Lightly spiced tiger prawn , sweet potato, daikon & Thai basil fritters, served with green nahm jim dipping sauce

The last few months have been a little mad trying to work out whether to keep Farang as a Thai deli, or switch it back to a restaurant with inevitable restrictions on the amount of diners we can have in. I would love to say I have managed to decide the best way forward but I absolutely have not.

Open, hire, restart and potentially get shut down again if we are forced into another lockdown, or play it safe and stick to our deli model which has worked well throughout lockdown?

Only time will tell what the best way forwards is but for now here is a recipe best enjoyed outside in the sunshine with a beer and some dipping sauces. If you don’t want to make your own dipping sauces and you live in the UK you can buy some of mine which are available for next day delivery from my Payst webshop

This recipe is a fairly quick one to put together (once you have dried your own turmeric and ginger). When I make this dish I like to make my own mild curry powder to add to my egg batter before frying. Fresh turmeric, like ginger, is a rhizome – a thick underground stem. Due to this it take a lengthy, but simple process to dry it out and grind to a powder. Both fresh spices can be dried in the same way – peel, thinly slice and dry in a warm dry place, on a drying rack for at least 24 hours (May need longer dependent on environment). You can buy pre-dried turmeric and ginger but it’s in no way as good, or even similar to the real thing, try making it you’ll love it (why not make loads and leave it in the kitchen for another day?). However, when working with fresh turmeric be carful, the stuff stains your hands. At Farang someone who forgets to where the gloves has been coined an ‘umpa lumpa’ as their hands will be stained bright orange for days.

I also think it’s important for me to talk you through making your own chilli powder. At Farang we always use dried chillies and call it ‘blue tongue’? Now that I think of it, I actually have no bloody idea why or where that came from? I’m assuming it’s something to do with the fact that it’s fucking hot and it will certainly leave you with a burning mouth if you’re not careful. Now I’m lucky when making this as for best results it should be made in a wok (which I have at work), with a wok burner (very high heat). The intense temperature of the wok smokes the chillies whilst crisping them, making them easy to spice grind into a smoky, hot powder. I appreciate that unless you are some kind of maniac, you probably don’t have a wok burner to hand at home? I have found the best way to do it at home is in a dry pan on a high heat on the stove top, keep the chillies moving until they start smoking, then cover with tin foil and place in a hot oven for 1 minute allowing to smoke a little. Carful- if you breathe in the smoke, you will cough. I also like to use 50/50 dried birds eye chillies to dried long red chillies, this gives the chilli powder a fiery hot, smokey and sweet flavour. It’s great when added to the curry powder.

When grating the vegetables to make this fritter (the daikon and sweet potato), it’s important to julienne them evenly to ensure it all cooks at a similar rate when being deep-fried. If your knife skills are still in practice, I suggest using a papaya shredder, or something of similar function like a julienne peeler. For anyone that is unsure what a Daikon is, it’s a type of radish. It’s also known as ‘mooli’ or Oriental radish and is much larger than a normal radish, they can be found in most good Asian supermarkets with a fresh vegetable section. If grating daikon (which we are) it’s important to use it as quickly as possible to retain the crisp, crunchy freshness.

The natural sweetness of tiger prawns are a great accompaniment to this lightly curried fritter. Once our home-made curry powder is completed, the vegetables, prawns and Thai Basil are tossed through a light egg batter and deep-fried to make the fritters. This is then served with a sweet, sour and fiery hot Nham jim dipping sauce- delicious.

I think that’s enough from me for one day and I’m sure you guys want to get cooking so I’ll leave you to it

Ingredients
(Serves 2 as a light lunch, with plenty of curry powder to spare for future culinary adventures)

For the Curry Powder

• 1 tbsp black peppercorns

• 3 tbsp coriander seeds

• 3 tbsp cumin seeds

• 1 tbsp cloves

• 1 tbsp fennel seeds

• 15 Thai cardamom pods

• 15 pik kwan, stems removed

• 3 tbsp homemade chilli powder (1 tbsp dried bird's eye chillies, 1 tbsp dried long red chillies)

• 1 tbsp ground homemade dried ginger

• 2 tbsp ground homemade dried turmeric

For the Nham Jim Dipping Sauce

• 3 peeled garlic cloves

• 5 green bird's eye chillies, roughly chopped

• 2 tbsp coriander root, finely chopped

• 3 tbsp caster sugar

• 200ml fresh lime juice

• 60ml fish sauce (Mega Chef brand recommended)

• 2 mandarins, juiced

For the Fritters

• 6 whole tiger prawns, shells removed, tails and heads intact

• 1 sweet potato, julienned

• 200g daikon, julienned

• 20g Thai basil, picked

• 10g white sesame seeds

• 2 free-range eggs

• 100ml sparkling water

• 1 tbsp rice flour

• 1 pinch Maldon sea salt

• 2 litres cooking oil (for deep-frying)

Method

1. Prepare the Curry Powder:
   Toast the spices in a large flat pan on low heat, starting with the larger spices. Add the peppercorns last to avoid popping. Once fragrant, mix with dried ginger, turmeric, and chilli powder, then grind into a powder.

2. Mix the Fritter Batter:
   In a mixing bowl, whisk together 1 tbsp of the curry powder, rice flour, sea salt, sparkling water, and eggs. Chill in the fridge briefly.

3. Combine Fritter Ingredients:
   In another bowl, mix prawns, sweet potato, daikon, sesame seeds, and Thai basil. Pour the chilled batter over and mix well.

4. Fry the Fritters:
   Heat oil to 180°C. Using a kitchen spider, gently lower handfuls of the mixture into the oil. Fry for 2-3 minutes until golden, then drain on kitchen roll.

5. Make the Nham Jim Sauce:
   Using a pestle and mortar, pound coriander root, garlic, and chillies to a coarse paste. Add sugar, then lime juice, mandarin juice, and fish sauce. Adjust seasoning to taste.

6. Serve and Enjoy:
   Garnish fritters with fresh Thai basil leaves and serve with the dipping sauce.

Thank you for stopping by at Farang London! I hope this recipe brings a burst of sunshine to your day. Feel free to share your feedback or any culinary tales you might have—I'm all ears and ready to respond swiftly!