Tomato fritters are a food that we like to eat in summer when our tomatoes are in season. Since tomatoes are not in season, we thought that we would try it with canned tomato. The interesting part of making tomato fritters is that there is no binding agent like egg, which you would find in many other fritters. Think about when you make any type of pancake (which is essentially what a fritter is) -- you need some binding agent to keep your ingredients together. Tomato fritters are naturally held by the tomato. Tomatoes can be used in foods as binding agents, thickeners, and flavour enhancers. In this recipe, the canned tomatoes do all three jobs, and in a very tasty way!
For this recipe, you need:
1 can peeled whole tomatoes (or 6 fresh) (we used a 796 mL (28 oz) can of San Marzano tomatoes, a type of "meaty" tomato with less moisture than most)
1 onion, diced fine
2-3 TBSP fresh mint, chopped
~2 cups flour (depends on the tomatoes)
1 tsp sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
oil for frying
When we decided to use canned tomatoes, we eliminated our first task of peeling the tomatoes. If you are using fresh tomatoes, please peel them before you begin. The ones in the can were whole cooked tomatoes so they were already peeled. They were not seeded, though, and that worked well enough for us. We thought about using the canned diced tomatoes, but realised that they may have too much liquid that we did not want. Although San Marzano tomatoes don't contain much moisture, we did drain the excess water from the canned whole tomatoes; there were 6 tomatoes in the can. That was equal to the number of fresh tomatoes that we would have used.
Chop the onions, the tomatoes, and the mint, and put them in a bowl.
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| Pull off the mint leavs from the stem. |
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| In order to cut mint (or any fresh herb), roll the leaves into a cigar shape bundle to keep them all together, then cut. |
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| A rough chop for the tomatoes. |
Mix these ingredients together well, then add the sugar and mix again.
Next, add enough flour to bind the mixture, but do not over mix this! If you over mix, the fritters will get to be chewy. The amount of flour will depend on how much liquid you have from the tomatoes. You want to have a thick, smooth batter, similar to the batter you would have when making a quick bread.
Next, add the salt and pepper. The amounts are up to personal preference, so sprinkle some of each all over the bowl, fold it all together, and then, taste. If you think it needs a little more salt, then add some. We found that we used about 1 teaspoon salt, and about 1/2 teaspoon of pepper, since we did not want either of those flavours to be dominant over the mint. Or, you may be like my mother and not add any salt at all, because she never cooks with salt. But, the salt in this recipe does help the consistency of the fritter, so we feel we need to add some. Start with a teaspoon.
Fold the batter together, and let it rest in the refrigerator for 30 to 45 minutes. This gives the batter a chance to really pull together, and it allows the flour to rest so that you do not have too much gluten built up from the mixing. We have known some people to use self-rising flour in this recipe. That works very nicely and gives a different texture to the fritters. However, you would have to let the mixture sit for 45 minutes to allow the self-rising aspect of the flour do its job.
Now, get your frying pan ready. You can do this in a low pot or a frying pan. We found the frying pan was very easy, and we feel that less oil is needed that way. Put about 1/2 inch (about 1.25 cm) of oil in the pan. Heat the oil, but not smoking hot.
Then, using a small cookie scoop, or the two-spoon method (shown above), create balls of the batter and drop them into the hot oil. The scoop will give you nice round fritter balls, which are very attractive and uniform. If you use a spoon or two spoons, you will get more of an oblong variety of shapes. We do like the uniformity, but wanted to make sure everyone knew that our tomato fritters were homemade, so we hose the two-spoon method. Fill one spoon, then spoon that ball into the other spoon. Pass the batter back and forth between the two spoons to make a football-shaped glob, and put that into the hot oil.
Repeat this method until your frying pan is full of fritters.
Next, add enough flour to bind the mixture, but do not over mix this! If you over mix, the fritters will get to be chewy. The amount of flour will depend on how much liquid you have from the tomatoes. You want to have a thick, smooth batter, similar to the batter you would have when making a quick bread.
Next, add the salt and pepper. The amounts are up to personal preference, so sprinkle some of each all over the bowl, fold it all together, and then, taste. If you think it needs a little more salt, then add some. We found that we used about 1 teaspoon salt, and about 1/2 teaspoon of pepper, since we did not want either of those flavours to be dominant over the mint. Or, you may be like my mother and not add any salt at all, because she never cooks with salt. But, the salt in this recipe does help the consistency of the fritter, so we feel we need to add some. Start with a teaspoon.
Fold the batter together, and let it rest in the refrigerator for 30 to 45 minutes. This gives the batter a chance to really pull together, and it allows the flour to rest so that you do not have too much gluten built up from the mixing. We have known some people to use self-rising flour in this recipe. That works very nicely and gives a different texture to the fritters. However, you would have to let the mixture sit for 45 minutes to allow the self-rising aspect of the flour do its job.
Now, get your frying pan ready. You can do this in a low pot or a frying pan. We found the frying pan was very easy, and we feel that less oil is needed that way. Put about 1/2 inch (about 1.25 cm) of oil in the pan. Heat the oil, but not smoking hot.
Then, using a small cookie scoop, or the two-spoon method (shown above), create balls of the batter and drop them into the hot oil. The scoop will give you nice round fritter balls, which are very attractive and uniform. If you use a spoon or two spoons, you will get more of an oblong variety of shapes. We do like the uniformity, but wanted to make sure everyone knew that our tomato fritters were homemade, so we hose the two-spoon method. Fill one spoon, then spoon that ball into the other spoon. Pass the batter back and forth between the two spoons to make a football-shaped glob, and put that into the hot oil.
Repeat this method until your frying pan is full of fritters.
See how the darker colour starts rising up the side of the fritter? That is how you know that it is time to turn it over to the second side. Use a spatula or a tongs to do so. Remember, oil can splash when you are frying, so be careful.
You will see the beautiful golden-reddish-brown colour from the first side, in contrast to the light pink of the uncooked side. Once you turn the fritter over, you will have to wait about 2 1/2 more minutes for the second side to cook fully. If you press down on the middle of the fritter, it should slowly bounce back. If it doesn't, then the centre is still a bit raw, and you should leave the fritter to fry for another minute or two.
Put the cooked fritters on paper towels to drain any residual oil. You can see that the cooked fritters leave behind puddles on the towels. After cooking the whole batch, move them to a tray in a low heat oven (about 200 ° F or 95 ° C ) to keep them warm until serving. You can serve these with any meal as mezedes, or keep them in the fridge as a snack. Any time of day, tomatoes are a refreshing treat, and when the fresh tomatoes are not in season, canned tomatoes are a nice substitute. Having the tomato fritters on the side of a salad or a vegetable dish adds another texture, flavour, and nutritional value to any meal.
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