it's festival time. if you go to international food festivals around this area you will invariably bump into the Filipino booth where they serve deep fried spring rolls and pancit (stir fried noodle medley). sometimes you get lucky and find okoy.
you can use grated papaya, bean sprouts, grated potatoes, sweet potatoes or a combination! i love it with bean sprouts (trimmed rinsed, salted, drained, patted dry) and sweet potatoes and white potatoes, totaling about 4 cups of grated vegetables. i tried a new batter recipe. (adapted from "Asian Cookin", Sallie Morris and Deh-ta Hsiung.)
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup potato starch
1 tsp. baking powder
1 beaten egg
1/2 tsp. salt
(water to thin the batter as you desire)
mix together batter ingredients. you can do this two ways: mix in the grated vegetables into the batter before frying, or pour the batter into a shallow panful of hot vegetable oil, and,working quickly, spoon the vegetables over. constantly scoop the hot oil over the top. as it starts to set add the peeled deveined shrimps and julienned scallions. flip over very carefully.
or you can deep fry the okoy in very hot oil.
drain into paper towels and serve with a dip of coco vinegar, garlic, bird chilis and salt and pepper.
