Sohla Makes Red Lentil Zucchini Fritters

Is this YouTube video

gonna just be me looking through my phone?

[Interviewer] Yeah.

[Chris] Yeah.

Cool, a great first impression!

[giggling]

Oh but this is worth it!

[Interviewer] Phone call with Clementine,

like that needs to happen.

[Interviewer] Tilt it down a little bit.

[Chris] We'll need to get

materials released for this.

[laughing]

[Interviewer] Give me a break.

I know.

She's so pretty.

Hi.

I'm Sohla.

I'm usually back there.

Today I'm here.

All right, so I made the traditional version

of these which is called piyaju

when I first interviewed here and

it's a lentil, blended lentil paste

just like we're doing today but instead

of the zucchini, it's all onions

and it was spring, so I put

all kinds of allium's in there

and Chris really liked it,

so much that I got the job

and then he had an idea of using those,

the lentil fritters, as a batter

for zucchini fritters to like,

update, update that old, stodgy mess

and make it cool and sexy and Bon Appetit.

Okay, so here I've got some red lentils

and we start by just rinsing them really well.

Always rinse them until they run clear.

Clear enough for you to see your hand through the water.

About three, three changes.

Yeah, so you can see it's still a bit cloudy

but its much more clear than it was before

you can totally see my hand.

So, while we wait for the lentils to soak

we're gonna prep our zucchini and onion.

So, traditionally for a zucchini fritter

we shred the zucchini on a box grater.

Instead I want like, nice and chunky pieces of zucchini

so I'm cutting them into skinny, french fry shapes.

So, I've lopped of the ends.

This is a nice, medium zucchini.

I'm gonna cut them into three, about two inch segments.

That's really just to make it easier to handle.

You don't want this guy rolling around

so I'm gonna take off a quarter inch slab right here

and then I have a nice flat place to work

and we're gonna cut this into

quarter inch thick planks

and then once you have your planks

you just like, stack them up and you go back

and you make little batons.

With the shredded zucchini, it's pretty hard

to even tell that it's zucchini.

It's just kind of wet and mushy in there

so here, you've got.

You can see the skin clearly, you've got these big chunks.

You're gonna like, know what's inside of your fritter.

If you can get good zucchini, it's gonna make this better

but, but we're frying it so anything will be fine.

Like, you can fry anything and it will be fine

if I'm being perfectly honest.

All right, so I'm gonna cut the onion

into thin slices.

I need my compost bowl

[laughs]

Right, so we started composting.

I'm not gonna throw my onion peels away.

I'm gonna cut the onion and put it with the squash.

They're gonna get salted,

it's gonna pull out some of the moisture

so we end up with like, nice tender pieces

that aren't wet.

There's a lot of ways to cut an onion.

We're only gonna use half this onion.

I got a little crazy and cut it all

but we'll make more fritters later.

Onions going into the bowl, with the zucchini.

Now, I'm gonna salt the veg.

This is gonna help draw out moisture.

I'm adding one teaspoon of kosher salt.

This zucchini and onion is gonna hang out

for about an hour and we're gonna watch

it's gonna wilt.

Liquid's gonna pool at the bottom

and it's gonna transform.

Okay.

So we passed some time.

The lentils you can see they've gotten really plump.

Lightened in color and Aye yai yai.

My hands are shaking

because I've been drinking coffee with Chris.

You sucked me in.

I don't.

You can also tell because you can kind of,

if you smush them in your hands

they'll crack pretty easily.

Now we're gonna drain it.

All right, drained.

Now I'm gonna blitz this into

a paste in the food processor.

You don't wanna do it in a blender

because the blender will

make it a bit too smooth and if it's too smooth

it'll fry up really heavy and dense

so food processing it ensures

that you won't take it too far.

I'm gonna add to this, three quarter's

of a teaspoon of salt.

A bit of tumeric and Kashmiri red chile powder.

This is a pretty mild and fruity chile powder.

It's more flavorful than hot

but if you don't have it,

you can just use half as much of cayenne.

All right, here we go.

[engine murmurs]

So, you wanna get in there a couple of times

and scrape down the sides.

Make sure you get all the way under the blade

cause sometimes that's where you end up

with like, rogue lentils that aren't blending.

That's why I love these tiny spatulas.

Okay.

I think that looks good.

Um, okay, so.

This is our zucchini and onion after an hour.

And you can see it looks super like, floppy, squishy.

It's almost like you steamed it but without any heat.

We've got like, at least a table spoon of liquid

that's come out of that

so I'm gonna dump this out and then I can

go right back into this bowl.

So you can see the lentils have broken down

but it's not like a smooth puree.

It still looks a little bit chunky and coarse

and that's exactly what you want.

This texture is gonna mean

that when you fry it up it's gonna feel a little bit

like, light and airy on the inside.

Whereas if you did this with like, a chickpea flower

it would just be like a pancake.

We wouldn't have improved the original which is,

which is defeating the point of doing this.

So, into the bowl.

I could scrape a bowl forever.

Sorry, guys.

Okay.

Okay.

[laughs]

Okay.

So, next before I add the zucchini and onion into here.

I want to just make sure I get every bit of liquid

off it it by draining it on a towel.

You don't wanna break apart the vegetable at this point

so don't like, get in there.

You don't wanna wring it out but you know

just kind of, blot it.

That's the word.

Now we're going to fold the veggies

into our lentil puree.

At this point, you just wanna make sure

that all the veggies are evenly distributed in the puree.

It's not gonna look at all like

you're typical batter for a zucchini fritter

and just like, just trust in the recipe.

Believe me.

I'm gonna zest this lemon into here.

We want about a tablespoon of zest.

One cup of parsley.

I like to do like, big pieces with the stems

because it looks really pretty when it fries up in there

and once again like, with the big chunks of zucchini.

You want to know what's in there.

So that's about, that's a hefty cup.

You know, why am I gonna leave this guy behind.

Let's just, this is, we're gonna go parsley heavy.

I'm going rogue.

It's gonna be okay.

I'm gonna fold this up and like, once again

it's gonna look like a crazy amount of stuff in there

but it will be okay.

And now were gonna fry.

Okay, so I'm frying in a ten inch cast iron skillet.

I want to fry it in about, like a quarter inch

to a half inch of ghee and this is, by using

a smaller pan we'll need less ghee to fry it.

You could also use neutral oil but I really like ghee

because it adds a nice nutty flavor to the whole thing

and if you don't let the ghee get to like smoking point

you can strain it out and use it again.

And you know that it's hot and ready to go by

plopping a little bit in there

and see how it immediately starts bubbling.

That means this is ready to fry.

On a thermometer it's about 375

but that's pretty hard to temp

with such a small amount of fat.

So, I'm gonna get like a big spoonful.

About a quarter cup.

Pop it in.

Dip your spoon in a bit of the ghee so it doesn't stick

and then use it to flatten it into a little pancake.

We'll put that little bitty bit on there too.

A little parsley leaf.

Dip and squish.

You want these to fry until they're

really deeply golden brown.

It's gonna be about three minutes per side.

It's gonna seem like it's darker

than you think it needs to be

but we wanna make sure the lentils cook all the way through.

Otherwise, when you bite into it, it's gonna have

a weird little starchy aftertaste.

Okay.

We can see this guy is like, ready to flip

cause' the outside is looking nice and toasty.

I like to do a little two spatula method

but you know, one will work.

Use a spoon, whatever.

And there you go.

You can see the onions get like, really caramelized

from contact with the cast iron

so they're going to be nice and sweet in there.

Okay.

So, that's what were looking for.

I don't know what you call that.

It's brown.

I don't think it's golden brown.

It's brown.

Another two minutes.

Cut.

No.

I'm not supposed to say that.

Okay.

So, you can see the second side is nice

and deeply, deeply browned.

Immediately after taking it out of the oil.

You want to season it with a touch of salt.

You gotta do it right away or it's not gonna stick.

And we've got number two

and our little guy lagging behind

who made it though.

Next Batch.

[sizzling]

Okay.

He made it.

With his, with his pack.

[Interviewer] Chris, how does it feel

to be in the background of a Sohla video?

It feels good.

It's like, if being in the background of a video

is like a series of wines like, this is like

a real like, robust you know, kind of number.

[laughing]

Um, just like a lot going on.

Like, a Syrah?

A lot of edges, like a Syrah.

You know, like a big, big, big northern Rhone Syrah.

Yeah, they're not like, giving you a hard time

though or anything?

Like, first video kind of hazing ritual's.

No.

Any bullshit like that?

No.

No.

All right, so I've got my last batch

of zucchini fritters frying up

and in the meantime I'm going to whip up

a really simple Raita just to dip on the side.

Just with, I've got three quarters of a cup

of whole milk yogurt.

Not Greek.

I kind of like the regular stuff more

for this because it's got a bit more tang.

I think a half teaspoon sugar.

A big pinch of salt.

And this is my lemon that I zested.

I'm gonna juice it now and

use about two tablespoons of juice.

Whisk it up.

Super simple.

All right.

Back to the fritters.

They're probably ready to flip.

Oh yeah.

They are ready to flip.

Such timing, it's like I've made this before.

I can feel it in my bones.

Or it's the coffee with coconut oil.

[laughs]

All right.

Two minutes.

Okay.

So, I've just finished the last batch

and you wanna salt it as soon as

it comes out of the fryer so the salt

sticks to it while it's nice and hot.

Okay.

Let's eat.

Yeah?

[Interviewer] Yeah.

We're ready to go.

We're still rolling?

Oh, I forgot.

Okay.

So we're gonna plate it up, all nice and fancy.

Plate up some of these fritties.

What do you think?

Is that pretty?

[Interviewer] Oh my god.

Look at the calvary.

All right.

How did you know?

What are the odds?

[laughing]

Look who's here.

Oh my god.

Are these basically just zucchini pakora's?

They're piyajiu.

So, it's blended lentils.

There you go.

Fresh from the sheet pan.

So I need to eat one of these.

Can I just dip it directly in?

Yeah.

What did you season the zucchini in?

So the zucchini and onion get salted.

Holy.

To pull out some of the water

and then it it it's just tumeric and Kashmiri red chile.

Oh my god.

This is so good.

Thank you.

Yum.

Crunchy?

Oh my god.

Can you hear the crunch?

[crunching]

It like, shatters.

Mmm.

It's interesting.

I feel like pakora,

I love pakora but it's often very one note.

This has just got like, a lot of stuff going on.

You can taste like, the brightness of the zucchini

like, you actually taste the flavor of the vegetables

whereas pakora is more about

encasing the vegetables in fried batter.

Like you can taste like, the vegetleness.

Cool.

Ooh, that's so fresh and delicious.

Thank you.

Mmm.

I've never had your food before.

This is amazing.

Thank you.

I'm just gonna linger for two more seconds

and then I will leave.

You should just, you should finish the whole thing.

I'm gonna finish the whole thing.

[laughing]

and then I'll leave.

Okay, bye.

[laughing]

Chris, you're up.

Come on down.

There's gonna be a family melt here soon.

[crunching]

Sohla, you spoil us all.

Mm, the onion. Ah.

This is why I got the job, right?

Yeah.

Basically.

Because I get a lot of messages

How'd you get this job?

This is how I got this job.

So go make this and maybe you'll be here too.

[laughing]

So well done.

Texture.

Incredible.

Flavor.

Incredible.

I love the parsley and I've become like,

a little bit of a parsley agnostic in life

at this point but like it fries up so well

it becomes part of that texture.

All right.

Well done.

So, yeah.

These are the zucchini lentil fritters.

It's what happens when Chris and I combine our powers.

With a little sprinkle of inspiration

from my mom so you should go make this.

It's delicious.

[Sohla] Is that good?

[Interviewer] It was until you asked, is that good?

[laughing]

Uh, okay.

I forgot what I said.

All right.

Okay.