Friday, March 11, 2011

Soup Fritters

Yes, I can hear the collective head-scratching from all the way down in South Oz.

Lemme 'splain it to ya! Firstly you have to understand that I am the undisputed Iron Chef of leftovers. That's right, I am.

Now then, how soup fritters came about. I made some soup the other day by boiling the dekerneled corn cobs and the husks in a lot of water. Plus 2 bay leaves and a large sprig of fresh rosemary from the garden.

I then diced up a spud (potato), half a leftover onion, and the last 2 rashers of bacon from a kilo pack. Quick fried them all up, then added to the strained soup stock. Simmered till spuds were done. Salt n pepper to taste. Served with a fresh, crusty, pull-apart loaf.

Very tasty. We all loved it.

Surprisingly enough, there were a couple of cups left in the bottom of the pot the next morning. Obviously I wasn't going to toss it. I thought about having it for brekkie but then I thought that just perhaps I could make a nice side dish out of it.

But what?

*insert light bulb here*

I know! I'll put it in the blender to liquefy it, then add an egg or two, then add enough self-raising flour till it's a batter. Then I'll deep fry small spoonfuls of the batter! Instant fritters! Wonderfully flavoured too.

That really is all there is to it. No, I can't give you amounts as this is definitely a "seat of the pants" type recipe. But to help you out, I do have pictures!

First though, if you have over 4 cups of blenderized soup then definitely use 2 eggs.

Here is the consistency of the batter you are aiming for:
soup fritters 01



Now just drop a small spoonful into some hot oil. You don't need a deep fryer, a wok over some flame will do fine. And make sure you use rice bran oil for your deep frying! Very high smoke point and very high in mono-unsaturated fats. It deep fries food wonderfully well!

They'll swell up to around twice their size so don't crowd them. They'll also practically flip themselves in the oil once the submerged half is cooked! Here's a pic of a batch of the them deep frying after turning.
soup fritters 02



Once they are nicely browned all over and are just about done "bubbling" you'll want to remove from the oil and drain on paper towels. Like this:
soup fritters 03



Give em a little sprinkle with salt and ENJOY! When you bite into one it'll be soooooo nice, light, and fluffy on the inside. See, look!
soup fritters 04



I found they are also very nice sprinkled with powdered sugar and cinnamon powder! Like savoury donut holes! Try it, you'll like it.