Recipe: Thai Shrimp Fritters

I *love* seafood. I also *love* Thai flavours. When I came by a recipe in one of my cookbooks for a "Lemongrass & Shrimp Pop", I decided to try it.

I had some leftover lemongrass, and also some nice firm shrimp in the freezer, and so I adapted the recipe and tried it out.



Ingredients
300g shrimp (I used about 16 shrimp, in the 21-25 size range), coarsely chopped
1/2 tsp coriander seed
2-3 green onions, chopped coarsely
1" of ginger, peeled & sliced
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
1 t Sambal Oolek
1 t fish sauce
Cornstarch
2-3 stalks of lemongrass, cut into 4" sections
Canola oil for frying



Method
In a blender or food processor, grind coriander seed. Add onions, ginger, and garlic, and pulse until finely chopped. Add shrimp, sambal oolek, and fish sauce, and process until a paste forms. You will need to scrape down the processor / blender walls several times.

With wet hands, form the shrimp paste onto the lemongrass stalks, or, if unavailable, thin patties. Dredge in cornstarch and set aside.

When all the mixture has been formed, heat a pot of canola oil over medium heat (ensure that your pot or wok is deep enough - the pot should only be at 1/3 full to prevent a fire hazard!) to 375ºF or until a small bread cube dropped in the oil sizzles and turn golden.

Fry the patties or shrimp pops until nicely golden on the outside, about 4-5 minutes.

Drain on paper towels and serve with a sweet chili sauce!

Recipe: Ketchup Prawns

I am sincerely glad that M and I have such varied tastes. Indian, fusion, Chinese, Italian, Greek, Japanese, Afghan - we've had it and we love it all.

As I've said before, I just don't get people who don't like food. Even as a child, I loved food - my favourite foods included my mothers' pillowy soft water-steamed eggs mixed into steamed rice, and steamed broccoli and cauliflower. Yes! I was a four-year-old who loved broccoli!

Since we've been living together for a while, various family and friends have been pushing us to get married, with the ultimate result of having children. I am all for getting married, and I am all for having children, but logically, I realize that our current financial states might not allow us to do this soon.

On an irrational level, part of me fears that I'll have children that don't like food! Or rather, what if they don't like my food? Or even worse, what if they have some crazy food allergy that doesn't allow them to enjoy all the foods that we enjoy???!

yes....my brain is like that.

I came across a Chopstick Recipe for Ketchup Prawns last night. Of course, I just *had* to make it. It conjured up memories of my mothers' ketchup prawns, with their sweet, vinegary and salty flavour - and after all, all kids like ketchup right?

Ahhh. Yes....one day my kids will like ketchup prawns. My ketchup prawns.

Ingredients
2 T oil
5 slices ginger
1 green onion, cut into 2" sections
1 shallot, sliced
3 garlic cloves, smashed



~1/2 pound black tiger shrimp (I used 21/25 sized shrimp, thus I ended up with about 12 good-sized shrimp), peeled and deveined

2 T cooking wine
1/4 c water
3 T ketchup
1 T vinegar
1 t sugar
1/2 t salt
pepper to taste
1/4 t cornstarch

Method
In a medium sized pan, heat oil over medium high heat. Saute ginger, garlic, shallot and onion until fragrant.

Add shrimp and cook for 2-3 minutes. Flip over; deglaise with cooking wine. Allow to reduce slightly, then add water, ketchup, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper to taste. Stir ingredients around in the pan until sauce thickens slightly and shrimp are cooked through (orange and no longer translucent). Dissolve 1/4 t of cornstarch in a teaspoon of water. Add to pan slowly, stirring until a thin glaze is formed.



Plate and serve.

I liked this, simply because it was kind of a nostalgic recipe. Although, if I were to do it over again, I'd make it more "adult" and add some piri-piri or Sambal Oolek hot sauce! (I'm kind of on a spicy sauce binge right now. Can you tell? :) I would also take out some of the sugar as I found it slightly sweet for my tastes (although I'm sure kids would LOVE the sugar), and I would also decrease the amount of water and cornstarch solution that I used. I'm just not a huge fan of cornstarch.

But. There you go. Nostalgic food.

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