These Crispy Tomato Fritters Style Like Summer season on a Greek Island

Think about sitting on a quiet seaside in Greece on a scorching summer season day. The clear, cool sea glides softly over the small grey rocks dotting the shoreline, the water an ideal shade of turquoise. Because the afternoon warmth peaks, it is time for an extended, leisurely lunch. A taverna desk is dappled with daylight. You order a Greek salad, grilled fish, fried potatoes, and a meze unfold. Among the many dishes is a platter of vegetable fritters—nonetheless heat, glistening from the oil, their golden edges irresistible. Dipped in tangy yogurt, they’re the perfect companion to the salt air and sluggish tempo of summer season.

Why Fritters Belong in Summer season

That scene might sound romantic, nevertheless it speaks to a fact: Vegetable fritters are the most effective summer season dishes, irrespective of your setting. They seem to be a scrumptious, sensible technique to profit from peak-season produce, and their enchantment stretches throughout many cuisines, the Greek desk amongst them. 

Meet Ntomatokeftedes: Greek Tomato Fritters

One among my favourite Greek fritters is ντοματοκεφτέδες, written as ntomatokeftedes (tomato fritters) in English. Ntomatokeftedes, additionally spelled tomatokeftedes, are one among Greece’s most iconic vegetable fritters, a beloved specialty of Santorini. The island’s dry local weather and volcanic soil yield tomatoes with concentrated taste and minimal water content material, good for fritters. You may additionally discover variations all through many Greek islands, significantly within the neighboring Cycladic islands and on the Greek mainland.

The time period keftedes is commonly related to meatballs. Nonetheless, in Greek, it additionally refers to any small fried spherical—whether or not it is constructed from zucchini (kolokithokeftedes), chickpeas (revithokeftedes), or, as on this case, tomatoes.

The Greatest Tomatoes for Greek Tomato Fritters

One of many joys of this recipe is its flexibility. Obtained bruised tomatoes from the market? A number of underripe ones languishing on the counter? Use them. Juicier tomatoes might require additional flour, whereas firmer ones want much less. And although these are greatest made in summer season with ripe fruit, they’re forgiving sufficient to fulfill low season tomato cravings, too.

A Fritter Constructed on Juicy Tomatoes

Not like many fritters, comparable to zucchini fritters, which require squeezing out moisture from the principle vegetable to attain crispness, tomato fritters embrace their juicy star ingredient. This recipe balances tomato’s pure moisture with flour, egg, herbs, and briny feta to create a spoonable batter that is dolloped straight into scorching oil—no fussy shaping required.

The feel of the batter is essential. It needs to be someplace between unfastened tuna salad and a thick scoopable dip like tzatziki. If, after mixing, the batter feels too unfastened—usually the case with juicier, ripe tomatoes—add a tablespoon of flour at a time till it simply holds its form with out changing into stiff or cakey. I like to make use of a mix of each chopped and grated tomatoes in my fritters. The chopped tomatoes create bursts of taste and vivid purple flecks on the floor, whereas the grated tomato offers the fritters an excellent, sunburnt hue and a lush tomato taste all through.

Serving the Fritters

As soon as fried to a deep golden purple, the fritters are greatest served heat with a beneficiant dollop of full-fat Greek yogurt. Crisp-edged, craggly, and wealthy with tomato, herbs, and feta, they’re an excellent appetizer or meze.

One other beauty of this recipe is how simply adaptable it’s to no matter is in your crisper: Decide a star vegetable, mix it with herbs, aromatics, cheese, egg, and flour, and fry till golden. It will not bodily transport you to Santorini, nevertheless it’ll take your style buds there.

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