Greek Courgette Fritters with Feta (Kolokithokeftedes)

Every Greek island has a version of these and they are among the best things on any meze table: crisp outside, soft and herby inside, eaten hot with tzatziki and a squeeze of lemon.

There is exactly one difficulty. Courgettes are more than ninety percent water, and the whole recipe is a battle against that. Salt them, drain them, and then squeeze harder than feels reasonable. Every millilitre you remove is one you do not have to compensate for with flour, and flour is what makes a heavy fritter.

Get that right and the rest is a bowl and a frying pan.

Key preparation steps

1. Grate and salt the courgettes, drain for thirty minutes.
2. Squeeze them genuinely dry in a cloth.
3. Mix with feta, herbs and only just enough flour to bind.
4. Chill briefly, then fry in batches over a steady medium heat.

The squeezing step

Grate the courgettes coarsely, toss with a teaspoon of salt, and leave in a sieve for thirty minutes. A surprising amount of liquid comes out on its own.

Then gather them into a clean tea towel and wring hard over the sink. You should get another substantial amount out, and what remains should feel almost dry.

Do not skip or shorten this. Wet mixture needs more flour to hold together, more flour makes a dense doughy fritter, and dense doughy fritters are why people think they do not like these.

How much flour, and what binds them

As little as possible, usually three or four tablespoons for a kilo of courgettes. The mixture should be barely holding together, not a batter.

The feta does a lot of the binding, as does one egg. Some cooks use breadcrumbs instead of flour, which gives a lighter, crisper result and is worth trying.

Chill the mixture for twenty minutes before frying. It firms up and shapes far more easily, and the fritters are less likely to spread in the pan.

Herbs and the cheese

Dill and mint are the two that matter, in quantity. A large bunch of dill and a good handful of mint for a kilo of courgettes. Parsley can join them but should not replace them.

Feta crumbled by hand rather than mashed, so there are still pockets of it. Around 200 g for a kilo of courgettes. Some island versions add grated hard cheese as well.

Grated onion or spring onion goes in too. Squeeze grated onion the same way you squeezed the courgette.

Frying and serving

Shallow fry in about a centimetre of oil over a medium heat. Too hot and the outside browns before the inside sets; too cool and they absorb oil.

Do not crowd the pan and do not flatten them with the spatula. Two or three minutes a side until deep golden.

Serve immediately with tzatziki and lemon wedges. They soften as they sit, so this is a fry-and-serve dish rather than a make-ahead one, though the mixture keeps a day in the fridge.

What matters in this dish