It’s getting to be zucchini season — that time when, if you’re lucky enough to have a garden, you’ll have more zucchini than you can fit into dozens of loaves of bread.  We don’t have room for much of a garden, so we buy our zucchini at the farmer’s market.  Either way, these fritters are an easy, fast, and delicious way to use it.  The same batter can be used with lots of other vegetables too.  I keep meaning to try it with mushrooms.  The baking powder helps it puff up a bit; they’re also good without it, but a slightly different texture … maybe a little denser but crispier, too.  I love making them as an appetizer since they come together so quickly, but they’re also a fun side. Just eat ‘em while they’re good and hot!

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I know we’re late to join the bandwagon, but we enjoyed this salad all through last summer, and now that watermelon and tomatoes are starting back in season, it seemed like it was about time to share this with you.  My parents lived in Atlanta very briefly at the beginning of last summer.  It didn’t work out so well, but they say at least one good thing came out of it — they went to a restaurant that served this salad.  I’m not even a big tomato fan, but when it’s combined with watermelon and feta cheese, as has become popular lately, it becomes something wonderful.  And the way my parents serve this salad is all about the presentation.  It’s simple and quick, but elegant and a bit “dressed up” looking at the same time.  It’s especially nice with both yellow and red tomatoes, as shown here.

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I got this nifty square tart pan (how could I have gone this long without a tart pan?!) with a gift certificate from Christmas.  I was itching to try it out, but I’m cutting back on sweets, so I was on the lookout for a savory tart idea.  I ended up using a balsamic vinegar crust from La Tartine Gourmande and a custardy filling of beets, goat cheese, and walnuts from alpineberry.  It was a delicious but light and simple supper.  Matt’s comment was “it’d be good as an appetizer, and smaller” — well, not a bad idea, maybe I’ll try it sometime with miniature tart pans.  Anyway, the night we made it, all we needed was something light and simple, and this fit the bill perfectly.  It was also pretty good leftover, at room temperature even.

The balsamic vinegar added a different little tang to the crust, and I think beets and goat cheese are always a great combination.  The only problem I had was that the tart shell shrank — a lot — but I think that was probably my own fault since I didn’t want to wait to let the dough rest after I made it.  So, if you try this out, I’d recommend letting the dough sit in the fridge at least an hour before rolling it out, and then refrigerate again before baking.

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For this week’s Whisk Wednesdays post, it’s the last in our series on frying and sauteing, and it forced me to finally conquer my fear of deep frying. I almost backed out on this one. I’ve never tried deep frying, as I don’t have a fryer or a splatter screen or anything, and I’ve been sure I would splash hot oil all over myself and get a terrible burn. So I’m pretty proud of myself for trying this one — and pretty pleased with how it turned out. These were really delicious, and definitely worth making again!

We made these on a weeknight, so I wasn’t able to take my usual mise-en-place pictures. But here’s a summary of what we did. The shrimp were first marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, and salt and pepper. This definitely gave them more flavor than they would’ve if they were directly battered and fried. While the shrimp marinated, I made the batter. It included equal parts all purpose and potato flour (1 1/4 c each) and 1 T baking powder, combined with 3 T olive oil, salt, and 1 c cold water. These were combined, drizzled with oil to keep a crust from forming, and let rest for a while as the shrimp continued to marinate.

Right before getting ready to fry, I folded 3 beaten egg whites into the batter (which was more like dough until adding the egg whites). I think these helped to really lighten up the coating on the shrimp. The shrimp were then dipped in the batter and deep fried in 350 F oil.

I don’t know if it was the lightened batter, or the marinade, or what, but these came out deliciously crispy but not too greasy, despite all that oil. It reminded me a little bit of a tempura batter, especially since it seemed to kind of puff up as the shrimp cooked. In fact, since we had a bunch of extra batter, I ended up frying everything I could think of — some potato slices left over from the delicious potato pizza we had made again, and some mushrooms. The vegetables were almost as good as the shrimp. Overall, I’m really glad I decided to tackle deep frying — this cookbook curriculum is really teaching me new and useful skills, and getting me outside my comfort zone, in a good way!

Be sure to check out how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group fared — on the blogroll on the right. (Note: I’m a couple weeks behind, so if you check them out, they’re probably making something other than these shrimp.)

These come from my Aunt Kathryn, who is always sending me great, not-too-complicated recipes to try.  She always especially has delicious finger food.  Our extended family gatherings are often at her house, and she served these cheese biscuits at our Christmas gift exchange a few years ago.  I try to keep the ingredients for these on hand, as they come together pretty quickly.  They also freeze well, so I usually freeze half the batch for a night when I need a before-dinner snack.

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