Cucur udang
Fritters with a crunch
The cucur udang (Malay for prawn fritter) is something you can fry up quite easily.
The batter varies with the cook and I find the ratio of one part self-raising flour to three parts plain flour gives the right crunchiness on the outside and chewiness on the inside.
It tastes best when freshly fried. But even at room temperature, it's still decent.
I remove the prawn shells and freeze them for making prawn noodle soup on another day. Deshelled, the prawn cooks fairly quickly, so don't let the fritter dawdle in the oil for too long.
Do not be ambitious and fry large-sized fritters as your prawns would become overdone as it would take longer for the inside to cook.
I find that the small sea prawns work well for this dish as the meat tends to be firmer. I marinated the prawn in sugar and cornflour to give them a crunchier texture.
INGREDIENTS
- 100g self raising flour
- 300g plain flour
- 500ml water
- 450g small sea prawn, deshelled and deveined
- 3 red finger chillies, sliced
- 2 green chillies, sliced
- 50g Chinese celery
- 50g koo chye, sliced
- 30g beansprouts
- 1 large onion, sliced
- 5 shallots, sliced
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- Oil for deep frying
Marinade for the prawn
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp cornflour
METHOD
1. Marinate the prawn in sugar and cornflour for 15 minutes. Rinse and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, mix the self-raising flour, salt, and plain flour with water into a smooth batter.
3. Add the koo chye, Chinese celery, beansprouts, onion, shallots, chillies, sugar and cumin. (A)
4. Add the ground turmeric.
5. Heat enough oil, about 7.5cm deep, to deep-fry the fritters in the wok.
6. Fill a metal soup ladle with the batter. Place a prawn in the centre of the batter. (B)
7. Carefully pour the ladle of batter into the oil. (C)
8. Deep-fry on medium-low heat until golden and the edges are slightly browned.
9. Remove from oil and drain excess oil by placing the fritters on kitchen paper.
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