Zucchini Feta Pancakes

Meet my new best friend in the kitchen: the olive oil spritzer.

I often find myself in a dilemma to use cooking spray or drops of olive oil for pan-searing or baking in a recipe. Cooking spray has no calories, but what is it?? I don't want my batch of fresh roasted vegetables doused in a large dose of this mystery stuff.  On the other hand, I find it hard to mist olive oil straight from the bottle, since it pours out in concentrated high-calorie pools.

Introducing the olive oil spritzer!  At around $7 each (here is mine), this cute little pump bottle sprays out a light, calorie-conscious mist of pure olive oil.  It certainly came to the rescue for these Zucchini Feta Pancakes, a wonderful light pancake reminiscent of potato latkas made healthy from shredded zucchini, egg whites, and scant olive oil, thanks to the spritzer :). I baked mine rather than frying them, and still preserved that signature hearty crunch of a vegetable pancake.

Zucchini Feta Pancakes (thanks again, Mollie Katzen)
Preparation time: 30 minutes      Yield: serves about 4

Ingredients:
4 eggs, separated (yolks optional)
4 packed cups coarsely grated zucchini (about 4 1-inches)
1 cup finely crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup finely minced scallions or onion
1tsp. dried mint (or 1 tbsp. fresh, finely minced) optional
a little salt (optional, to taste)
lots of black pepper
1/3 cup flour
oil for frying/spritzing

I used fat free feta cheese, whole wheat flour, red onion instead of scallion, and skipped the mint. Mollie recommends sour cream or yogurt for topping, but I tried applesauce and ketchup.


Directions:
1) Beat the egg whites until stiff.
2) In a medium-sized bowl, combine zucchini, egg yolks (or not), feta, scallions, seasonings, and flour. Mix well.
3) Fold the egg whites into the zucchini mixture.

To fry: Heat a little oil in a heavy skillet. When it is very hot, add spoonfuls of batter, and fry on both sides until golden and crsip.

To bake: Preheat oven to 425 degrees farenheit.  Line a piece of tinfoil over a baking pan and spritz with olive oil.  Bake for 15 minutes, turn over and spritz the other side of the pancakes with oil, and bake for 15 more minutes.

4) Serve immediately, topped with sourcream/yogurt/applesauce/ketchup.