Prawn and Corn Fritters

This recipe comes straight out of Ottolenghi’s Simple book. It’s a great book, full of interesting food that doesn’t take an age to put together. These little fritters fit into my ‘make ahead’ category as they can be made the day before and then reheated in the oven for 5 minutes. I made up just a quarter of the quantity to end up with just 10 little bites, the original recipe serves 6 as a starter - just multiply everything by 4 (give or take a gram or two) ..... like all Ottolenghi recipes they are delicious.

Ingredients - makes 10

90g peeled king prawns, defrosted if frozen

35g sweetcorn, tinned or frozen, defrosted if frozen

Large pinch of ground cumin (1/16 tsp to be exact)

Larger pinch of ground coriander (1/8 tsp)

Larger pinch of smoked paprika (1/8 tsp)

Small pinch of chilli flakes (or more depending on how hot you like things)

3g chopped coriander leaves

1 tbsp beaten egg*

Zest of one lime

2 tbsp vegetable oil to cook.

Seasoning to taste

Method

Pat the sweetcorn and prawns dry and then pulse briefly in a food processor. Add the remaining ingredients, spices, chilli flakes, coriander, beaten egg* and lime zest and pulse to combine. Store covered in the fridge until ready to cook.

When ready to cook, heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan. Make teaspoonful sized fritters out of the batter.

When the oil is hot, fry the fritters, flattening them as they cook. After a minute or so, turn the fritters over until they are golden brown on both sides.

Drain on kitchen paper and serve or cool and refrigerate.

To reheat, heat oven to 190°c and place the fritters on a lightly greased baking sheet. Cook for 5 minutes until piping hot. Serve.

* adding salt to a beaten egg breaks down the proteins and makes it runnier and easier to extract one tablespoon. Just beat the whole egg, add a good sprinkling of salt and leave for a few minutes until the egg becomes liquid.