Bikini Fries

One day this past summer, after a few hours helping my roommate move into her new apartment, we sauntered to a local pub for a well earned meal. I ordered a burger and to my delight zucchini fries were an option for a side rather than just standard French fries. They were deep fried, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. This was astonishing as I have a loathing for zucchini since I was a teenager. My family had planted a zucchini plant that refused to stop producing copious amounts of the vegetable no matter how much we pruned the plant.

Well, I honestly craved those fries one day, but as the pub was in Michigan and I in Minnesota, I had to get cooking. This is my baked and modified version after doing a quick search on Cookinglight.com. My husband calls them my “bikini fries”. They are meant to be healthy but more or less, he couldn’t understand what on earth I was saying as I was banging baking sheets in the kitchens and explaining to him what I was making to go with the burgers he was grilling. He thought I was saying “bikini” rather than “zucchini”. So here are my “bikini fries”.

What you will need…

About 1 ½ pounds of zucchini
1 cup of dry plain breadcrumbs
½ cup of panko
(Japanese breadcrumbs found down the international aisle of your grocery store or at an asian market.)
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning
½ teaspoon of salt plus a little extra for sprinkling
½ teaspoon of black pepper
1-2 eggs beaten (in a bowl)

How to…

Preheat the oven to 400^o F. Line a baking sheet with tin foil.
Cut the zucchini into long wedges. First cut the zucchini in half down the middle, and cut it halfway lengthwise. Then cut it lengthwise into 3 wedges for each quarter of the zucchini for a total of 12 wedges per zucchini.
On a plate, mix the breadcrumbs, panko, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt and pepper.
One by one, dip a zucchini wedge and cover it with the egg. Then roll in the breadcrumb mixture till all sides are evenly covered, and place it on the baking sheet.Repeat with all zucchini wedges. Make sure there is at least a quarter inch of space between each zucchini wedge on the baking sheet.
Bake for 20 minutes till they are golden brown. I personally bake them for 17 minutes, and then broil them for 3 ½ minutes to get them crispy.
Sprinkle zucchini fries with salt and serve them right away with cucumber or ranch dressing as a dipping sauce.