Self-Shredding Fritters

This evening's dinner drew heavily on our farm box, so credit for its deliciousness goes to the farmers and their care of the soil. After a couple of heavy, meaty (though free-range) entrees, this evening's dinner was all veggie. It was about 1 percent away from vegan, and could probably be made entirely so without any loss of flavor. Deleting the egg might, in fact, make this dish a little less gooey.

Image and more information
from Grasshopper

I started by putting a large spaghetti squash in the oven at 325 (convection) for about an hour. I then split it lengthwise, discarded the seeds, and scooped out the flesh. For those not familiar with this kind of squash, the inside is very stringy, making it ideal for fritters.

I prepared this with loose adherence to what I could remember of latke recipes, without actually looking one up. I had already skipped the one difficult part of latke preparation -- shredding the potatoes. Spaghetti squash is pre-shredded!

To the warm pile of squash, I added a couple of very small, very finely chopped onions and a small, very hot minced pepper (something like a Scotch bonnet). I then liberally applied Old Bay, black pepper, and cumin. I beat one egg in a separate bowl, and mixed it in thoroughly. To this rather wet mixture I added one cup of flour and a teaspoon of baking powder.

 I then heated our indispensable cast-iron griddle and added olive oil (repeatedly), spooning the mixture to form cakes. I kept the heat fairly high (just shy of smoking), but still these had a tendency to be wet. I cooked each one until it was sufficiently seared to turn, and then again to transfer to a platter in the still-warm oven.

The result was a bit messy but quite tasty, especially when topped with cool, organic applesauce. Home-brewed IPA was a perfect pairing for these spicy cakes. And as I write this, the satisfaction of a filling, nutritious, and flavorful meal puts us in a good mood for greeting our trick-or-treaters.