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.
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 spice paste
- grind 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, spice paste, 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
