The Lazy Cook

I've recently become less interested in specific recipes, and more interested in what you might call concepts - basic ideas which you can adapt to suit your mood or the ingredients you have to hand. One that I've been toying with recently is what I think of as fritter balls. The basic idea is that you grate up some vegetables into a bowl, add enough flour (plain flour, or for a change try gram flour which gives a somewhat denser texture) until the consistency is sticky but firm enough to mould into balls (you may need to add a little water depending on what vegetables you have used) and then shallow fry them in hot oil. Works particularly well with courgettes, carrots, potatoes, onions and such, but you can use pretty well anything. You can add some pre-cooked mince for more body and by using herbs and spices you can create a variety of flavours. Many countries have their own take on this basic idea, the best known of which is perhaps the Indian bhaji and pakora, but experiment and you'll be surprised (pleasantly I hope) with what you can come up with. Take a tip from me and make a note of what you use as you go - there is nothing more frustrating than coming up with something simply delicious and then never being able to replicate it, because you can't remember what you used!