Greek tomato feta fritters

Dice a couple cups of the sweetest vine ripened tomatoes, quartering small cherry tomatoes and cutting larger ones in half and then into quarter inch slices and across, keeping as much juice as possible.

Add sliced green onion and about half a grated medium zucchini.

Add a generous amount of kosher salt, a little sugar, black pepper, a few shakes of cayenne and dried oregano, and mix.

Let it sit 15 minutes, so the salt and sugar draw the liquid out of the vegetables; that moisture is what combines with the flour to make the batter.

Stir in the freshly chopped parsley, mint and basil.

Crumble in about three ounces of feta and mix.

Add the all-purpose flour and baking powder and mix to a batter that is still relatively loose but sits up and holds its shape on a spoon; add water if too thick, flour if too loose.

Wrap and rest the batter in the fridge about half an hour, or longer; a longer rest draws more water out and may need tightening with more flour.

Heat about an inch of oil to 350 over medium-high heat.

Drop in a heaping tablespoon of batter at a time, pushing it off with a second spoon and pressing down any that sit too high.

Fry a couple of minutes per side until beautifully browned and cooked through, reducing the heat to medium once they are in; an extra flip for about 30 seconds is optional.

Serve warm or, better, at room temperature with freshly squeezed lemon, or a yogurt sauce of yogurt, lemon juice, raw garlic and a shake of cayenne.

The same batter works for any vegetable fritter; blanch anything too hard to cook in a couple of minutes first, then dice it in.