Throughout the Caribbean, rum shops are everywhere, and many serve finger foods known as cutters or cuttas. This rum shop cuttas is inspired by the classic Guyanese egg ball with seasoned cassava and Creole stew shrimp. The cassava ball mixture can be prepared two days in advance and refrigerated. Let it come to room temperature for 30 minutes before coating and frying.

Shrimp Cassava Balls From Anya Peters

If you’re a doughnut - or fried dough - lover, you’ve likely tasted the epic fruit-studded favorite that is the apple fritter. A fairly popular doughnut at shops, county fairs, and fall festivals, it combines fluffy, soft doughnut dough with pieces of spiced, lightly sweetened apples. As much as I love these fritters, I always wondered - where was the summer version? These peach fritters deliver exactly that - and I believe them to be truly, totally perfect. They are fun to shape, because they are made in a super rustic way - by cutting squares of biscuit dough and pressing them together with diced peaches. This may seem haphazard at first, but as the doughnut dough rises prior to frying, the dough will puff up, helping to encase the peaches you’ve trapped inside. While the doughnuts are fresh from the fryer, they get a drizzle, dip, or dunk of a simple glaze sweetened with honey. The flavor perfectly complements the natural flavor of the peaches - and is one of my favorite parts of the recipe…so don’t be tempted to skip it! This recipe works best with the best summer fruit - the good stuff, the juiciest stuff! Make a trip to your favorite farmstand, pick your own orchard, or farmer’s market, and snag the best peaches you can. You can use other stone fruit as well - nectarines and apricots both work beautifully. Come fall, you can keep this recipe, but swap those peaches out for apples and keep the fruity doughnut goodness carrying on as the temperatures drop.

Peach Fritters

For inspiration in developing this recipe, we reflected on some of the best Baltimore crab cakes we’ve ever eaten—at Shultz’s Crab House, Faidley Seafood, and Koco’s Pub. Our recipe seeks to replicate the best features of these Baltimore classics: the maximum amount of crab meat, minimal binder to hold it all together, and a luscious moist interior. Below are our answers to what we think are the ideal traits for the best crab cake. 

 It’s imperative to use the highest quality crab meat you can get your hands on. Without good crab meat, there’s basically no point in making crab cakes. Crab meat from Chesapeake blue crabs is traditional, but not essential. Just make sure you’re sourcing blue crab meat from a purveyor you trust. There’s an age-old debate about whether to use jumbo lump or backfin meat for crab cakes. Jumbo lump is more expensive, but has a firmer, meatier texture. Backfin is known for its lacy texture and sweet flavor. After testing both, we preferred the jumbo lump, because it delivered a stronger crab flavor. However, either option works in this recipe. 

How do I keep crab cakes from falling apart?

 For bread crumbs, we decided to use panko, a Japanese variety of flaky breadcrumbs. While crushed saltines are a popular option in Baltimore, we love panko because its flavor is mild, and it does an excellent job of binding the crab. The classic problem with crab cakes is that they fall apart without enough bread crumbs, but they taste bland with too many. Which is why we found the optimal ratio to ensure your crab cakes will have great crab flavor without falling apart. 

What's the best flavoring for a crab cake?

 When it comes to flavoring, we kept it simple: mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, Old Bay (a beloved seasoning mix that includes celery salt, black pepper, and paprika), and lemon juice. We considered adding other flavor elements like hot sauce or Worcestershire but, in the end, we wanted to highlight the crab flavor, not overpower it, so we held back on those extra condiments. For the same reason, we decided to skip fresh herbs. We considered parsley, tarragon, chives, and scallions—and a lot of recipes go this route but for us, the best crab cake comes with restraint. 

 For the crispiest crust and most succulent interior, frying is the way to go. It’s a bit of extra work to flip the crab cakes on the stovetop, but the reward is well worth it.

Crab Cakes

Whenever a recipe calls for "steam on high heat for one hour", I balk. Steaming is probably my least favorite cooking method in the kitchen. It jacks up the humidity in my apartment, often requires vessels with specific dimensions, and perhaps worst of all, it demands energy, a lot and a lot of energy. I mean let's face it, keeping your stove burning on high heat for one hour? Nowadays that'll require selling your first-born. That is why this winter, it's time for us to rethink one of the most beloved Cantonese dishes, radish cake. You don't need any steaming to make radish cake. In fact, it's completely mind-boggling why it was done that way to begin with (steamed for a long time in a mold, chilled, sliced, and then browned). Like, literally, no reason at all. We can actually just create a simple batter, a batter that, in my preference, purely celebrates the sweetness of Chinese radish without trying to make it taste like anything else. Then we pan-fry it like a patty which will give us crispy edges and gooey juicy center while saving us time and a big gas-bill. But of course, the most exciting thing about a radish cake is the sauce that goes with it. I separate the ingredients that used to go inside the radish cake itself, and use them to create a stand-alone topping that is a party of bold textures and flavors. Caramelized cantonese sausages and mushrooms and dried shrimps with all their bites and kicks, create a contrast against the sweet tender radish cake, giving this traditional dish a new perspective and sharpens its message. Last but not least, an onsen egg wraps and brings everything home. Adaptations to this recipe are not only possible, but full of potential. 

To make onsen egg, submerge eggs in 158°F/70°C water for 20 minutes then cool in cold water for 5 minutes. You can do this with a sous-vide machine, or over the stove in a pot with a thermometer

No-Steam Cantonese Radish Cakes With XO Sauce

“These are so light and beautiful. Quite nice after a really heavy meal, and they look really impressive, as if we’ve spent loads of time making it—but clearly, we haven’t.

You can top [the funnel cakes] with all sorts of fresh cream, some berries…ice cream, some chocolate sauce, some caramel sauce—I can go on and on. The options are endless.”

Fennel and Saffron Funnel Cake 

Crispy and cheesy, these two-ingredient fritters would sparkle next to anything. But a citrusy, herby salad—packed with green parsley and crunchy cucumber—hits the spot. Inspired by tabbouleh, this recipe only needs a handful of ingredients. The secret is to use them smartly. Toasting the grains first, then adding a splash of feta brine to the cooking water yields deeply flavored bulgur. And crumbling the cheese into two textures means that some melts as a binder, while other pieces stay intact (picture: surprise pockets of warm feta). When you’re shopping for bulgur, be mindful of the coarseness. This recipe uses a medium grind, also known as #2 bulgur. Don’t get coarse or fine, since they wouldn’t cook up in the same way. Most bulgurs you’ll find will be made with durum wheat. But there are some brands that use red wheat, like Bob’s Red Mill. Because this is a different type of wheat, it acts differently, go figure. So if that’s what you have or bought, make the following adjustments: Use 1½ cups of water and ¼ cup of feta brine (or 1¾ cups of water plus a pinch of salt), and cook for 15 minutes. 

Bulgur-Feta Fritters With Lemony Parsley Salad

Chaat are typically snacks or small meals that are tangy and sweet, fiery and crunchy, savory and sour all in one topsy-turvy bite. Some iconic chaat include Bhel Puri, Puchkas, and Aloo Chaat. In much the same way that Indians have mastered other aspects of their cuisine, chaat embody the perfect balance of texture, aroma, and color. Chaat often include a main element, such as idli or puffed rice (as in bhel puri), that is served with a variety of other ingredients such as chutneys, yogurt, and chaat masala, resulting in layered flavors, textures, colors, and aromas. So, for example, idli is a recipe that on its own is not a chaat, but when it’s combined with the other elements such as tamarind chutney and raita, is transformed into a chaat. Chaat can be pungent one moment and refreshing the next, followed by a flash of heat tempered by a jolt of sweetness that lingers just long enough to cool everything down and make you crave another spoonful. A chaat might be crunchy, silky, and toothsome within a single bite. It might taste like mint one moment, chile the next, and then roasted potatoes just before it all gives way to the lingering flavor of tamarind. This sandwich is a vegetarian’s dream. It’s also a nice option for meat lovers looking for a sandwich stuffed with something just as enticing as a burger. Vada pav, one of Mumbai’s most popular street foods, is a potato fritter the size of a baseball stuffed into a flaky white bun, smeared with coconut and spicy green chile chutneys, and then squished until it’s small enough to fit into your mouth. They’re so much fun to eat and are one of my favorite chaat to have on sticky, hot Mumbai afternoons. I loved them when I was a kid because the size of the vada felt insurmountable until I finally sorted out a way to shove it into my mouth, which simply means I squeezed it down enough and opened my mouth wide enough to fit it all inside! I’m looking forward to sharing the exhilarating vada pav experience with my own kids the next time we’re in Mumbai. 

Reprinted with permission from Chaat by Maneet Chauhan and Jody Eddy copyright © 2020. Photographs by Linda Xiao. Published by Clarkson Potter, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.For more from Chef Maneet Chauhan on her love of chaats, tune into 

 of our food-meets-music podcast Counterjam

Vada Pav (Potato Fritter Sandwich) From Maneet Chauhan & Jody Eddy 

These fritters are soft and fluffy and almost taste like a banana donut—if such a thing exists! If you want to turn these into pancakes instead of fritters just increase the amount of milk until you have a looser batter. My grandpa always liked his fritters topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. They are equally delicious topped with icing sugar, a drizzle of maple syrup or some sweetened yogurt. Featured In: 

A Quicker-Than-Quick Bread Way to Use Up Bananas

Banana Fritters 

These crisp fritters are full of herby goodness.

Middle Eastern Zucchini Fritters

Jalebi is one of my favorite Indian sweets, made by deep-frying spiral swirls of batter into a tangled pretzel shape, then soaking them in spiced saffron syrup while still hot. They're crisp on the outside, pleasantly chewy-sweet on the inside, and are best eaten piping hot. Jalebi is a popular Indian street food, as well as a popular dessert to serve at weddings and special occasions. You can find a variety of jalebi in India—every region makes its own slightly different version. My favorite jalebi is from my hometown of Jabalpur, in central India. It's crunchy on the outside and full of syrup inside. And yes, jalebi is sweet, supersweet indeed, but a good version will retain the toasty flavor of the fried batter. I found the jalebi in Mumbai, for example, to be too sweet and lacking that complexity. Whenever I visit my parents, jalebi is one of the first things I request to eat. My dad goes to the shop early in the morning and brings home hot samosas and hot jalebi. That, to me, is the best breakfast in the world. I have not yet found anything that beats it. This recipe is for quick jalebi, something you can prepare in your own home kitchen if you're stricken with a sudden craving for this beloved sweet. If this treat is something you've never tried before, I highly encourage you to give it a whirl. 

Hear more from Resident Chetna Makhan on our new podcast, 

, where cross-Atlantic friends Katie Quinn and Jen Phanomrat compare notes with their guests on everything from scone etiquette to charcuterie trends.

Chetna Makan's Quick Jalebi 

This is a recipe I adapted from my daughter's Nonna Angela Favale who showed me how to make these years ago. I made some simple adjustments and this has been and will remain a favorite side dish for my famiglia for years to come.

Cauliflower Patties

As a child, teatime was an event at our home—comprising not just steaming cups of chai, but piles of snacks. Sometimes, those snacks would be sourced: samosas dripping with mint and tamarind chutney from a Bengali sweetshop, potato buns from the neighborhood Iyengar Bakery, masala vadas from a man in the market whose entire setup consisted only of a giant vat of boiling-hot oil atop a tiny handcart. Other times, especially on rainy days, the snacks would be homemade by my mom: onion pakoras, piping-hot pazham pori (banana fritters), and my absolute favorite snack of all, these bread rolls: fried to a crisp on the outside, warm and starchy on the inside. 

Now in Berlin, over 4000 miles away from my mother who lives in Bangalore, it's the simple teatime treats and midnight snacks I long for the most... the sort of thing that really hits the spot when one wants to be reminded of home. 

A few notes as you make these:
1. The bread you use matters quite a bit. I use a soft multigrain sandwich bread that is mostly whole wheat. Although white sandwich bread probably works best: it’s what my mom used. You really want the bread rolls to have that taste of fried bread around the filling, and a deep colour.
2. Don’t forget to cut the crusts off the bread, because it won’t seal as well if you leave them on.
3. Don’t overstuff the rolls: if you do, they’re liable to come apart when you fry them. I tend to place the stuffing diagonally across the slice of bread, because it makes it easier to cover and shape. 
4. There are variations to this recipe. Some people add a little garam masala and turmeric powder to their potato filling along with a seasoning of fried mustard and curry leaves. Others add chopped ginger, garlic and chiles to theirs. I prefer it without, because my mom makes it this way. 


Mama’s Bread Rolls 

When I decided to develop a single, giant skillet latke recipe—goodbye, oil splatters and spending the entire night at the stovetop!—I knew I had to start with that of David Firestone, aka 

. After I told him I'd be doing so, he responded that if my end result's any good, I just might score an invitation to a future latke party. Well, David, what's your verdict? (I'll bring wine.)

Giant Skillet Latke

I always grow a lot of squash in my garden, so I wanted to make some delicious squash fritters. What makes these fritters unique is that I roll it in panko prior to pan-frying for an extra crunchy texture. Make sure to top them with some sour cream and chives, and enjoy them while they are still warm!

Spicy Squash Fritters

These crunchy-edged, melty-centered patties come together with two ingredients: quinoa and goat cheese. A lemony arugula salad turns them into a light, easy dinner. 

Cheesy Quinoa Fritters With Arugula Salad

Corn fritters, cakes, and breads—hinging on roasted and ground corn—have been staples of Indigenous American cuisine for centuries. In the generations since, corn fritters also took hold in the American South, where you'll find cornmeal-based hush puppies and fresh corn–filled pancakes. This streamlined version falls into the latter camp—mostly corn kernels, tenuously bound by a tangy, yeasty batter. These are just as happy alongside a summery lunch of lettuces dressed with oil and vinegar, as they are a puddle of warm maple syrup or honey. If you don’t have a sourdough starter, all you need is flour and water and a little patience. 

 from Sarah Owens is an unintimidating place to start. Before you get fritter-ing, make sure your sourdough starter is active—which is to say, recently fed, lively and bubbly—and passes the float test. (Fill a glass with water and add a tablespoon or so of starter. If it floats, you’re good to go. If it sinks, your starter is hungry and wants to be fed.) Instead of tossing those stripped, seemingly spent corn cobs, consider this instead: 

, which can and should be kept in the freezer, to preserve summer as long as we possibly can. Use any place you would use vegetable stock, as a sweet, subtle, and scrappy alternative. 

, our weekly column all about dishes with big flavor and little ingredient lists. Do you know (and love) a recipe that’s low in ask, high in reward? Let us know in the comments.

Sourdough Corn Fritters

There’s a lot of back and forth about the benefits of batch cooking—making a large amount of any given recipe, to have as leftovers throughout the week. Traditionally, I’ve never taken to it. I would make a gallon of lentil soup and piously eat it every day, first marveling at my efficiency, then bemoaning the redundancy. Eventually it occurred to me: Instead of making a big batch of lentil soup, why not cook a big batch of lentils and use them different ways? Prep the , instead of the finished dish, so that ingredient can be used speedily while mitigating boredom along the way. Because stone-ground oats (aka Irish oats or steel-cut oatmeal) take longer to cook than rolled, they’re wonderful for batch cooking. I've started making more in one go than I can eat at a single breakfast, with plans for a fast reheat on subsequent days. While they’re often served with dried fruit or maple syrup, oats have a nutty flavor and creamy texture that pairs well with savory food. Plus, oats are incredibly good for us—high in protein, iron, soluble fiber, and the only cereal to contain avenanthramide antioxidants. (Pro tip: Oatmeal boils over when the liquid gelatinizes the starch, trapping the boiling water bubbles no matter how much you stir. Use a larger pot than you think you need to give more surface area for the bubbles to build up without overflowing.) Maybe there is a place for oats at dinner, I thought one morning as I plopped my leftover oatmeal into a pot to reheat for Day Two breakfast. The oatmeal came out of the container as a perfect square—exactly as polenta would when cooked, cooled, sliced, and pan-fried. Looking through a collection of gnocchi recipes, I read once that any sort of dumpling counts, including those griddled polenta cakes. And so, the oat gnocchi (gnoatcchi). Here’s the gist: Take leftover oatmeal and cut into rectangles (or really any shape you like). Dredge these in some sort of flour (I like to blitz some oats in a food processor or blender to make flour, but you can also use wheat flour or cornmeal). Pan-fry in a generous amount of fat until golden brown on all sides and warm in the center. The accompanying salad is dressed in brown butter vinaigrette, another one of my favorite big batch recipes. I find it easier to brown butter in larger amounts, so I usually double the volume and keep it in the fridge for flavor-boosted dinners. The vinaigrette mixes brown butter and olive oil for a silkier mouthfeel (an all-butter dressing can congeal as it cools on raw vegetables, which isn’t as pleasant). This recipe features asparagus, which in the northern Midwest, is at its peak right now, in June. The fat stalks are the easiest to shave into wide raw ribbons. If you’d like, you can roast the stalks instead, or substitute whatever vegetable looks best at the market or is already in your kitchen. I’ve made this with carrots, cauliflower, parsnips, green beans, and zucchini, and have yet to be disappointed.

Oat Gnocchi With Shaved Asparagus & Brown Butter Vinaigrette

This recipe is from *A Change of Appetite* by Diana Henry. From the book: "The beets make these an amazing color but, if you prefer something mellower in tone, use parsnips or butternut squash instead. You can make different versions too: add 1 1/3 cups crumbled feta cheese to make Greek-style fritters; or add a chopped, seeded chili, 2 tsp ground cumin, 2 tsp ground ginger and 1 tsp ground coriander to the onions and saute for a couple of minutes to make Indian-spiced fritters. (Use cilantro leaves in the yogurt if you make the latter.)"

Beet & Carrot Fritters with Dill & Yogurt Sauce

A family summer favorite that uses that delicious abundance of summer harvest zucchini.

Roman Zucchini Fritters with Parmigiano Cheese 

Akara to Nigerians, Acaraje to Brazillians. These black-eyed bean fritters are perfect for the vegan breakfast table or lunch box and are also tasty when made with lentils. Commonly eaten with bread or corn pap, they are both street food (wrapped in newspapers) and homemade.... In our family, this was Saturday morning food, every Saturday.                                                                          

My version uses lentils or gram (lentil) flour (considering that the beans in Europe are polished making the skins even harder than normal to take off!). The first time I tried them, I was perfectly surprised to see how good they tasted, that next time, I livened them up with cumin seeds and chopped cilantro (coriander) leaves. - Kitchen Butterfly

'Akara' aka bean or lentil fritters

Apple Fritters

This recipe was born from an accidental over-purchase of fresh corn from the local farmstand. One's eyes do tend to grow bigger than one's stomach when standing before a mountain of locally grown corn. Tired of my fridge spilling out ears each time it was opened, I started cooking. I followed the same basic "frittering" principal used in zucchini-heavy years past: some shredded veggies (or in this case, corn), a grain (this time, quinoa), some seasonings, and a binder, and voila! Crispy, summery perfection. This recipe yields about 20 small fritters, enough to make a meal for four (or two, if you're really hungry), or appetizers for an even larger group. 

Sweet Onion & Corn Quinoa Fritters with Fresh Corn & Basil Salad 

Citrus and rum scented, these sugar-crusted, fluffy fritters are essentially deep fried blobs of rice pudding. You can't go wrong. 

These frittelle di riso start appearing in Tuscan bakeries and food vans parked at fairs around carnival time in February but are perhaps even more commonly associated with la Festa del Papà on March 19 -- Italian Father's Day and St Joseph's day. It's fitting. Aside from being the exemplar father, St Joseph is also the patron saints of friers (that's right!). So it seems an auspicious day to be frying up a batch of these sweet, plump, soft fritters for your papà.

Like anything deep fried, these are best eaten while still hot and crisp, so cook these when you have people around to share them with. A batch of these makes many – around 40-50 depending on the size, and while light and fluffly and so moreish that you think you'll be able to eat them all by yourself, these fritters are also deceptively filling.

This is based on one of Pellegrino Artusi's recipes for frittelle di riso – he lists two in his 1891 cookbook Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well. It may look like a very runny batter, but don't be alarmed. Avoid being tempted to add too much flour to this batter to thicken it – the fritters become hard and even chewy. Soft and pillowy is what you want. The hot fritters are rolled in sugar, which gives a wonderful crunch as you bite into them. 

Tuscan Rice Fritters (Frittelle di Riso)

I live for sweet corn season. I come from a family that has proudly proclaimed themselves “corn snobs.” (Really, my mother feels the need to declare this to anyone and everyone, especially if she’s presented with a particularly offensive big-kernelled ear.) Consequently, I spent most of my life eating unadulterated corn on the cob with butter, salt, and pepper. But these fritters have recently become a favorite of mine; they have a great texture and flavor from the corn and are made extra delicious by the cilantro, scallions, and a little bit of cheddar cheese. Add a simple dipping sauce of Greek yogurt, lime, and Sriracha and dinner's ready.

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