How To Fritter Away Your Morning

I used to have a snazzy little recipe keeper, one I had received from a loved one, in which were all my favorite odds-and-ends recipes.  Well, that little book somehow developed legs and wandered off (or, it found its way to the landfill when the cleaners hauled away the contents of my hoarder-hovel).

Anyway, I lost a few precious recipes, and have been digging for them ever since. The nice thing about the internet is, a LOT of people share similar tastes, so many of my recipes could be recovered, more or less, by adapting already published ones on the various cooking websites & blogs.

In the case of this one recipe, however, I think I'm the only remaining cook to have had an interest in reviving a treat I used to make fairly regularly for my ain true luve, that being coconut rice fritters.

I'd come across the idea originally in a tattered collection of brand-name recipes published by… I have no idea who the publisher was.  All I recall was, I found it in a remainders bin at Kroch's  & Brentano's, in Chicago, when I was still in my teens.  It was larger than a standard notebook, cheaply printed, cheaply paper-bound, and contained "1001 Brand Name Recipes", all of which had originally been made available by food companies (e.g. the Tuna Rice Napoli – a casserole – was originally from Chicken of the Sea, and a chicken satay recipe within came from a peanut butter offer).

I have no idea whether this came from a rice processor, a coconut company, or some other, but I'd make a batch, and they'd disappear before I was finished washing up the bowls.


At any rate, I've managed to dig around and combine a number of different recipes, in order to get an approximate reproduction of that favorite dish.

On their own, the fritters are not very sweet, by the way.  If  you want sweetness, it comes with the amount of stuff you choose to sprinkle over them.

But, here you are:




Buttery Coconut Rice Fritters

Ingredients:

3-4 cups oil for frying

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar

1 large egg
2/3 cups buttermilk*
1 Tablespoon butter, melted

2/3 cup cooked rice
1/2 cup sweetened, shredded coconut

powdered sugar for sprinkling

Directions:

In a deep fryer or a heavy pot, heat oil to 365º F.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder salt, sugar.

In small mixing bowl (or one of those spiffy blending cups like tupperware makes), combine buttermilk, egg, and melted butter. Mix well. Add rice and coconut, making sure it is completely mixed and rice grains have fully separated to be coated individually.

Add wet and dry ingredients together. Stir until completely mixed, but do not over-mix. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls into the hot oil.  Fry until golden, turning once.

Drain on paper towels.

Dust lightly with powdered sugar.  Serve warm.


*I've been known to add powdered buttermilk to lowfat milk for a slightly richer effect, when making fritters.  If you don't much care for the tang of buttermilk, though, you can get away with using regular milk. But I will think less of you, you big sissy.  ;)