Frying the Fritters Family

One saturday, when I was busy in the kitchen, my second daughter came in ’to help me’ by tasting whatever I had been cooking.  She knows that when I was busy cooking, it means not long after that I would be busy writing my blog.  And this time she even helped me with the title of this post ‘Frying the Fritters Family’ and  …..also suggested to try to read it 10 times faster

Why fritters?

We have so many different types of fritters in this country and basically almost any type of food can be turned into fritters:  banana,  jackfruit, breadfruit (sukun), noodle, vegetables, tofu, shrimp, tempeh, sweet potato, button mushroom, spaghetti, cassava, corn.. ….you name it.

And we call all these different fritters ‘gorengan’ which literally means ‘fried foods’. Yes, they are all deep fried and most Indonesians love ‘gorengan’.  The most famost ‘gorengan’ is the one sold by street hawkers (please see my post ‘Gastronomic Delights on the Street of Jakarta’):

 

We have a quite unique habit of eating fritters. We usually eat fritter with  green bird eye chilies (= cabe rawit) by  taking a bite of the fritter and then a bite of the chili.  We eat fritters as snack at any time of the day and the best way to eat them is when you get together with friends.  In the office where I work, we often buy ‘gorengan’ from street hawkers outside the office building and eat them together during afternoon coffee break.  I can say this is typical Indonesian or at least Asian habit since most of our Western expatriate colleagues are amazed on how we love snacking and even some of them say that we  snack all the time.

Back to one saturday in my kitchen, I  tried to fry different fritters that day and  let’s meet some members of the Fritters Family:

Corn Fritters

Ingredients:

250 gram corn kernels, boil in water until soft, drained
 50 gram shrimp, chopped
 50 gram of all purpose flour
1 tablespoon of chopped coriander leaves
salt and pepper
2 eggs, beaten

How to make:

Put the boiled corn kernels in a bowl
Add in the chopped shrimp, coriander leaves and flour, mix until blended well
Add salt and pepper
Add the beaten egg, stir and mix well  
Drop batter by rounded tablespoonfuls, and fry, in batches, 5 minutes or until golden brown 
Drain fritters on paper towels 
Serve warm with bird eye chilies  

Mushroom Fritters

Ingredients:

200 gram button mushroom, clean with paper towel to remove the dirt, cut each into half
  50 gram of all purpose flour
  10 gram of corn flour (optional, to make the fritters more crispy)
Pinch of salt and pepper
2 eggs, beaten 

How to make:

 Put the mushrooms in a bowl
Add in the all purpose flour, make sure all mushrooms are covered
Add in the corn flour, salt and pepper and mix well
Pour in the beaten eggs until well coated
Deep fry in batches  in a frying pan or wok on medium heat until golden brown
Remove from heat, drain fritters on paper towels 
Serve warm  

 

Noodle Fritters

Ingredients:

100 gram dry noodle
500 ml water
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 stalks of spring onion, thinly sliced
1 egg
salt and pepper

How to make:

 Boil  the water in a sauce pan on medium heat
Add in the noodle in boiling water for a few minutes until soft but still firm
Remove the noodle from the pan, set aside
Beat the egg
Add in the garlic, spring onion, salt and pepper and mix well 
Pour in the egg mix to the noodle, mix well
Drop batter by rounded tablespoonfuls, and fry, in batches, 5 minutes or until golden brown.
Drain fritters on paper towels 
Serve warm with bird eye chilies

Spaghetti Fritters

Ingredients:

1/2 of onion, chopped
3 tablespoons of flour
200 ml milk
3 sheets of bacon or smoke beef, cut into 2 and thinly sliced
100 gram grated parmesan cheese
 50 gram spaghetti, boiled until soft, cut into small pieces
salt and pepper
1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
50 gram unsalted butter
100 gram bread crumbs
3 eggs, beaten

How to make:

Melt the butter in a pan on medium heat
Stir fry the onion until fragrant, add in the flour, stir well
Pour in the milk slowly and stir until well blended
Add in the bacon / smoke beef,  spaghetti, salt, pepper, nutmeg, stir  well  until the mix becomes thick dough
Set aside to cool down
Take spoonful of  dough and form into a ball shape, one by one until finish
Roll the spaghetti ball  one by one on  bread crumb
Dip the spaghetti ball one by one into the beaten eggs
Roll again on the bread crumb
Deep fry in batches  in a frying pan or wok on medium heat until golden brown
Remove from heat, drain the spaghetti balls on  paper towels  
Serve warm  

Prawn Fritters

Ingredients:

 500 ml  water
 250  gram  unpeeled, medium-size fresh shrimp
100 gram  all-purpose flour
1  teaspoon  baking powder
Pinch of   salt  and  pepper
2  large eggs
 1  medium onion, minced
100 gram mix of  carrots, white cabbage and spring onion, finely sliced  
4  garlic cloves, minced
Vegetable oil

How to make:

 Bring the water to a boil; add shrimp, and cook 3 to 5 minutes or just until shrimp turn pink.
Drain and rinse with cold water. Chill.
Devein the shrimp 
Beat the  eggs,  flour,  salt,  pepper and baking powder  until smooth.
Stir in shrimp, onion, garlic and mix vegetables.
 Cover and chill 2 hours.
Pour oil to a depth of  10 cm  into a frying pan or wok on high heat  
Drop batter by rounded tablespoonfuls, and fry, in batches, 5 minutes or until golden.
Drain fritters on paper towels 
Serve warm with bird eye chilies  

Tempeh fritters

Ingredients:

 200 gram tempeh, slice thinly (5 mm)  
200 gram flour
250 ml water  
2 stalks of spring onion, finely sliced 
Vegetable Oil  

Ingredients for ground seasoning

ground all ingredients in a mortar until smooth

2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 shallots, finely sliced 
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
2  candle nuts 
1 cm roasted turmeric  

How to make:

Mix well the flour, water, ground seasoning, spring onion, salt   
Dip the tempeh into the batter   
Deep fry in batches in vegetable oil on high heat for just 2-3 minutes   
Serve warm with bird eye chilies

Filed under: My Recipes & Beyond Tagged: banana, bird-eye-chilies, breadfruit, cabe rawit, chili, corn, fritters, gorengan, jack fruit, noodle, shrimp, sukun, Sweet potato, tempeh