The only thing that I really missed when I was vegetarian (for about 6 years at the end of my undergrad and the entirety of my postgrad years) was KFC. And in particular, a glorious, lip-smacking, finger-lickin’ chicken burger. The closest replacement I was ever able to found — and it was a pretty good replacement — was the zucchini kofta sold at a takeaway on Enmore Road, in Newtown, Sydney. But since having moved away from the area (and then from the country) I’ve not found their match.
Until now! Thanks to a combination of a recipe for KFC seasoning that a friend pointed me towards, and a vegetable kofta recipe I found several years ago but never tried out. And it’s bloody good, even if I do say so myself.
KFZ – Kentucky Fried Zucchini
- 2 zucchinis/courgettes
- 4 heaped tsp OpenKFC seasoning (see below)
- 1 heaped tsp baking powder
- 1 cup gram flour
Grate the zucchinis with a cheese grater. Mix with seasoning, baking powder and flour. This will produce a batter-like consistency a little thicker than pancake batter. Drop mix into hot oil and deep fry until deep brown. Easy!
The ‘OpenKFC’ seasoning recipe comes from the Grauniad’s “Word of Mouth” food blog. This is pretty darn close to the real thing. For chicken, I still don’t think I’ve got the proportion of seasoning to wheat flour right. Certainly the suggestions on the Grauniad blog dilute it too much for that eye-popping smack of genuine KFC. For the next iteration at fried chicken, I’m going to try 2:1 flour to seasoning. But for the KFZ, I think I nailed it first try with the proportions above.
In any event, to save you from going all the way to the Grauniad, I’ve reproduced the seasoning recipe here.
‘Open-KFC’ seasoning
- 1 part ground oregano
- 1 part dried basil
- 1 part dried marjoram
- 1 part ground sage
- 1 part chilli powder
- 1 part paprika
- 1 part garlic powder
- 1 part onion powder
- 1 part pepper
- 2 parts salt
- 4 parts MSG/umami
One other thing to note about this seasoning mix, is don’t scrimp on the MSG! You will be disappointed! It may be fashionable to freak out about MSG. But my suspicion is that this little more than a combination of nascent racism and woo-woo. This is not to say that there aren’t health implications for a diet that is high in sodium (and MSG has lots of sodium). But come on, deep frying anything is not a time to be timid!
That said, MSG is difficult to come by these days. I haven’t found a high street supermarket yet that stocks it. Thankfully, most East Asian grocers still do. My favourites in London are Hanna Supermarket in Bloomsbury and Arigato in Soho.
Share and Enjoy!
