Oh frit…

Yes it’s Thanksgiving, yes it’s fall. And as I kiss goodbye to the most exciting of all my summers past I leap, boots-scarf-and-all into my first ever eastern fall. Evergreen territory, where I come from is, well, ever green. But now I can literally see the trees change colour as if consumed by autumn’s flames.

Blame algebra, but I’m seeing parallels and patterns everywhere. So as summer morphs into fall, and verdant foliage bursts into gold embers, juicy summer squash vanish in silence, and bright orange pumpkins and yellow-fleshed butternuts pop up by bins and crates wherever grocery-shopping sweeps me.

Here, I officially say goodbye to summer’s ardor with these little fritters stuffed to the brim with young, green zucchini and green onions.

Happy autumn!

Ingredients for the zucchini fritters:

4 small zucchini

1 tbsp plus 1 tsp sea salt

2/3 c chopped onions

1/2 c cooked wild or brown rice

1 FR egg

1/2 c finely ground oat flour, or rice flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

few rounds black pepper

To make the fritters, first grate the zucchini – it’s fast if you have a food processor, or you can go with your good ol’ box grater whicg would work just fine. Dump it into a large bowl and sprinkle on the 1 tbsp salt. Start “kneading” the zucchini, this will soften them and also help extract the water, so that the batter will be able to hold all that zucchini together. After 5 minutes of kneading, in a strainer, rinse the zucchini quickly under cold water just to get rid of the saltiness, then press down firmly with your hands to squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Use paper towel to blot out any extra moisture sitting on the top.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Put the zucchini in a mixing bowl and stir in the remaining ingredients until well combined.

In your favourite frying pan, heat 2 tbsp peanut oil (or avocado/grape seed oil) to medium heat, and drop ice-cream-scoopfuls of the batter into the pan. Fry for about 3 minutes per side, or until golden brown, then transfer them to a baking sheet and finish them off in the oven for about 10 minutes. Serve with the sweet soy sauce (below), garnished with more chopped scallions or toasted white sesame seeds.

Ingredients for the sweet soy sauce:

3 tbsp thick soy sauce

1 tbsp packed brown sugar

1 tbsp shiitake vinegar (or Chinese black vinegar)

3-4 drops sesame oil

Stir together in a small bowl until the sugar is fully dissolved.