have been smashed up with whatever is handy — okra, corn, eggplant, crab, conch, shrimp, salmon, bananas and apples — and fried into greasy little bites that make for wonderful appetizers, cocktail nibbles and breakfast treats. I love ’ em all. And whether I’m eating a croqueta on the beach in Puerto Rico or cupping my greasy little palms around a fist- size acaraje ( black- eyed pea cake) on the streets of Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, they always remind me of home. I grew up gorging on the onionflecked hush puppies that are a staple at Southern fish fries.
And I love to make salmon croquettes, a remnant of hardscrabble times when fresh salmon was hard to come by and the canned stuff was cheap and plentiful.
When I started gathering recipes for this story, I was tempted to include fried pies, the Southern classic filled with peach, apple, pear, strawberry and the like and sometimes called “tarts.” But after a little research and some lively Facebook discourse, I came to realize that fried pies aren’t fritters at all. Fried pies ( and the empanadas, pastelitos, bunuelos and so forth that are found in Latino kitchens) are made from rolled pastry dough. They are purposeful and constructed, and they are downright elegant compared to fritters, which are sloppy and free form.
Athens cookbook author Rebecca Lang responded to my fritter jitters with a lovely recipe for Corn Fritters With Summer Salsa. More like a corn cake than a hush puppy- style fritter with corn kernels mixed in, Lang’s salsa- fied fritters will be a wonderful way to use up the inevitable summer cornucopia of Silver Queen and heirloom tomatoes. They are a cinch to make and don’t require vats of spattering oil, either.
On the sweet side, Atlanta author Virginia Willis turned me on to her French beignets. Willis adds orange zest to the dough, rolls the warm beignets in sugar and more orange zest, and sprinkles them with powdered sugar before serving. I can’t think of a more welcome coffee accompaniment.
Many Southern corn fritter recipes use a little corn and a lot of batter, yielding a hush puppy- like bread suitable for fish fries. Athens cookbook author Rebecca Lang’s fritters are flat little cakes that are dense with corn kernels. Corn is the star here, and the simple tomato salsa plays a supporting role. Fry up a batch to nosh on while standing around the grill. Recipes adapted from Southern Living Around the Southern Table by Rebecca Lang ( Oxmoor House, fall 2012) Corn fritters: 4 ears fresh corn, husks removed ¾ cup ( 180 ml) plain white cornmeal ½ cup ( 125 ml) milk ¼ cup ( 60 ml) self- rising soft- wheat flour 1 large egg ½ teaspoon ( 2 ml) salt ¼ teaspoon ( 1 ml) freshly ground pepper ¼ cup ( 60 ml) vegetable oil Summer Salsa ( see recipe) Cut kernels from cobs; discard cobs. ( You should have about 2 cups kernels; if you have more, save it for another use.) In a medium bowl, whisk together cornmeal, milk, flour, egg, salt and pepper. Stir in kernels. Heat vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium- high heat. Working in batches, spoon batter by tablespoonfuls into hot oil, and flatten gently. Fry 2 to 3 minutes on each side or until browned. ( If the skillet becomes dry, you may want to drizzle in a little more oil.) Drain on a wire rack. Top each fritter with 2 teaspoons Summer Salsa. Makes about 24 fritters Summer Salsa: 1 cup ( 250 ml) chopped tomatoes 2 tablespoons ( 30 ml) diced green onion ½ teaspoon ( 2 ml) diced, seeded jalapeno pepper 1 tablespoon ( 15 ml) fresh lemon juice 1 teaspoon ( 5 ml) chopped fresh parsley 4 pitted kalamata olives, finely chopped ( plus more to taste) ¼ teaspoon ( 1 ml) salt In a small bowl, stir together tomatoes, green onion, jalapeno, lemon juice, parsley, kalamata olives and salt. Makes 1 ¼ cups