Sweet Potato Fritters
2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch nutmeg
pinch cinnamon
pinch allspice
pinch garam masala, optional
several hearty grinds black pepper
1 big sweet potato, cut into fine dice or shredded
oil, for shallow frying
1. Mix flour, salt, baking powder, aromatic spices, and black pepper thoroughly. Add enough fresh water, little by little, to make a thick clingy batter.
2. Stir in the cut up/shredded sweet potato. Heat oil in skillet until batter will sizzle when put in. Add a fat tablespoon of veggie-laden batter somewhere along the edge.
3. Figure out how many more similar "fritters" will fit with plenty of room between, and add them to the pan. Fiddle with them to make sure they'll let go of the hot metal.
4. When they're dark golden, flip them carefully and get them the same color on the other side. Lift out, drain, and blot on paper towels or a chunk of brown bag.
2-3 big carrots work superbly in place of the potato. Also, 1-2 onions, diced finely or sliced into feathery half moons, work great if you substitute thyme for the sweet aromatic spice
These are good sandwich fillers when you want the easiest possible good-to-bite patty, with mustard or ketchup, chutney, barbecue sauce, or any other compatible relish. They are also great beside a salad, eaten with any of the same range of sauces.
If you make these with onions, do use a little cornmeal in the batter; they will taste like onion rings and kill a fast food craving in one fell swoop.
SO HOW'D IT GO?
Thank you for a very nice recipe! I made these last night for the first time, and served them with applesauce as a side to very spicy red beans and rice. They were quite a hit with my family. I used the recipe exactly as it was (except substituting white for whole wheat flour) and found ithat it needed quite a lot of water, so will start with at least 2/3 cup of water next time to reduce the stirring. I ended up stirring the batter so much it became gluey, though when I stirred in the shredded sweet potato it worked ok. The other problem I encountered was that it was hard to tell how long to cook the fritters so that the centers would set. I started flattening them a bit with my cooking spoon after putting them in the oil, just to flatten them a bit and those ones came out great. This recipe made a lot of fritters - about 30, and they were light and crispy and very good. I'll definitely make this recipe again!
I really enjoyed these. I used a giant sweet potato and added garam masala and cayenne pepper to the batter. We poured a little hickory syrup over them and they were delicious. I agree that ketchup would not have worked with these - I think the syrup was perfect...I also made my tofu scramble, so it was breakfasty....
My only issue, which always seems to be my issue, is knowing how much oil to use for frying (I don't do it very often, so I'm lacking in frying skills)....these fritters were pretty absorbent and soaked up most of the oil in the first round. I think I'll try them on the griddle next time, pancake style, and see if they still turn out crispy.
Even though much less healthy I think I would substitute white flower for wheat next time. The taste of the flour holding everything together seemed to infringe on the taste of the sweet potato. This also made a TON of the potato fritters. But maybe I just had a hard time with the sweatness of the fritters. I think I expected something savory and this was quite sweet. I heard that it was good served with applesauce but I kept on trying to eat it with Ketchup which was kinda gross.