Ella Mittas is a cook and food writer, plus a much-loved frankie friend! Her Greek-Australian heritage inspires her cooking, which she shares in her book Ela! Ela! To Turkey and Greece, Then Home. If you missed out on the first print run of it, then you’re in luck as there has been a second print run. Today, we’ve got a delicious zucchini fritters or mucver recipe from the book!

Head over this way to nab your copy of Ela! Ela! To Turkey and Greece, Then Home.This is an edited extract from Ela! Ela! To Turkey and Greece, Then Home by Ella Mittas (Murdoch Books, RRP $39.99). 

MUCVER
Serves 4 as a starter

These zucchini fritters are based on a recipe from the restaurant. Because we made them in such large batches, it’d take one person an entire day to prepare the mix: grating kilos of zucchini, salting them and squeezing out all the water. It is essential to get as much liquid out of the zucchinis as possible, even though it’s time-consuming. Your fritters will end up crispier and tastier, so take your time. Aleppo pepper is a variety of capsicum that’s dried, crushed and used as a spice. It’s mildly spicy, with some fruitiness and cumin-like undertones, and is a brilliant red. It’s easily found at Middle Eastern grocers but can be substituted with a mix of smoked paprika and cayenne pepper.

INGREDIENTS
2 eggs
2 large zucchini
3/4 cup flour
4 spring onions, chopped
1 cup of chopped mixed herbs: dill, mint, parsley
100 g feta
Aleppo pepper to taste
vegetable oil for deep frying
flake salt, freshly ground black pepper and lemon to taste

Mix the grated zucchini with 1 tablespoon of salt and leave it to drain in a colander for ten minutes. Rinse the mix then hand-squeeze out as much water as possible. The fritters will be too wet if not enough moisture is taken out.

Mix the squeezed-out zucchini with the spring onions, feta, lemon and herbs. Taste to check the seasoning, then add the flour and eggs. Mix together thoroughly: it will be a fairly wet dough but should be firm enough to keep shape if scooped up in a spoonful. Usually, I check the density of my fritters but frying one and seeing if it holds together. Add a little more flour if necessary.

Heat oil for deep-frying until it’s hot enough to drop some of the mix in and have it brown in 30 seconds. Turn the heat down to medium. Using a dessert spoon, carefully drop scoops of the mix into the hot oil. Do this in batches. Cook for 1 1/2 minutes until golden brown and cooked through. You should be able to make 15–16 fritters. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.