Delicious Zucchini French Fries

Total Time: 50 mins Preparation Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 3
• 1 lb zucchini, small
• 1 lemon (you need the juice from 1/2 lemon)
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/3 cup cornmeal (less, actually!)
• 1 teaspoon black pepper, coarsely ground
• 1 teaspoon seasoning salt (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional)
• oil (for frying)

Recipe

• 1 wash, top and tail the small zucchinis.
• 2 slice each in half, then slice into julienne strips, thin, like thin french fries. at this stage they can be put into a plastic bag or bowl, and kept until needed.
• 3 to prepare: squeeze the juice from 1/2 of the lemon -- you should have about 3 - 4 tablespoons. in a bowl, toss the zucchini strips, using a large spoon, with the lemon juice, until damp. use more lemon juice if necessary.
• 4 mix the flour and cornflour (less than the 1/3 cup mentioned: my maths is bad) in a bowl, and add the black pepper and seasoning salt. (you can actually leave out the salt and rather put flaky sea salt on the table for salting later).
• 5 chuck this flour mixture into the bowl of zucchini fries, and toss until more or less coated -- neat work is not necessary.
• 6 heat about 1 inch of oil in a medium saucepan, preferably with heavy bottom.
• 7 when hot, using a slotted metal spoon, add a good heaped spoonful of zucchini strips to the oil. (i find that it takes about 10 minutes for the zucchini to actually start browning).
• 8 you can fry them until just done (they won't be crisp, but still nice) or you can fry them until golden brown. they do not colour evenly, which doesn't matter.
• 9 put out a few thicknesses of kitchen paper towels next to the pot. when the zucchini strips turn colour, take out with slotted spoon and let drain on the kitchen paper. repeat process.
• 10 the quantity given above was about 4 batches to fry (it depends on the saucepan and you!).
• 11 tip each drained batch into an oven dish, and keep warm -- but serve as soon as possible, while crisp. flaky sea salt on unseasoned fries is delicious.