Ingredients:
- 4-5 medium-sized baby squash and zucchini (about 5 cups when shredded)
- 2 eggs
- 3 tablespoons of flour
- 3 tablespoons of vanilla essence
- A pinch of salt
- 2 tablespoons of lemon peel
- Bread crumbs
- Cooking oil
- Half a cup of sugar
Preparation:
- Shred the squash and zucchini, and place in a colander to discard any extra water. Let sit for about 30 minutes, and periodically grab handfulls of shreds and squeeze the water out (and discard it).
- Beat the two eggs separately, and mix with the flour until homogeneous (no lumps).
- Add the shredded squash/zucchini, the vanilla essence, the lemon peel, and the pinch of salt. Mix everything.
- Use about 3-4 tablespoons of the mixture to form a ball, then flatten it. This is called a "chifteluta" in Romanian (though it can have different shapes and ingredients, including meat - see here). Coat both sides with bread crumbs. Repeat until you run out of mixture.
- Heat some cooking oil in a frying pan. Fry each chifteluta until ready (about 2-3 minutes on each side). Cook only three or four of them at a time to not overcrowd the pan.
- When each chifteluta is cooked, remove it from the pan, and place it on a paper napkin (it helps remove some of the extra cooking oil).
- Serve warm or cold.
Presentation:
- When serving, top with sugar (or powder sugar).
- Note that the squash and zucchini lend the recipe a vivid combination of yellow, white, and green. Frying further adds some brown to the breadcrumbs cover that surrounds each chifteluta. As such, the palette of colors for this dish can be nicely enriched with some fresh fruits such as strawberries or raspberries.
- A splash of curly parsley leaves adds a reminder for the unusual main ingredient for this dessert.
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