Vegetable fritters

Gee, it is really hot! So hot that I barely want to eat! (OK, that's a slight exaggeration as I always want to eat, but I'm sure you are familiar with this feeling.)

Today I have stepped out of the house exactly once to buy fresh bread. The rest of the day we've all been inside with the windows shut tight, blinds drawn, snacking on cold fruit and frozen jelly and drinking loads of cold water! I would have thought that all those years spent sweltering through Australian summers would have given me some immunity to hot, sticky days. Unfortunately, no! Bring back winter I say, and in a hurry.

I was looking for some inspiration for a lighter lunch in this weather and I had some zucchini (courgette) in the fridge. A little bit of vegetable-grating later, we ate pan-fried vegetable fritters with zucchini and carrot.

We had a floor picnic on our picnic blanket; too hot to sit at the table and more fun on the floor.

What you need

1 medium zucchini, grated

1 large carrot, grated

1 medium onion, grated

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup milk

1 egg, beaten

Salt and pepper

2 tbs vegetable oil

* This recipe will make about 15 medium-sized fritters.

What to do

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Add milk and egg and stir until mixed. Add grated vegetables and stir until combined - there should be no lumps of flour. Season with salt and pepper. The mixture should be quite thick. If it is really runny, add a little more flour, or you could add some more grated carrot or zucchini.

Heat a non-stick frying pan (or two) over medium heat with the oil. Once the oil is hot, spoon in approx two dessert spoons of mixture into the pan, then flatten the mixture out a little in the pan with a spoon so you have an oval shape and the vegetables are not heaped in the middle of the fritter.

Reduce heat to medium/low, otherwise the fritters will become too brown before cooking in the middle.

Once light brown on one side, turn and cook on the other side.

If you are not sure if they are cooked in the middle, take one fritter and cut in half and have a look!

Total cooking time should be about 15 minutes.

You can make these fritters smaller or larger, depending on what you prefer. Adjust the cooking time depending on the size of your fritters. Smaller size is great for little fingers and lunch boxes. Larger ones are good for bigger appetites.

If you are cooking fritters in batches, you can warm your oven a little to keep the first-cooked fritters warm. You will also need to add a little more oil after the first few batches.

For the meat eaters, you could add some finely-sliced ham, corned beef or bacon into the mixture if you like. You could also add other vegetables, such as corn kernels, chopped cherry tomato or peas.

We ate our fritters warm with a sauce of Greek natural yoghurt and sweet chilli sauce, a cabbage salad and fresh bread. We also squeezed some lemon over the fritters for some extra tang.