Zucchini Griddlecakes
May 26, 2007 – 11:14 am
My first encounter with these exquisite little flaps of vegetalia was on the Pelješac peninsula in southern Croatia, where they are known as uštipce od tikve. Now, these are pretty straightforward, down-home little numbers, so I’d be shocked, stunned and amazed if they did not exist in some form in the culinary lexicon of a few other cultures (They actually remind me of some of the whimsical concoctions my grandmother Fredonia Goddard used to prepare). At any rate, my lesson in preparing these came on a sweltering afternoon in Kučište from a respected village patriarch, Mr. Matias Glavaš. Indeed, the rendition of zucchini griddlecakes that he prepared for me that day while the stuffy Jugo winds blew in from the south could come from nowhere other than coastal Croatia, as his recipe calls for rogačica, a rare, bittersweet liqeur made from carob pods (Carob came to Croatia thanks to the Greeks, you know). My rendition, however, uses a sprinkling of white truffle oil in the batter.
