Vegetables & Shrimp Fritters
Origin: Overall Indonesia
Ingredients
- 250 gr all-purpose flour (use 200 gr flour + 50 gr rice flour for a more hardly/not too softy fritters when it's cold)
- 2 pc carrots, matchsticks sliced or shreded
- 100 gr cabbage leaves, long thinly sliced or shredded
- 2 pc spring onions or a handfull of chives, thinly sliced
- 1 pc egg
- 200 gr medium size shrimps, peeled, leave intact or roughly chopped
- ½ tsp vegetables broth powder (optional)
- 300 ml cold water
- 230 ml oil for deep frying
Spices for the paste
- 2 gloves garlic
- ½ tsp pepper or 1/4 tsp ground pepper
- 1½ tsp salt or to taste
Vegetables & Shrimp Fritters
Fritters or simply "fried foods" or well known as "gorengan" are the most prolific snacks in all of Indonesian regions. Street carts typically offer crispy golden vegetables/shrimps fritters made from shredded carrot, cabbage and bean sprouts, stuffed tofu, nuggets of tempe, cassava, as well as fried bananas, sweet potatoes etc.Whether to serve as a side dish, appetizer or just as snacks…those small delicious fritters are something hard to resist 😉 However if you are happens to be in Indonesia and maybe curious to give a small bite of those fritters, I suggest you to look carefully how they are being prepared and cooked, especially if you have a very sensitive stomach.The reason is most of (if not all) street food hawkers deep-fry their foods multiple times in the same oil, hardly replacing it. So if you see the colour of the oil has turned black and created a residue already, just leave it. Don't buy, don't even try. Surely it is better to cook the recipe yourself at home 🙂
Instructions
- If you use fresh shrimps, clean and peel the shrimp, split the back with a sharp knife, remove veins / black parts from the back, wash thoroughly and drain.
- Peel and slice carrots and cabbage leaves into long thin matchsticks(can also be shredded roughly).
- Pound/grind the spice ingredients into a smooth paste.
- Should look like this!
- Transfer the flour into a large bowl, add the ground paste, egg, sliced vegetables and shrimps. Stir to mix.
- Add shrimps.
- Add cold water little while stirring until the mixture is throughly mixed.
- Adjust the seasoning, add the salt if necessary.
- Heat about 250 ml/1 cup oil over medium heat. Test the taste of the flour mixture by taking one tablespoon of the batter, fry until cooked and float on the oil surface.Taste it whether the saltiness meets your taste. (Note: This prefrying step is necessary because the taste of the batter maybe different after being fried).
- Spoon the fritter batter and drop it into the oil. Fry until golden brown. (Make sure to leave a gap while droping to avoid the fritters sticking to each other).
- If necessary, turn over to the other side until both sides golden brown.
- Set aside to drain or drain on paper towel.
Note & Tips
- If you leave the shrimp intact and care about having a beautifully Fritters appearance, don't mix the shrimp into the batter, but add the last before frying. Just place the shrimp on the top of the spoon, slightly pressed to prevent shrimp falling off during frying.
- If you don't like shrimp, just skip them from the recipe to make Bakwan Sayur/Vegetables Fritters, it is suitable for Vegetarians.