Tomatokeftedes

Tomato fritters held together by flour alone, with no egg and no binder, where the batter is mixed at the last possible moment.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 700 g ripe tomatoes
• 1 onion, grated
• 4 spring onions, finely sliced
• 1 large bunch mint, chopped
• 1 bunch parsley, chopped
• about 200 g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 750 ml flavourless oil, for frying
• salt and pepper

Method

1. THE BATTER IS MIXED AT THE LAST POSSIBLE MOMENT and fried immediately. There is no egg and no binder: flour alone holds these together, and salted tomato goes on releasing water for as long as it sits. A mixture left even fifteen minutes slackens to something that cannot be lifted off the spoon, and adding more flour to fix it gives heavy doughy fritters.
2. SO THE TOMATOES ARE DRAINED BUT NOT SQUEEZED. Squeezed dry they have nothing left to bind with and the fritters are dry; left wet the batter will not hold. Chopped, salted briefly and tipped into a sieve for ten minutes is the middle.
3. Tomatoes halved, seeds flicked out with a thumb, and the flesh chopped small -- not grated, because these want visible pieces.
4. Salted lightly and tipped into a sieve over a bowl for 10 minutes. The liquid is discarded.
5. Onion grated and squeezed in the hand to get rid of its juice.
6. Everything except the flour and baking powder mixed in a bowl.
7. THE OIL HEATED FIRST, to 175C, before any flour goes in. This is the order that matters: the batter must wait for nothing.
8. Flour and baking powder now sifted over and folded through quickly, adding flour a handful at a time until it just holds a mound on a spoon. The amount varies with how wet the tomatoes were and 200 g is a starting point, not a measurement.
9. Dropped straight into the oil in rough spoonfuls, five or six at a time. They should sizzle hard on contact.
10. Fried 2 to 3 minutes a side until deep red-brown and crisp at the edges. They colour quickly because of the sugar in the tomato, so watch rather than time them.
11. Lifted onto a rack, not paper, and salted at once.
12. Eaten within minutes, with a squeeze of lemon or a spoon of tzatziki as on its own page.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Greece · All recipes