New Improved Mamak Prawn Fritters

I spent a sleepless (almost) night thinking about the pathetic photograph that I took of the prawn fritters yesterday. I woke up with prawn fritters on my mind (what else?)

So today I spent the afternoon making more prawn fritters and taking yet more photographs of prawn fritters. It was a long drawn prawn frittering Thursday!

Result : I ended up with an improved version of the previous recipe. And if I have to say so myself, I'll have to say that those were the best prawn fritters that I have tasted in a long long time. Such a minor adjustment that made so much difference.

And ah.....I now know now how to make use of the macro setting on my DSLR camera, indoors, at night, without getting strange alien hues in my photographs. I just turned the kitchen lights off and took the pictures in the dark. It seemed to work a little better, strangely enough.

Okay here's the much improved recipe and one that I wholeheartedly recommend. And I think these are actually better than the original mamak ones I've tasted. Look at that crust!



1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tablspn cornflour
1/8 teaspn baking soda
A pinch of tumeric powder
1 1/2 teaspn salt
pepper

2 eggs
100 ml water, a tablspn or two more if the mixture is too thick that you can't mix

6 - 7 stalks of Chinese chives/kuchai, cut into half inch lengths
3 shallots, sliced finely
1 large red chilly, halved and sliced diagonally

12 medium prawns shelled, chopped coarsely

Mix all dry ingredients first. Add water and mix well until no lumps are visible. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Deep fry in about 2 cups of hot cooking oil, a tablespoon at a time, until golden brown and crisp on the outside. Enjoy with a dipping of chilly sauce or mayo.

TIP : The addition of baking soda lightened the mixture a little more. I added a little more chives too and a little more prawns too.

TIP : Fry fritters until firm but pale and not brown at all. Lift out and drain. Re-fry them to a golden brown and you will have a beautiful golden crisp crust.

TIP : Baking soda never fails to add a deeper colour to your cakes and crispness to your fritters.

Compare it with the prawn fritters from the previous post and I'm ashamed of my yesterself.

Mamak Prawn Fritters - Cucur Udang

Today was a good day. This recipe has been evading me since I can remember and after ploughing through some disappointing experiments I never could get the chewy yet not tough, compact yet pillow light texture of the 'mamak' prawn fritters that they use for their Malaysian Indian Vegetable Salad or 'pasembur'.

But TODAY I found it!

And don't you just love the egg yolk yellow of the fritters inside? It's sooo authentic! (Ponder......ponder......ponder......I just changed my mind. I think its a little too gaudy. But that's what it really looks like in the shops).

This was an experiment carried out because we were having a guest over at mid-morning. So what better savoury to serve for a Malaysian mid morning snack than a vegetable prawn fritter? I'll tell you all the whys of this recipe later.

This recipe serves four.

1 1/2 cups plain flour, sifted
1 tbspn cornflour
1/4 teasp tumeric powder
1 1/2 teaspn salt
pepper to taste
2 eggs
1/4 cup water or stock

4 - 5 stalks of Chinese chives/kuchai, chopped into 1/2 inch lengths
2-3 shallots, sliced
1 large red chilly, halved and sliced finely, diagonally

10 fairly large prawns, 3 of them minced with 1/2 teaspn of cooking oil and the remaining 7 to be chopped coarsely

About 1 1/2 cups cooking oil for frying

Stir all the dry ingredients until well mixed. Add the eggs and liquid and mix till smooth.Add in the prawns (both the minced and chopped ones) and the vegetables. Mix thoroughly.

Heat up about a cup and a half of cooking oil in a small wok. Drop tablespoonfuls of the mixture into the hot oil and fry until a golden brown.Make sure they're cooked in the middle since the puffs are quite big. Drain on kitchen paper.

Cut into chunks and dip in Lingham chilly sauce or mayonnaise to savour. (I love Lingham's - the chilly sauce not the man)

TIP : Starchy cornflour contributed to the chewiness of the fritter. I made the batter thick and gooey instead of slightly runny. This also gave it the solidity and compactness that I was looking for.

TIP : The two eggs used contributed to the lightness and sponginess but at the same time giving a firm structure as well as a richness to the fritter so that it did not taste tough, dry and floury.

TIP : The addition of coarsely chopped and irregular shaped vegetables and prawns caused air pockets to form in the batter as it cooked. In contrast to the denseness of the rest of the fritter this gave the fritter a lightness as you bite through little air pockets that were achieved without having to resort to any leavening agents.

I don't like that photograph at all. :( I'm still working on my photography skills. Please bear with me. TIPS anyone? oops my sons say it's the food that's ugly.....as in the colours and the whole look in general...in that case maybe we should play down on the tumeric thing.......but it's tummy yummy though. So never judge a food by its colour.

Young Jackfruit in Coconut Milk - Gulai Lemak Nangka

This is a smooth creamy dish of young jackfruit boiled in coconut milk. The yellow of the gravy is derived from a few slices of fresh tumeric. It's very easy to do and there is no sauteeing of ingredients at all. The addition of fiery bird chillies is optional but it does give the dish a bit of a kick. Something that we all seriously need once in a while.

400 gm of young jackfruit, cut into chunks
2 shallots, sliced
1 clove garlic sliced
1/2 inch fresh ginger, sliced
1/2 inch fresh tumeric, sliced
1 tumeric leaf

2 cups thin coconut milk, the consistency of very thin watery milk
1 1/2 cups of thick coconut milk
1 teaspoon tamarind pulp mixed with 1 tablespoon of water and squeezed to extract the juice
salt to taste

4 - 5 large prawns, skinned, with tail left intact
1 large red chilly, halved, seeds removed, if desired
1 bird chilly, optional

Place the sliced shallots, garlic, ginger, fresh tumeric, tumeric leaf and young jackfruit into a medium sized pot. Pour in the thin coconut milk. Add salt and bring to a boil and then bring it down to a simmer and cook for about forty-five minutes or until the jackfruit is tender.

This is what young jackfruit looks like. Still green around the edges and white inside as opposed to the deep yellow of a ripened one.


When the jackfruit is tender pour in the thick coconut milk, tamarind juice, prawns and chillies.

After adding the thick coconut milk do not allow it to boil as this will cause the milk to seperate and the oil in the coconut milk will rise to the top.

This gravy is supposed to be smooth and creamy without a layer of oil on the top as in a curry or in other Asian dishes.

Let it simmer gently, while stirring until the prawns are cooked. Adjust salt to taste.

Serve hot with plain white rice.

TIP : Constant stirring is the method by which one avoids the coconut milk 'breaking' or 'seperating' while cooking. That is the reason the jackfruit was cooked in thin coconut milk first and therefore left to boil and then simmer moderately as there isn't much oil in a thin and very diluted coconut milk to result in a 'seperation' (therefore avoiding the need for constant stirring).

The addition of thick coconut milk at the end of the cooking gives the smooth, velvety creaminess of the gravy that we are looking for and the pot is taken off the stove after just a couple of minutes.

Three Sauced Meat Balls

I usually make this with beef but today I used minced mutton and It was GOOD! VERY GOOD. I'm a little embarrassed by this recipe because it simply uses bottled sauces but WHO CARES. It was good. So although I'm not being paid for the advert those are the sauces that I used plus one more - Maggi Tomato Sauce.

Mutton and lamb gives a much smoother and finer texture in the meatballs than beef. And for extra moistness I used milk in the meat ball mixture plus a few spices which married very well with the sauces.

This recipe should serve six hungry people or four hungry ghosts.

600 gm minced mutton/beef/lamb
2 cups fresh breadcrumbs (5 slices of bread)
1 Tbspn coriander powder/serbuk ketumbar
1 Tbspn fennel powder/serbuk jintan manis
1 Tbspn cumin powder/serbuk jintan putih
1 1/2 tsp salt
5 - 6 Tbspn fresh milk
Dash of cayenne pepper or a dash of black pepper
Dried parsley flakes

1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic squashed

2 Tbsp Lingham chilly sauce
4 Tbspn Maggi Tomato sauce
4 Tbspn Heinz BBQ sauce ('regular' or 'chicken and ribs')
1 1/2 cups of water

1 teaspn cornflour
1 Tbspn water

10 pieces of curry leaves (optional) but how can you resist the aroma of it.

Vegetable cooking oil

Make meatballs :

Mix minced mutton, breadcrumbs, powdered spices, black pepper or cayenne pepper, milk, salt and dried parsley flakes. Mix well with hands. Shape into balls the size of a small lime or, I suppose, that of a walnut (although I've never actually seen one whole).

Shallow fry the meatballs in a some oil until they turn a nice crusty brown on the outside but it doesn't matter if it is half cooked inside. Drain and keep aside.

Remove some of the oil and leave 2 tablespoons in the pan. Saute the diced onions and garlic until soft and slightly brown at the edges. Pour in the three sauces. Add the water. Stir.

Put in the meatballs.Stir to coat. Season to taste although you don't really need to at all. Add the cornflour/water mixture and stir to mix. Let it bubble and simmer until the meatballs are completely cooked and the sauce has thickened.

Serve hot and yummy with plain rice like I just did.