Clara’s Courgette Oven Fries

A very very special recipe to commemorate my bucket loads of gratitude, love and respect for Clara Loizzo - a professional educator based in Nice 🇫🇷 who has been enthusiastically cooking most of my recipes for past two years - translating my recipes to French, printing those out to refer while cooking, hunting down specialty ingredients to try out my whimsical creations and sending me sweet note of appreciation after trying out the dish. Isn’t she the best?!

On several occasions, I would post a recipe feeling proud of creating something special and secretly wishing at least one person should make it to know what I mean - and that one person has always been Clara ♥️

Last summer, to honor her birthday and her love for Courgettes and Cumin … I created these Masa Harina Crusted Zucchini Fries baked in oven and spiked with toasted Cumin seeds and Chaat Masala. We usually have it with curry ketchup but any hot sauce or Garlic Aioli will be awesome!

Ingredients (serves 2-4 as side)

620g Courgette / Zucchini, cut into thick batons about 1/2” thick and 2-2.5” long

3 tbsp Chickpea Flour (substitute with regular White Rice Flour)

2 tbsp Masa Harina (substitute with Cornmeal)

1 tbsp Cornstarch or Cornflour

3/4 tsp Ground Turmeric

3/4-1 tsp Chaat Masala

2 tsp Toasted cumin Seeds, lightly crushed

1 tsp Kashmiri Chili Powder 

Pinch of salt

96ml Neutral Oil (little more than 6 tbsp)

Lemon and chopped fresh herbs such as cilantro / parsley / basil for serving

Directions

💥Pre-heat oven to 425F (230C) and line 2 baking sheets with parchment. In a large bowl, combine courgette / zucchini batons with everything. Toss until all the batons are well coated

💥Transfer the coated batons onto the prepared baking sheets (skin side down). Make sure not to crowd

💥Bake for 35-38 mins or until outside looks deeply golden and crisp. Transfer into a lipped platter, finish it with generous squeeze of lemon and some sprinkling of fresh herbs of your choice. Enjoy with some nice crisp white or Rosé