Zucchini Pancakes

Everyone loves to grow zucchini -- it's a forgiving vegetable in any climate and even the worst gardener will often find themselves with a veritable bounty in no time. The trouble is, few people like to eat squash, so they try to hide their secret shame away in zucchini bread, brownies, and other places where you won't actually have to taste zucchini. These crunchy pancakes are my favorite use of the summer surplus of squash. They're really not a lot more difficult to put together than a pancake mix once you get comfortable making them. Since there is so little flour in the mix, it really doesn't matter what kind you use. They come out crunchy on the outside, and tasting like a pancake (and not much like a squash) on the inside.

If you puree your squash, you can pretty much use this recipe to make dainty little zucchini blintzes, but that's a story for another time. 






You will need:
2 medium sized zucchini squash-- really, about 5 cups of any kind of shredded summer squash will do fine
1/3 cup flour (mine is 60/40 rice and tapioca flour, but your usual flour of choice will do just as well -- they're good with buckwheat flour too!)
1 tbsp corn starch
2 eggs (1 duck egg and 1 bantam egg, or 1 goose egg, or 4-5 bantam eggs, or any combination of eggs you want that will be roughly two chicken eggs)
Salt, Paprika

1. Julienne or coarsely grate your squash.
2. Add egg, flour and corn starch to your squash. Gently stir until everything is incorporated. It should have the consistency of a thick pancake batter (since you are making pancakes, after all). Plenty of it should be sticking to the bits of zucchini. If the batter is still too runny, add more flour until it gets thicker. If it's too thick and you can form your pancakes into solid balls, let the mixture sit for a while so the zucchini can release some of their juices and stir again. Add salt and spices to taste -- salt and paprika with a bit of cayenne are my defaults but salt alone is the traditional. Your mixture should look something like this:

3. From here on out you treat these like a regular pancake. Spoon your batter out and flatten it a bit

Fry in a goodly layer of oil on medium heat until both sides are golden brown and crispy.

(Optional: Prop them up on a stump in the only sunny spot in the yard while a hungry flock of chickens looks on.)

The traditional accompaniment for these is garlic mayonnaise: a few cloves of garlic squeezed out(pressed?) into a half cup of mayo then spread thinly on each pancake. Since most people in our country understandably have some reservations about putting mayonnaise on something that has already been fried in oil, I suggest a bit of sour cream instead -- or nothing at all. They're delicious as is.