Today we happily welcome new contributor Berfu Durantas-Masters. Born in Istanbul, she recently married her husband John with one nagging worry—could they eat together, happily ever after?
One of the earliest conversations between my husband and I during our days of courtship was about food. He is half English-Irish and half Greek, and it was this morsel of Mediterranean blood that gave me hope that he would revel in my olive oil-based Turkish cooking. Our short food conversation ended with me asking alarmingly, “What do you mean you don’t like fried fish or olive oil? You’re half Greek, for God’s sake!” And so our culinary adventure began.
My husband likes store-bought salad dressing, Hot Pockets, frozen pizza (frozen anything, really), Eggo’s, and American cheese. Basically his palate craves chemicals and freezer burn. This is a far cry from the fresh foods and everything made from scratch mentality that I grew up with. So as our wedding day quickly approached, the questions arose as to how I would feed the 6’3” love of my life. How could I possibly get him to let go of the butter and dip his bread into olive oil instead? Would he ever eat a salad without ready-made blue cheese dressing? Would he ever like vegetables?
Since I couldn’t regress from eating well, it was apparent that I needed to change his palate, slowly and cleverly. One of the first dishes I made was mucver, which are fried zucchini fritters, a very popular dish in Turkey. I figured he would eat anything fried (well, maybe not fish).
Image courtesy of www.talerka.ru
Husband’s verdict: he loved it! He couldn’t believe zucchinis could taste so good, and even ate the yogurt! So far, so good. Now, what green thing can I convince him to eat next…
Mucver
- 3 or 4 medium zucchini, peeled and shredded (number and size depends on how many fritters you want)
- fresh dill
- chopped fresh mint (optional)
- crumbled feta cheese
- 1 egg (or two if you’re using more zucchini)
- flour
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
Put the shredded zucchini in a large bowl. Add the dill, mint, crumbled feta cheese, egg, salt and pepper. Make sure the egg fully coats the mixture—you may want to use 2 eggs if you are using more zucchinis. Add a couple tablespoons of flour and mix; the batter should not be runny or have too much liquid at the bottom of the bowl.
Coat the bottom of a high-walled saute pan or skillet with 1/4 cup vegetable oil and heat over medium high until the oil sizzles. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the oil and fry both sides until golden, adding more vegetable oil as needed.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I love Zucchini feta fritters. They make a great side for so many dishes. I just might have to make them to go with osso buco tomorrow.
And I think this is an awesome way to help cultivate someone’s palate. The good news is that he really had no place to go but up from Hot Pockets to home cooked Mediterranean food.
Great story! What a cool spin on fritters, this one I have to try.
great story–thanks! these sound delicious, and i look forward to hearing about the next step in the palate transformation.
Great story! I am looking forward to part 2.
Made these today and they turned out pretty well but I would love if you could update the recipe with exact quantities of the feta, etc. Overall they felt more liquid than they should despite adding extra flour. I was wondering if I even needed the egg because of the moisture in the zucchini.
You definitely need the egg, one should suffice. As far as the quantities, I usually improvise. It depends on how many fritters you want to make. Alot of fritters? Use more zucchinis. Fewer fritters? fewer zucchinis. same with the cheese. If you are using 3-4 medium zucchinis, a little less than half a cup of crumbled feta cheese should be enough.