I am so proud of myself – today I made a recipe that Riverford kindly sent me and it came out so well that even BF liked it! With my new found love of courgettes I decided to try out their courgette fries and they came out incredibly well.
It is a simple recipe – it only has four ingredients; milk, flour, olive oil and a courgette.
Last Christmas me and BF got a range of kitchen gear from his family after they heard about us cooking most of our food from scratch. We got things like a stripy apron, chopper thing (which I use for nut-roasts all the time), grater and more. Within the array of items we got a blade on a corkscrew – and it is awesome! It means that you can make spiral veg which is not only fun but very pretty. I have used it before; spiral carrots really impress people so I usually find an excuse to serve them up.
To use it you simply chop off the ends of your chosen veg and carefully screw in the corkscrew into the veg. It is then just a simple task of spinning the tool around and around (all while avoiding to cut your self on the blade cutting though your veg). You end up with pretty veg that is evenly cut all the way down and, if you are careful, all in one piece.
Now you can make these fries without this dangerous yet creative tool by slicing courgettes into thin strips – in fact this is what is written in the instructions from Riverford but I’ve never been great at following recipes to the letter in someway.
Once you have your courgette cut you dip each one in milk, shake it off a little and then dip in flour until it is covered in a layer of flour. Now my hands got so messy with this task but it was so much fun and looked incredible. It was a blessing and a curse using lines of spiral veg; I only had to do it a few times I also had to make sure that I got the milk and flour evenly throughout the layers. I was so proud though as my lines of spiraled courgette laid on the side neatly covered in flour.
For years we have been told not to have deep fat fryers or deep fry food so it was scary for me to pour a thick layer of olive oil into a pan and heated up. I have seen the damage that pan fires can do after all the demonstrations I have seen from going to and working at university – the number of times pan fires and other dangerous kitchen practices have ruined shared kitchens makes them invest to try and stop it. The “water on a panfire” display is always flashing through my mind when dealing with oil in the kitchen with the terrifying 10ft flames forever ingrained in my head.
I felt so nervous putting in more than 1cm oil even in my tall edged little pan but thought I would get away with it – and I did! With the pan of oil nicely warm I carefully dipped in my first spiral of courgette to a fizzle of small bubbles trying to engulf it. As not all of the courgette was in the oil I had to keep turning and flipping it but sure enough after a minute of two I pulled out what looked very yummy. I slowly repeated this for the rest of my spirals and sure enough in under 10 minutes I had a plate of freshly made courgette chips.
I wasn’t sure if this recipe would work but it really did! I have tried roasting courgettes in the oven and I had always failed – they never were crispy and just burnt and withered into nothingness. These courgettes however were simple, crispy and delicious.
I have never been a fan of potatoes – I only eat very crispy thin chips as this plant just tastes of dirt to me otherwise. Courgette crisped up so beautifully but also didn’t taste of dirt but an almost refreshing delicate taste and texture.
I adore this recipe – it was so simple and such an delicious alternative to potatoes. I would highly recommend you trying this recipe out – you might even find fussy kids loving this dish. Chips are often used as a tool to get kids interested in potatoes so why not try it with courgettes!
Riverford seem to have been able to create recipes that are yummy but also almost foolproof – I know now that I will have to try out some of their other recipes.
So today has been delicious and added yet another simple way to add veg to my daily life. I know many will shout out how bad frying things can be but I never really ever get anything else fried (as I said potatoes taste like dirt) so I’m not worried about the occasional treat.
Will you be trying out this recipe? Have you tried this before? Do you have a favourite veg (other than potatoes) that you like fried? What recipes would you suggest me trying? Do you find you prefer these chips to potato ones? I would love to hear from you so leave a comment below.
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