Photo: Sam Holt · CC BY-SA 4.0
Tomatokeftedes (Santorini Tomato Fritters)
Tomato fritters from Santorini. Tomatoes are chopped fine by knife, mixed with onion, mint and parsley, and stiffened with flour into a thick batter that is dropped by the spoonful into hot oil. No water goes in: the juice from the tomatoes is the liquid of the batter.
Ingredients
- small, firm tomatoes · cherry tomatoes work500 g
- red onion · finely chopped1
- mint · chopped1 handful
- flat-leaf parsley · chopped1 handful
- dried oregano1 tsp
- plain flour · more or less, depending on the tomatoes150 g
- baking powder1 tsp
- salt1 tsp
- black pepper to taste
- olive or neutral oil · 2cm deep in the pan for frying
Steps
- ⏲ 10 min
Chop the tomatoes by knife into 5mm pieces and put them in a bowl with all their juice. Do not use a blender.
- ⏲ 1 min
Mix in the onion, mint, parsley, oregano and pepper.
- ⏲ 5 min
Heat 2cm of oil in a pan to 170-180°C. A drop of batter should sizzle at once and float up.
- ⏲ 2 min
Once the oil is hot, add the salt, then the flour mixed with the baking powder a spoonful at a time, stirring. Stop when the batter is thick enough to drop slowly from a spoon rather than run off it.
- ⏲ 6 min
Drop tablespoons of batter into the oil and press each one a little flatter with the back of the spoon. Fry 2-3 minutes a side until deep brown. Do not crowd the pan.
- ⏲ 1 min
Drain on kitchen paper and serve hot.
Variations
- With tzatziki. The usual partner in Greece.
- With feta. Crumble some into the batter.
- With ordinary tomatoes. Large salad tomatoes usually carry more juice. Let the chopped tomato sit in a sieve for a moment and pour a little off, or add more flour.
Tips
- No water. The tomato juice is the liquid.
- Add flour by consistency, not weight. Tomatoes differ in how much juice they give.
- Salt just before frying. Salt keeps drawing water out of the tomato, and the batter slackens as it waits (salt and seasoning).
- Get the oil hot first. A loose batter in oil that is not hot enough spreads and soaks up fat (deep frying).
More detail and the reasons why (2)
- Why the tomatoes are not blended. Khinkali says not to blend the onion, because "blended onion delivers all of its own water at once". The same goes here. Blended tomato gives up all its juice at once, it takes more flour to hold that water, and the fritter turns heavy. Knife-chopped pieces release their juice slowly and are still there to bite after frying.
- Santorini tomatoes. According to English Wikipedia, Santorini gets little rain and the tomatoes rely on dew and humidity; the water stress and the limey soil shaped this small variety, protected by a designation of origin since 2013. That is why the dish asks for them.
The basics behind this dish
- Knife Skills: Grip, Cuts, and Why Size MattersHow you hold the knife matters more than how fast you cut. The pinch grip, the claw hand, and why uniform size is a cooking decision rather than a cosmetic one.
- Salt: When You Add It Matters More Than How MuchThe same amount of salt either draws water out or seasons all the way through, depending on when it goes in. Osmosis, seasoning in layers, and why salt types are not interchangeable by volume.
- Heat Control: Preheating, Oil, and Reading the PanThe same ingredients become a different dish depending on pan temperature. When to add the oil, how to read heat by sound, and which dishes want low heat instead.
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