Kabak Mucveri (Turkish Courgette Fritters)
Crisp-edged courgette fritters packed with dill, spring onion and salty white cheese. The secret is squeezing the courgette bone dry before it hits the batter.
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Ingredients
500g courgettes, coarsely grated
1 tsp salt, for drawing out moisture
3 spring onions, finely sliced
1 bunch fresh dill, chopped
Half a bunch flat-leaf parsley, chopped
150g Turkish white cheese, crumbled
3 medium eggs
100g plain wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp Turkish pepper flakes (pul biber)
Freshly ground black pepper
Sunflower oil, for shallow frying
Instructions
- 1
Toss the grated courgette with the salt in a colander and leave for 15 minutes. Then squeeze it hard, handful by handful, until it is as dry as you can get it.
- 2
In a large bowl, combine the squeezed courgette with the spring onions, dill, parsley, crumbled white cheese, pepper flakes and a good grind of black pepper.
- 3
Beat in the eggs, then sift over the flour and baking powder and fold to a thick, spoonable batter. Go easy on extra salt because the cheese is already salty.
- 4
Heat about 1cm of sunflower oil in a wide frying pan over medium heat until a drop of batter sizzles at once.
- 5
Drop in heaped tablespoons of batter, flattening each slightly, and fry in batches for 2-3 minutes per side until deep golden and crisp at the edges.
- 6
Drain on kitchen paper and serve warm with strained yoghurt, lemon wedges and a cold ayran.
Mucver is what Turkish home cooks make when the courgettes pile up in summer: golden, lacy fritters flecked with green herbs and pockets of melting white cheese. They are eaten warm off the pan as a meze, tucked into bread for lunch, or served with a big bowl of garlicky yoghurt for dipping.
The one rule that separates crisp mucver from soggy mucver is moisture control. Salt the grated courgette, let it sit, then squeeze it in your hands or a clean tea towel until no more liquid comes out. With the water gone, you need only a modest amount of flour, so the fritters stay light and taste of courgette and herbs rather than batter.
Turkish white cheese, fresh dill and proper pepper flakes make all the difference here, and you can order every ingredient from Turkish Online Market for delivery anywhere in the UK. Serve the fritters with strained yoghurt, a squeeze of lemon and a cold glass of ayran.
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