Mini shellfish fritters
Gathering pipis or tuatua at the beach is a Kiwi tradition! If you’ve got a good haul, make these delicious mini shellfish fritters. They also work great with clams or mussels bought from the store too.
Ingredients
- 1 small red onion finely diced
- 3 tablespoons parsley finely chopped
- 2 eggs whisked
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon ground pepper
- ¾ cup shellfish e.g. cockles, clams, mussels, pipis or tuatua, cooked and chopped
- 3 tablespoons self-raising flour
- 30 g feta
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- lemon wedges to serve
Instructions
- Place onion in a bowl with parsley, eggs, salt and pepper, and stir. Add shellfish, flour and crumbled feta. Mix.
- Heat 1 Tbsp each of butter and oil in a frying pan until hot. Add a couple of teaspoons of batter for each fritter. Cook fritters for 2 minutes, flip over and cook for a further minute until golden. Keep warm while you cook the remaining fritters, adding remaining butter and oil to pan as needed.
- Sprinkle fritters with salt and serve hot with wedges of lemon.
Top tips:
- You could bulk out leftover cooked shellfish, by gathering or buying fresh ones. Scrub shells thoroughly (and de-beard mussels) then place in a saucepan with 1 cup water. Cover with lid and bring to the boil. Shake saucepan and simmer for 1-2 minutes, still covered, just until shells open. Drain and discard any unopened shells. Remove cooked meat from shells and chop.
- You can make self-raising flour by mixing plain flour with baking powder. Simply add 1 tsp baking powder to every ½ cup plain flour.
Notes
These shellfish fritters are perfect for a summer night at the bach – serve them hot with a drizzle of fresh lemon juice.
If you’re planning on gathering shellfish at the beach, make sure you check there’s no biotoxin warnings in place – you don’t want to get sick! If there are warnings, just grab some mussels or clams from the supermarket (preferably the ones still in their shells).
To cook the shellfish, scrub shells thoroughly (and de-beard mussels) then place in a saucepan with 1 cup water. Cover with lid and bring to the boil. Shake saucepan and simmer for 1-2 minutes, still covered, just until shells open.