Khoai Lang Chiên Tôm (Sweet Potato Shrimp Fritter)

I hope everyone had a wonderful 2013. It's been such a long time since my last blog. My previous laptop decided to die on me so I had to postpone posting for a while - okay a long while. Thank goodness for Facebook. As some of you know, I cook daily and post them on my Vietspices Facebook page. This has kept me sane. But 2014 is here! So lets begin the new year with a new recipe, one of my family's new favorite appetizer Khoai Lang Chiên Tôm (Sweet Potato Shrimp Fritter).

 I like the french fries size of the sweet potato as this makes it easy to enjoy. The crispy fried batter layer is a good contrast in taste and texture to the sweet and tender center of the sweet potato.

Sweet Potato Shrimp Fritters can be enjoyed as is or it can be wrapped in a fresh leaf of lettuce with a sprig of cilantro and a few mint leaves. Dip this into a sweet and tangy fish sauce with carrot pickles and you have yourself a wonderful snack or quick meal. Bon apetite!

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RECIPE: Khoai Lang Chiên Tôm

Printable Recipe

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Ingredients

About 3 medium Sweet Potatoes (Japanese or Garnet or both )
About 20 Large Shrimps, cleaned and deveined

For Batter

1 cup All Purpose Self Rising Flour

1 Cup Rice Flour

1 1/2 cups warm Water

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1 1/2 teaspoons Turmeric (nghệ)

1/4 cup chopped Green Onion

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Directions

Mixing Batter

In a mixing bowl, mix all the batter ingredients well.  Let the batter rest for at least about 10 minutes.

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Preparing Sweet Potatoes

Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into thin strips like the size of french fries. Soak it in water as you cut to prevent it discoloration.  Drain the sweet potatoes thoroughly. Set aside. 

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Frying Sweet Potato Fritter

Heat oil in a frying pan to medium high.

Add a handful of potato sticks into the batter then arrange it onto large slot spoon then slide it down into the hot oil. Make sure the potato sticks stick together. Fry the potato sticks until almost golden brown on both sides.  

Remove it from the oil and place it onto another clean spoon. Coat a shrimp with batter and top the fritter off with a shrimp. Use a tong or chopsticks to press it firmly down to keep the shrimp sticking to the sweet potatoes, then dip it into the hot oil again for a minute until fritter is golden brown. The reason I don't fry the shrimp and sweet potato sticks at the same time is to prevent the shrimp from over cooking. 

Remove fritter and shake off the excess oil and set on paper towels or a rack to drain. 

Serve immediately or you can make some in advance and quickly heat it under the broiler to regain that crunch.

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Presentation

Enjoy!