Thursday, February 23, 2012

These are lettuce dill and mint cakes, not fritters




These are Not Fritters, I promise!

Well, the Fritter Queen has done it again, unintentionally, this time. These lettuce, dill and mint cakes looked so cute in the magainze picture, like little balls of crispy pommes noisette but with the added goodness of green. How, then, did I end up with big, fat, flat patty/fritters?

I think it's because I didn't shredd the lettuce finely enough, so the balls didn't hold together very well. So, to make them stick, I made them bigger, as you do. And then, to cook them through, I had to flatten the big balls, and voila - fritters again. Not that there's anything wrong with that; I'm just annoyed that my 'cakes' don't look anything like the magazine picture. They still tasted sensational, though.

Get more fritters here, here, here and here.

Lettuce, dill and mint cakes
makes approx. 16


Ingredients
1 large iceberg lettuce, finely shredded and chopped
4 eggs
1 red onion, finely chopped
3 cups fresh white breadcrumbs
2 tblsp finely chopped dill
2 tblsp finely chopped mint
1 cup dry breadcrumbs
Vegetable oil or rice bran oil, to shallow-fry
Lemon wedges, to serve


Method
1. Place the lettuce with 2 teaspoons of salt in a large bowl and toss together. Transfer to a colander or large sieve and leave to drain for 1 hour. After the liquid has drained, place the lettuce into a clean tea towel and squeeze well to remove the remaining moisture.
2. Whisk the eggs until foamy, then add the lettuce, onion, fresh breadcrumbs, dill and mint. Season with salt and pepper then mix well to combine.
3. Roll the mixture into balls then roll in the dry breadcrumbs to coat.
4. Heat a large frypan over medium heat and add a layer of oil to cover the surface. Fry the cakes for 2 minutes on each side, flattening them slightly with a spatula while frying. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
5. Serve the cakes warm or at room temperature with lemon wedges.

recipe adapted from delicious (March 2012)

Ingredients, including mint, lettuce, red onion, dill and lemon to serve.
The shredded lettuce is salted and left to drain, to draw out the moisture (it also draws out some of the fresh green colour, but never mind).
These are meant to be delicate little balls, but they look like plops of something.
To make them cook through, I flattened the plops and they turned out like... fritters.

All's well that ends well. These still look very appetising.

Extremely delish, and leftovers can be stored in the fridge for the next day.

Love the crispy outside and the luscious, minty and dill-scented lettuce-y inside!

-----
Tabitha vs Henry Update
episode 5: "Kitty Kornered"

Poor Tabitha. She's sitting innocently on the wall when the tinkle of a bell heralds the arrival of Henry cat.
Too late to scramble down, she's stuck.
Until her kindly owner comes to shoo Henry away (but only after shooting a couple of frames and having a giggle at her predicament).

12 comments:

  1. Ah Fritter girl strikes again - they look good though, interesting that the recipe includes cooked lettuce.

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  2. Fritters, cakes, whatever you want to call them they look fantastic. I really must try cooking more with lettuce..

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  3. What a healthy snack this is - never would have thought you would cook lettuce and make it part of the patty.

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  4. Who cares what they're caled, they look delish :D

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  5. Whatever they are, they look great.

    Lettuce is underrated. Especially cooked lettuce. I grew up with cooked lettuce and oyster sauce. For some reason, lettuce tastes so much more lettucey when cooked.

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  6. It's all semantics! And I actually prefer fritters. So there.

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  7. I'm a big fritter fan, so the more the merrier in my humble opinion! Would never think to put lettuce in there though, very interesting. Love all the bursts of fresh herbs too.

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  8. Mint, dill, lettuce...I would have never thought of making pancakes with that combination and I am LOVING it!
    Poor Tabitha...;-)

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  9. these look so good never thought to add lettuce into something like these!

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  10. These were awesome! I use rye breadcrumbs and didn't use the mint because I didn't have it so I really ramped up the dill, which I love. My boyfriend, who is a real trooper and will for the most part at least try anything I make, gets sketchy on some things if he doesn't like the name of the recipe or the contents. He came through the door while I was frying and told me it smelled like I was cooking halibut, a compliment from him. He then proceeded to really like the cakes and made a sauce of Arby's horsy sauce and dill relish to dip them in. Home run!!

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  11. Would these work with other lettuces, not Iceberg?

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  12. hi Anon - any lettuce would do. Iceberg is good because it doesn't go all floppy when it's cooked.

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