The best place to eat tapas in Spain is neither the  restaurants with Michelin stars nor the bars at touristic zones; but the bars where the locals of any neighbourhood are hanging out. It is highly probable that you can be surprised by the taste of tapas at a bar whose regular clients are retired locals.  If you happen to go one of those bars, don’t misjudge them by looking at the napkins thrown away to the floor. There is a strange belief/custom (especially in Madrid) that the more napkins on the floor, the more popular is the bar. 

When I noticed some new tapas in the summer menu of my favourite local bar at my neighbourhood and one of the newcomers was zucchini pancakes which teleported me to my childhood and I literally felt the smells of the zucchini pancakes, organic tomatoes, homemade peach jam, fresh brewed black tea of the Sunday breakfast at our garden in my hometown. 

Closure of thousand kilometers of distance by an unexpected taste at our palate; convergence of two different cultures via a flavor; deepening the chats with friends around a  dinner table have always impressed me. Maybe, for this reason I have always had very close ties with food and could never be away from the kitchen. I feel myself quite lucky and happy for this.  

I prefered serving this amazing dish with a yoghurt sauce! ( A typical Turkish behavior:)) Have I told you that we are capable of combining any food with yoğurt? The touch of tahini has been my special savor-tip but it was too good to hide from you.

You still have time to buy the ingredients so that you can have these pancakes for Sunday brunch. Enjoy it!

Ingredientes:

• 1 zucchini ( 200 grams)
• 1 white onion
• ¼ bunch of  dill
• ¼bunch of parsley
• 3 tablespoons flour (corn flour for gluten-free recipe)
• 1 egg
• 1 coffee-spoon cumin
• ½ coffee-spoon black pepper
• ½ coffee-spoon carbonate (baking soda)
• Salt
• 1 cup of vegetable oil for frying

Sauce

• 125 gram yoghurt
• 1 tablespoon tahini
• 10 leaves of fresh mint (finely chopped)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• Salt

Peel off and grate the zucchini, release its water by squeezing and leave it rest on a strainer. Chop the onion finely. Chop the dill and parsley finely, too. Mix all ingredientes of the pancake in a bowl. Make round-shape pancakes with a diameter of approx. 5 cm. Fry them in hot vegetable oil. 

Mix all ingredientes of sauce. Serve the warm pancakes with the dip-sauce. 

Buen provecho!