These are lettuce dill and mint cakes, not fritters

These are Not Fritters, I promise!

Well, the Fritter Queen has done it again, unintentionally, this time. These lettuce, dill and mint cakes looked so cute in the magainze picture, like little balls of crispy pommes noisette but with the added goodness of green. How, then, did I end up with big, fat, flat patty/fritters?

I think it's because I didn't shredd the lettuce finely enough, so the balls didn't hold together very well. So, to make them stick, I made them bigger, as you do. And then, to cook them through, I had to flatten the big balls, and voila - fritters again. Not that there's anything wrong with that; I'm just annoyed that my 'cakes' don't look anything like the magazine picture. They still tasted sensational, though.

Get more fritters here, here, here and here.

Lettuce, dill and mint cakes
makes approx. 16


Ingredients
1 large iceberg lettuce, finely shredded and chopped
4 eggs
1 red onion, finely chopped
3 cups fresh white breadcrumbs
2 tblsp finely chopped dill
2 tblsp finely chopped mint
1 cup dry breadcrumbs
Vegetable oil or rice bran oil, to shallow-fry
Lemon wedges, to serve


Method
1. Place the lettuce with 2 teaspoons of salt in a large bowl and toss together. Transfer to a colander or large sieve and leave to drain for 1 hour. After the liquid has drained, place the lettuce into a clean tea towel and squeeze well to remove the remaining moisture.
2. Whisk the eggs until foamy, then add the lettuce, onion, fresh breadcrumbs, dill and mint. Season with salt and pepper then mix well to combine.
3. Roll the mixture into balls then roll in the dry breadcrumbs to coat.
4. Heat a large frypan over medium heat and add a layer of oil to cover the surface. Fry the cakes for 2 minutes on each side, flattening them slightly with a spatula while frying. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
5. Serve the cakes warm or at room temperature with lemon wedges.

recipe adapted from delicious (March 2012)

Ingredients, including mint, lettuce, red onion, dill and lemon to serve.

The shredded lettuce is salted and left to drain, to draw out the moisture (it also draws out some of the fresh green colour, but never mind).

These are meant to be delicate little balls, but they look like plops of something.

To make them cook through, I flattened the plops and they turned out like... fritters.

All's well that ends well. These still look very appetising.

Extremely delish, and leftovers can be stored in the fridge for the next day.

Love the crispy outside and the luscious, minty and dill-scented lettuce-y inside!

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Tabitha vs Henry Update

episode 5: "Kitty Kornered"

Poor Tabitha. She's sitting innocently on the wall when the tinkle of a bell heralds the arrival of Henry cat.

Too late to scramble down, she's stuck.

Until her kindly owner comes to shoo Henry away (but only after shooting a couple of frames and having a giggle at her predicament).