Follow our step-by-step, photo illustrated recipe for making these delicious Squash Fritters. It’s a bit of a twist on regular fried squash and can be made as a side dish or, as an appetizer. Just a couple of small squash will go a long way and your family will be asking you to make some more in no time at all.
Fresh, locally grown squash, are coming in already and, showing up at roadside produce stands and farmers markets all around me. Still, I had to travel all the way to South Carolina before I bought any… go figure. I’ve never been a real fan of squash in the first place but that may have changed for me after trying this recipe from our “Stewart Family Favorites Cookbook” from the Descendants of William and Idella Stewart. The cookbook was published back in 1999 as part of our annual family reunion events held each September.
Sadly, the recipe was one that my late cousin Gail had offered to the cookbook project. Gail and I spent a lot of time together as kids as her family and my family were about the only ones that lived in my hometown, most of the other cousins lived about 30 miles away. She was always full of smiles and laughter and she is dearly missed now that she is gone. I hope she would be proud of me for finally getting around to giving her recipe a try.
This is the front of the McLeod Farms store in McBee, South Carolina. You can barely see the building for all of the cars that continually fill the parking lot as this place has been buzzing with traffic every time we stop by. OK, we just discovered it a couple of weeks ago but, this was my second visit in less than a month.
My brother and I were on another pig cooker delivery this past Saturday, headed to Orangeburg, South Carolina. About two weeks ago, my brother, two of his grand-kids and I, decided to take a few minutes off of another delivery we were making and check out McLeod Farms. We’d been seeing lots of signs and billboards about Fresh Strawberries along our route and decided we’d like to give them a try.
I really want to share more about McLeod Farms in another post for you. They have an amazing museum that has lots of old cars, tractors and all sorts of antiques. We spent all of our time in the museum on our first visit and never made it into the store. Thus, we never did get any strawberries.
The new signs this past Saturday were advertising fresh Peaches. The farm has acres upon acres of Peach trees that we’ve seen go from bare trees, to just starting to bloom and, now fully decked out with bright green leaves and peaches that can be seen along the highway we often travel when we’re headed to South Carolina. Go figure, we didn’t buy any peaches either. But, we did get lots of other fresh stuff. My brother spotted the big display of fresh squash and started filling a bag with them. I picked up a few for myself thinking I could do a recipe with them here on Taste of Southern.
Older brother says the little ones are best so I followed his advice and picked out about 5 of the smaller squash. I think he picked up about three or four pounds for his family. He also ended up with a Watermelon, Cantaloupe and several other vegetables that he rolled out to the truck in a shopping cart.
I promise you, it will be worth your time, if you’ll stop and visit should you find yourself in the area. You can check out their website and find out more information about them at this link: Mcleod Farms and Mac’s Pride Brand. The folks there are just super friendly and you could probably spend most of the day should you have the time. They even have a restaurant on the site and offer various adventures for all the family throughout the year.
OK… I also need to let you know that they are located on Hwy151 and please make a good note that the SPEED LIMIT is only 55 MILES PER HOUR on that beautiful, WIDE OPEN… four lane road. Like me… you’ve been WARNED… OK? ( I really think that SC State Trooper just wanted to take a look at our pig cooker.) Alright… nothing to see here folks… lets move on. I’m just saying… OK?
I’m always grateful for God’s favor and mercy, how about you?
Maybe I can write up another story about our trip before too long. Until then, I hope you’ll give Cousin Gail’s recipe a try, like I did and, that you’ll put some of those delicious yellow squash to use while they’re available. Ready to do it? Alright then… Let’s Get Cooking!
Squash Fritters Recipe:
Squash Fritters Recipe: You’ll need these ingredients.
Yes, this is just a picture of me holding a squash under running water. But, I did give each one a good scrubbing after I snapped the picture of me just holding a squash under running water. Please do the same… scrub ’em real good and get them squeaky clean.
Dry the squeaky clean squash with a couple of paper towels. Use a good sharp knife and slice off each end of the squash.
Grab your box grater and gently grate a couple of the squash. It’ll take you longer to wash the box grater once you’re finished than it actually will to grate a couple of squash for this recipe.
You’ll need two cups of grated squash. It only took three of my small squash to reach this amount.
Slice both ends off of a small to medium sized onion and peel away the outer layer of skin.
Finely chop up enough to equal one cup of chopped onions.
Grab a medium sized mixing bowl and break open two eggs into the bowl.
Use a fork and whisk the eggs a bit until they’re all scrambled up.
Place the grated squash in the bowl.
Add the chopped onions.
Add the Salt.
Add the Black Pepper.
Add the Sugar
Add a pinch of Baking Powder. Cousin Gail’s recipe called for the Baking Powder addition. I’m not certain what it adds to the recipe since it only calls for a pinch but, I wanted to stay true to the recipe. I seriously doubt you would notice any difference if you left it out.
Sprinkle the Flour all around the other items in the bowl.
Use a large spoon and gently stir all the ingredients together. It will be a bit moist as the squash have a lot of water in them but don’t worry about it, you’ll be fine.
Place your frying pan or skillet over medium heat and add about 2 Tablespoons of cooking oil into the pan.
Once the oil starts getting hot, add the butter to the oil. Let that melt into the oil.
Once the butter is melted, you can test the oil to see if it’s ready for frying by dropping a small amount of the squash mixture into the pan. If it begins to bubble and sizzle you should be ready to start frying.
You can make the fritters as large or small as you like. I used a large spoon to make mine and allowed the batter to slip off the end of the spoon into the hot oil. I was able to cook four in the first batch and three in the second batch. You could use a regular Tablespoon to make them smaller if you prefer… it’s all up to you.
I think these would be great as appetizers. If you had a deep fat fryer you could drop them into the oil with a teaspoon or so and make them like small hush-puppies or bite sized pops. They would probably brown very well in a deep fat fryer also.
After about 3-5 minutes, you should see the bottom edges begin to brown. Once they do, gently lift them up to see if they are brown enough on the bottom to flip over.
Use a spatula and carefully flip the fritters over so you can brown the other side. This will also take around 3-5 minutes but keep watching them and don’t let them burn.
When they’re done to your satisfaction, lift them out of the oil and, place on racks or a plate lined with paper towels and let them drain.
Serve them up warm and… Enjoy!
