Boulettes de courgettes

Deep-fried zucchini balls are a perennial favorite of ours. They're a good way to use some of the zucchini that keeps on coming from the garden. For this batch, I grated one of the larger zucchinis. The seeds weren't well formed yet, so I left them in. But if the seeds are large, they can be tough, so it's good to remove them before grating the squash. I used the fine blade in the food processor to grate the zucchini.

The balls are shaped and resting before frying.

I salted the grated squash and let it drain before squeezing out the excess water. Then I added some finely minced flavor ingredients: shallot, jalapeño pepper, ginger, and cilantro. I mixed all that in and added chick pea flour to hold it all together. I think wheat flour or even finely ground corn meal would work just as well. I formed the balls and let them rest so the flour could absorb the moisture in the mix.

Zucchini balls and chicken wings served with a côtes du Rhône red. Summer finger-food!

When it was time, I deep fried the balls in batches and drained them on paper towels. We served them with a spicy sauce. Yesterday, it was a mix of plain yogurt and Thai sriracha (hot pepper) sauce. I've always heard that it's good to eat hot and spicy food when the weather is hot. The balls were a great accompaniment to a batch of spicy chicken wings that I cooked on the grill. We ate a refreshing garden tomato salad later in the evening.