Who wouldn’t love fritters with afternoon tea or coffee? I absolutely love them. I am impartial to deep fried snacks, but this particular one I love (together with potato fritters and corn fritters).
Some of the most popular deep-fried snacks in the country are banana fritters, deep-fried sweet potatoes – which are sweet in nature. Salty deep-fried snacks such as vegetable fritter or stuffed beancurd are eaten with spicy soy sauce dip. These are sold by street side vendors, customers are as varied as blue collar workers to tricycle drivers to school children. Not the most nutritious snacks, but they are scrumptious.
The real interesting way is to eat them with a couple of pieces of small green chili (or jalapeno pepper). The moment you bite on the chili is the moment you swear you won’t forget. It literally burns a hole in your throat. The next reasonable thing to do is to take a big bite of the vegetable fritter. The following step I would recommend a giant gulp of ice cold water. Please don’t try this without expert supervision. The vegetable fritters are nice by its own, unless you want to take a ride to the wild side. I myself always remove the green chili, treating them as garnish only.
Bakwan Sayur - vegetable fritter in Indonesian – is made from mainly cabbage, carrot and beansprout, mixed together with some flour and then deep fried by spoonfuls. Some other fancier ingredients can be included, such as prawn or chicken meat. The trick that ensures you with nice and crispy golden fritters is the heat. It needs to be really high and handled quickly.
I made a big mess, but they taste really nice – almost the same as store-bought.
Ingredients
2 (25 gr) shallots
2 (10 gr) candlenuts, toasted
2 (10 gr) garlic cloves
1/4 teaspoon grated ginger
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/2 tablespoon whole coriander seeds
300 gr cabbage, finely shredded
200 gr carrot, grated
200 gr beansprouts
40 gr tapioca starch
260 gr flour
2 eggs
2 stalk spring onions, finely chopped
2 stalk chinese celery, finely chopped
1 cup water
Cooking oil for deep-frying
Green chili (optional – for garnish)
Instructions
In a spice grinder, combine shallots, candlenuts, garlic, coriander seeds, salt and garlic. Grind till resembles fine paste
Combine the rest of ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix well with spice paste. Add water
Heat oil in deep fryer over high heat till smoke comes out of the surface
Using a small ladle or 1/3 cup measuring spoon, scoop one generous serving of the fritter dough and drop it into the hot oil. Stir fry each side for about 1 minute. Fry in small batches. Drain on paper towel.
Serve warm with sweet chili sauce or soy sauce.
Cook’s note
The tapioca starch can be substituted with corn flour. I couldn’t tell the difference myself, but I am sure sensitive tongue will be able to. The starch itself is said to add the crunchiness to the fritter.
The recipe can make about 30 fritters.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
They look so fantastic … nicely deep fried but not oily. I can have plates n plates of these for tea break =P
I love bakwan… and any deep fried snack. I know I am going to pay dearly down the road when my arteries will be clogged up.. but hey.. life’s too short.
The little green chilies (cabe rawit) are called Thai bird chilies in the US. I think the Indonesian species are shorter.
Thanks for sharing this recipe.