Gone Fishing?

A request from friends who visit my blog to ask for this Prawn Fritters or locally know as HAY PIAH ZI. It used to be hosted at Cuisine-Asia.com where I used to be their Director and handled all the Asian Street Food, Bake stuff, Asian Sweet desserts and also the maintainence of the website. The website has ceased its operation. Luckily, I still have the recipe and photo of it stored in KC Forum. This is for all who have supported me at Cuisine-Asia.

HAY PIAH ZI is a local appetiser which you can find in hawker stalls, food courts and sometimes in pasar malam or night markets in Singapore. It has a light and fluffy texture inside and a crisp golden crust on the outside. One bite into a fritter and you are in heaven. The batter is full of healthy bean sprouts and spring onions, but the piece de resistance is a whole prawn curled up crisp and sweet on top of the fritter.

This recipe is easy to prepare and inexpensive to make, and will make excellent finger food. Add it to your cocktail menu.



HAY PIAH ZI(Chinese Prawn Fritters)
Recipe by Gina Choong

Ingredients:
270g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
70g rice flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
350ml water
2 tbsp corn oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground pepper
3 stalks spring onions, green part only (chopped)
100g bean sprouts (roots removed, washed and cleaned)
30 small grey prawns, unshelled
1/2 tsp of salt
1 tsp grounded white pepper
Cooking oil for deep frying

Method:
1. Season prawns with salt and pepper and set aside.
2. Place dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Add beaten egg and water, stir well, making sure there are no lumps.
3. Add spring onions, bean sprouts and corn oil, again stirring well to mix.
4. Leave batter aside to proof for about 1 hour.
5. Heat up cooking oil and dip a shallow ladle into the hot oil for 1 minute.
6. Remove the ladle and place 1 tablespoon of batter in it, topping batter with a whole prawn. Press the prawn down so it sits inside the batter.
7. Lower the ladle into the oil to fry, placing it in the centre of the wok for 1 minute.
8. When the batter makes popping noises, shake the ladle to release the fritter. Fry until golden brown and puffed. Remove and drain. Serve warm.

Notes
If you use a large ladle, you can make 20 fritters. A smaller ladle will yield 30 pieces.
You can use a regular soup ladle, but the fritter will be thicker, so adjust the amount of batter to get a thoroughly cooked, crisp fritter.