Easy Potato-Vegetable Fritters

This is an easy meal I've been making recently. I discovered the world of fritters while living in New Zealand. I'm calling them fritters, but they go by lots of other names too. I had eaten potato latkes before, but New Zealand was the first place I was introduced to the idea of making them with other kinds of vegetables. It's fairly crucial to have potatoes (or sweet potatoes) and onions involved, but in addition you can use any vegetables that are good for roasting. Shredded cheese makes a really nice addition too, and you could add in bacon or chopped sausage if you want to get really fancy. You can make a similar dish using mashed potatoes, but I think the texture with shredded ones is much better. Last week I made some using a bunch of frozen shredded zuchinni that I had in the freezer. Here is my basic recipe (this makes about six medium-sized fritters):

Shred in a food processor:

1 1/2 cup vegetables (zucchini, carrot, parsnip, kale, etc)
3 medium potatoes
1/4 onion

Mix together in a bowl, salt lightly and let sit for about five minutes. This will draw out the moisture from the vegetables. Use your hands to squeeze out the liquid, and drain it off. Put the veggies back in the bowl. This step is crucial- if you don't get rid of the liquid, you'll end up with soggy fritters.

Next, add one egg and 1/2 cup of flour.

Mix thoroughly. Heat a skillet with a couple tablespoons of a good frying oil in it. I use canola oil, it has a high flash point so it's good for frying at high heat. Spoon the mixture into pan and use the spoon to flatten it into pancake shapes. Fry at medium to high heat until the fritters are nice and brown on both sides.

They're delicious just with butter and salt and pepper, but I also really like them with horseradish for a topping. These take about twenty minutes from start to finish, they're a tasty and quick meal and a good way to use up any random veggies you happen to have in the fridge.