Egg-white battered abalone fritters

Ingredients

• 2 fresh abalone, cleaned and coarsely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves
• 5 cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 3 spring onions, chopped
• 1 tsp roasted chilli paste (see Note)
• salt and pepper, to taste
• sunflower oil, for deep-frying
• soy sauce, for dipping

Batter

• 1 egg white
• 50 ml beer
• 75 g (½ cup) plain flour

Instructions

Place the abalone, garlic, ginger, spring onions and chilli paste in a food processor and process for 2 minutes or until a paste forms. Transfer to a bowl, season with salt and pepper and set aside.

To make the batter, using a fork, lightly beat the egg white in a large bowl until frothy. Whisk in the beer, then the flour until just combined - it doesn’t matter if it has lumps), then leave to rest for a couple of minutes.

Heat the oil in a wok over high heat. To test if the oil is ready for frying, drop a little batter into the oil and if it starts to crackle evenly it is hot enough. Working in small batches, scoop out a tablespoon of abalone mixture, then drop it into the batter to lightly coat. It doesn’t matter if there is only a light coating of batter and there are some ‘bald’ patches. Carefully drop the fritters into the hot oil and cook for 1-2 minutes or until golden. Abalone doesn’t take to over cooking some make sure you don’t cook it for longer then 2 minutes. Drain on paper towel, then serve warm with small bowls of soy sauce for dipping.

Note

• Roasted chilli paste (nam prik pao) is available in jars from Asian supermarkets. 

This recipe is from Gourmet Farmer Afloat.