Greek-Inspired Zucchini Pancakes

Hi, I'm Louisa Shafia, on eHow.com. Today, I'm going to show you how to make zucchini pancakes. This is a wonderful treat for summer time, when there's plenty of fresh zucchini around, and it incorporates a lot of wonderful, fresh Greek flavors. First, I'm going to take my fresh zucchini and grate it on a box grater. Then, after I've grated my zucchini, I'm going to put it in a fine mesh strainer, toss it with a little bit of salt. And let the natural water that's in the zucchini, drain out. So, here's some that I did earlier, and see how much water came out of there. So, all that water will really dilute the flavor of my pancakes, so I want to let it out. And I'm just going to squeeze it, in case, there's any more water in here. So, I'll just take a couple of seconds to do that. And it's going to make all the difference in my pancake batter. Alright, that looks good. So, I'm going to put my drained zucchini in a mixing bowl, and I'm going to add a few batter ingredients. I have three whisked eggs here, I'm going to pour those in. I have some scallions that I coarsely chopped, these are going to add really nice flavor to my pancakes and a little bit of bright green color. I have some coarsely chopped walnuts. You could use any nuts that you like, in here, pine nuts would be great, almonds would really well, too, I like walnuts. I have some fresh mint that I coarsely chopped. Again, if you want to use a different fresh herb, you could put dill in here, you could put some thyme, and I have some crumbled feta cheese. This is a really wonderful, salty flavor, that's got a nice amount of fat in it. So, it's really going to give these pancakes a richness and a really satisfying full flavor. Okay, now, I'm going to toss this around with my rubber spatula. Um, look how nice this looks, full of bright colors and fresh ingredients. Now, to bring my batter together, I'm going to add just enough flour to hold it together, I'm going to stir in my flour. And this batter is looking nice and thick, and I think, it's really going to hold together well, when I drop it in my pan. Last but not least, I'm going to add some salt, and some freshly ground black pepper. That's really going to set off the flavor of the fresh zucchini. Okay, so, I have a hot pan ready to go, I'm going to coat it with just a little bit of olive oil, shake that around. Now, I'm going to drop in my pancake batter by the spoonful. You don't really have to measure, just take a big, generous spoonful and drop it in the pan. You can shape it a little bit, make it into a circle, that's looks great. I can get a few going in here at a time. I just want to make sure that there's a little bit of room between the pancakes. So they have the chance to sear and brown. If they're too close together, they're sort of going to steam, and I don't want that. So, these pancakes have a lot of color, they have a lot of texture, they have crunch from the walnuts, from the scallions. They have a nice creaminess from the feta cheese. And they only took a few minutes to throw together. So, this looks like plenty, I'm going to let these cook for about three minutes per side. I just want them to brown lightly and cook through. So, in moment, I'll flip them over. Okay, these pancakes look perfectly golden brown, that's what I'm looking for. Now that I've flipped them, I'm going to let them cook on the second side for about two or three minutes, till they feel firm to the touch. The centers feels firm to the touch, so I'm going to take them off the heat. Um, they have a nice golden brown color, but I can still see the bright green of the fresh herbs, look beautiful. I'm going to garnish these with a little bit of thick Greek yogurt for extra rich taste. Um, these look beautiful, add a little bit of salt, and these are ready to eat. Thanks for joining me, I'm Louisa Shafia, see you next time on eHow.com.