Bakwan Sayur (Vegetable Fritter) - AFF Indonesia Mar 2014

After seeing Alice of I Love.I Cook. I Bake.'s post on Bala Bala or Bakwan Sayur or Vegetable Fritter, I was also tempted to give it a try.

I've always loved vegetable fritters and recalled eating them quite frequently at a Malay food stall at my old work place. These days, I hardly see them selling at Malay food stalls, or probably I haven't been searching for them actively. I remembered these vegetable fritters were usually served with a sweet spicy watery sauce which I loved. Can anyone share what sauce it is and how to make?

Anyways, the downsides of fritters sold at food stalls are that they were usually laden with more dough than vegetables, and a lot of times deep fried with recycled oil. So the advantages of homemade fritters are we could add more vegetables and use better quality and clean oil.

And Alice was right about fritters being very addictive. I was eating them almost immediately after they were fried, one after another! Having more vegetables than dough means the fritters were more crunchy and juicy than doughy. Yummy!

Some recipes call for a seasoning paste, whereas some just add seasoning directly to the vegetables and flour mixture. I decided to go for a paste to make the fritters more flavourful. Used my mini mortal and pester to pound the seasoning ingredients since the quantity is so little :)

The vegetables I used. Some recipes also add long beans, chilli, tau kwa etc. I just kept to four. The picture on the right shows the fritter batter ready to be fried. Looked a bit dry coz the batter was actually at the bottom. And somehow the batter turned more watery as I was mixing and frying (probably water released from the vegetables).

Bakwan Sayur (Vegetable Fritter)
(recipe adapted from ilove.icook.ibake and indochine kitchen)
(makes 17-18 pieces)

Ingredients

• 100g cabbage, thinly shredded
• 1 medium size carrot (around 80g), julienned
• 85g beansprout
• 1 stalk spring onion, finely chopped
• 100g plain flour
• 25g rice flour
• 10g tapioca flour
• 1 egg
• 125ml water

Seasoning

• 2 shallots
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 candlenut
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 4 coriander roots
• 1/4 tsp tumeric powder
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp chicken stock powder

Steps

1. Blend or pound all the seasoning ingredients into paste.
2. Add all the ingredients and seasoning paste together, and mix well.
3. Heat cooking oil in a frying pot on medium heat. Scoop about 1 heap Tbsp of batter and deep fry till golden brown.
4. Serve warm on its own or with dipping sauce, or with raw chilli.

The fritters can be eaten on its own or with a dip. Traditionally I think the Indonesians eat them with raw chilli. I made a simple dip using 1 Tbsp of thai sweet chilli sauce, 1 Tbsp of ketchup and juice from 2 calamansi. I'm still searching for the recipe for the sweet spicy watering sauce that Malay food stalls served together with the fritters. If anyone knows, appreciate your sharing please. Thank you!

I am submitting this to Asian Food Fest Indonesia Month, 

hosted by Alice of I Love. I Cook. I Bake.