• Recipe by Illanique van Aswegen 


    A lovely appetiser – the crunchy outside is heavenly against the sweet and tender interior of the fritter. It’s easy to make and each bite leaves you wanting more

    Deep-fried mealie and ricotta fritters with sour cream and coriander dipping sauce

    Serves: 4
    Cooking Time: 30 mins

    Ingredients

    • Fritter

    • 140g self-raising flour
    • 2,5ml (½ tsp) cayenne pepper
    • 2,5ml (½ tsp) fine salt
    • 2 eggs
    • 125ml (½ cup) buttermilk
    • 90g ricotta cheese
    • 300g mealie kernels, cooked
    • 1 spring onion, finely chopped
    • 15ml (1 tbsp) fresh chives, finely chopped
    • canola oil, to deep-fry
    • Sour cream and coriander dipping sauce

    • 250ml (1 cup) sour cream
    • 60ml (¼ cup) fresh coriander leava, to garnish
    • 30ml (2 tbsp) sweet chilli sauce es + extr
    • pinch paprika
    • 5ml (1 tsp) lemon juice

    Instructions

    1

    For the fritters, combine the flour, pepper and salt together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and buttermilk. Add this to the flour mixture and combine to form a batter. Stir in the ricotta, mealie kernels, spring onion and chives

    2

    Heat the oil to 180°C in a deep-fryer or deep pot. Gently drop heaped teaspoonfuls of the batter into the warm oil and fry until golden on all sides. Drain on paper towel.

    3

    For the dipping sauce, whizz all the ingredients together with a hand blender. Serve the fritters sprinkled with salt, garnished with fresh coriander and a side of dipping sauce.

    Notes

    To keep the fritter size consistent, use a small ice-cream scoop for the batter.