Fritters don't photograph well...
Donna Hay and JenJen may be able to make a fritter look pretty, but I can't. All weekend I have been making potato pancake fritters of one sort or another in the hope of being able to enter Donna Day #6 F is for Fritter. They taste delicious but they look bloody awful. Fritters and photogenic are two words that don't belong together in the same sentence in our household.
My first idea was to make fantastic purple potato fritters. There were no less than three different types of purple potatoes available at the Farmer's Market on Saturday and I chose the ones that reputedly kept their colour the best. The batter was a startling vibrant shade of windolene emulsion. I mixed up a dash of cream, a couple of eggs, grated apple, the purple potatoes, a spoonful of flour, a touch of baking powder and some salt in a blender. I fried them up a tablespoon at a time, like little blinis, and then took them to my friend's cocktail party where I served them each with a topping of creme fraiche made piquant by a healthy grating of fresh horseradish, a little lemon zest and some chopped scallions. I was really glad that my friend had employed some very dim lighting techniques in his dining room for the shindig. None of the guests could see that the little canapes had turned a quite unappetizing shade of grey once they were cooked.
On Sunday I tried again. This time I used white potatoes and put the green onions in the batter and served them with fat rashers of Fatted Calf bacon and grilled Dirty Girl tomatoes. A very different taste, equally delicious and just as ugly looking. Oh well, you can't say I didn't try...
PS Thanks to cooks.com for recipe inspiration.
PPS Blogging is spreading like wildfire in our family. Both my niece,
I think you were brave to photograph a purple fritter and even braver to feed them to people. At least they tasted good!
ReplyDeleteI agree fritters are one of the most non-photogenic things. Although I do like your photographic account of the friters from hell. Like Columbus I'm surprised that you can still manage to see some purple. They still look scrupmtious to me. A great effort Sam!
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think that they all look pretty darn spiffy - what a good idea about those purple fritters, and even if they didn't stay that violently purple, I still reckon there's a bit of colour there :)
ReplyDeleteBeen there, done that, too. I wanted to make purple colored potato souffles and failed miserably. Your fritters' color definitely looks much better than my souffles'!
ReplyDeletePS: Sam, I recognized some spam comments on FBS, maybe you haven't seen them yet (Advertising/Problogger).
I agree!
ReplyDeleteI had the hardest time taking pictures of my fritters, too.
Of course, a 'bad' photo from you is still 20x better than anything I offer up...
A few months back, when I made my Black Eyed Pea Fritters...GOOD GRAVY they were possibly the ugliest thing I've ever made...much less tried to photograph. I feel your pain :)
ReplyDeleteFor HHDD this go around, I went with the colorful ingredients, as well. I think the purple potato fritters are a pretty ballsy move. Well done :)
I can't believe you mispelt you nieces name!
ReplyDeleteYou win for most creative picture despite believing fritters don't photograph well!
ReplyDeleteWhat a hoot! I've spent the morning doing some concerted food blog reading and while I have seen some gorgeous stuff, I am so relieved to see a nonperfect photo post (and I think the shot of the purple fritters as they cooked is charming -- like Barney pancakes!) Check out the post on "perfect Thanksgivings" at http://mattbites.typepad.com (sorry -- don't know the code to do a link) and let's hear it for imperfection!
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with you...I especially love the top-left photo as well as the center one. They are gorgeous shots (good bokeh) and sure looks delicious!
ReplyDeleteI love your purple fritters Sam. Great entry. Thanks for participating.
ReplyDeletethat photo of the slightly peeled potato is great.
ReplyDeletei remember the first time i was served blue potatoes - i was seriously concerned that someone had died my vegetables as some sick joke.
It actually doesn't look that bad. I wouldn't have known from looking at the photo that they were potatoes because I thought they were yam. Pity the purple shade didn't last. :|
ReplyDelete