That zucchini plant does not relent. Always with the new zucchini! After making this, though, I think I found the perfect way to eat them all.

This was my first fritter. There will be more, promise. Who can say no to fried batter… and something else?

This worked well passed my expectations. The trick? The spicy. The chilli and cayenne work wonders here. I used the whole chilli, but I only kept half the seeds and pith (that’s where the heat is); I can’t taste any heat without the pith. The red chilli looks lovely too. The roasted garlic aioli is the icing on the cake, if the fritter were a cake…and,um… the aioli were icing? Cake is good, but cake with icing is way better. See?

Makes 8 fritters.

• 4 medium zucchini
• 1 red chilli
• salt and pepper

For the batter:

• 4 oz milk
• 1 egg
• 4 oz flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 pinches salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
• zest and juice of lemon

For the aioli

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 garlic bulb

Heat your oven to 350F. Cut the top off the garlic bulb, drizzle olive oil over top the bulb. Wrap in foil. Put in the oven for 30 minutes. Once your garlic is ready, take it out of the oven to let cool. After about 5 minutes, it’s cool enough to handle. Squeeze bulb to let the soft, gooey cloves out on a cutting board. Give them a run through with your knife. Add to the mayonnaise, season with salt, stir. Set aside.

Cut your zucchini in quarters, remove the fluffy, seedy part and chop, somewhere between roughly and finely; finely chop the chilli, keeping the hot bits if you want them. Place both in a bowl, season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

To make the batter, mix the egg and milk until uniform. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in another bowl, then add to the wet ingredients. Mix until combined. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice and cayenne. Stir to incorporate. Combine the batter and zucchini mixture.

Get a non-stick pan on medium heat and fill the bottom with oil (I used canola oil (peanut, vegetable or corn oil work here, but not olive); about a 1/2 cup). Once the oil is shimmering and somewhat fragrant, tip a spoonful of your mixture into the pan. The oil should go a little nuts as it fries. Add a few more spoonfuls until your pan is full (it should take 4 at a time). Cook until golden on each side, about 4 minutes a side.

Take them out and place on an inverted cooling rack with paper towel underneath. The excess oil gets wicked away by the paper towel; the cooling rack prevents the fritters from sitting in the oil.

Serve with the aioli while still hot.