Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Sweet Potato and Taro Fritters/Banh Tom


I love these shrimp cakes. Banh Tom is a popular dish in Vietnam. It is made of thick cut sweet potato and shrimp, coated with light batter and deep-fried until golden brown. It is often served as an appetizer and commonly eaten wrapped with lettuce, pickle, herbs and dipped into nuoc mam sauce. It is very similar to our cucur udang except it has sweet potatoes in it. Since I have a small piece of taro in my fridge, I added it to the batter beside a few extra ingredients. The sweet potato is usually cut thick but I julienne it for faster cooking. The lettuce and vegetable pickle compliment so well with the crispy fritters, while the nouc mam sauce ties all the flavors together.




Ingredients:

4 tbsp rice flour
5 tbsp flour
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp sugar
½ cup + 2 tbsp water
Salt and pepper to taste
250 gram sweet potatoes – julienned
200 gram taro/yam – julienned
1 small onion – finely sliced
½ cup chopped cilantro
2 red chili – finely diced
10 - 12 large shrimps – peeled and deveined


Vietnamese Dipping Sauce/ nouc mam:

1 tbsp white vinegar
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp sugar
1 red chili/2 bird eye chilies – cut small
1 tbsp fish sauce

Combined all the ingredients for the dipping sauce and set it aside.

Accompaniment:

Some lettuce
Some vegetable pickle - you can get the recipe here


1. Combine the flour, rice flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and pepper. Mix well. Add in the water and mix well. Set it aside to rest for 15 minutes. Then fold in the sweet potatoes, taro, onion, chilies, cilantro and shrimp. Mix until just combine. Do not over mix.
2. Heat the oil over medium to high heat (about 330˚F) and place 2 heaping Tbsp of the mixture in the middle of a flat metal spatula with a shrimp on the top. Push the batter down to form a loose, irregular cake about ¼ inches thick. Then gently put the cake into the hot oil.
3. Fry the fritters for about 2 to 3 minutes and turning over once, until they are evenly brown and cooked. Remove the fritters with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
4. Repeat with the remaining mixture, cooking only 3 to 4 cakes at a time.
5. To serve, place a piece of the shrimp cake and on a lettuce leaf, a bit of pickle and fold into packet, dip into the sauce and enjoy!


Note: You can always leave the head and shell of the shrimps intact for these fritters.

14 comments:

Watierman said...

Hi There Gerts...looks interesting..may be I should try this someday...to taste the different...rather than having the ordinary sweet potato deep fried the Malaysian way..known as"Goreng Keledek".Tq...allow mw to c&p the recipe for future use ya!TQ

Shereen said...

That looks so good, Gert.The boys will surely go ga-ga with these type of finger food.Anyway, one question:-if I'm not going to add the taro, do I double the sweet potatoes quantity?Thanks for sharing.

WendyinKK said...

looks like some form of dimsum.
I'll gladly polish off this plate with some chilli sauce

Anonymous said...

Hi! Gert

The Banh Tom, one of my favorite Vietnamese dish
especially to go with the dipping sauce. Yours look delicious
and I can finish the whole plate too. Wish I am your neighbour
hahaha

Have a nice day

Yen

lyly said...

Hi Gert, This is one of my family's farorite dish when we're together. I used to make it with Red Yam, but will try next time with sweet potato and Taro. Your dish look delicious

Ummi said...

Hi Gert....how're you doing? What a tempting cucur udang you have there...looks crispy!! Thanks for sharing, thought of trying out this weekend....muaaahhh!

Biren @ Roti n Rice said...

This does look like a very tasty appetizer. It must be hard to stop at just one :)

Sonia ~ Nasi Lemak Lover said...

this is a nice snack, dip with chili sauce, sure yum! Happy Mother's day to you Gert!

lena said...

reinds me of those hash browns which i made some time ago, of course without the shrimps and i'm sure this is also much more crispier! happy mother's day to you too!! eh, you're back to your old template?

Cheah said...

These fritters look so appetising. Don't mind more helpings! Happy Mother's Day to you.

ICook4Fun said...

Watierman, I don't think I ever try Goreng Keledek before. I hope you cuba ni. Memang sedap :)

Shereen, I am pretty sure they are going to like this. Originally they don't put taro but since I have a small piece left in my fridge I added it in. Yes you can just double up the sweet potatoes.

Wendy, me too :)

Yen, yes the dipping sauce is good so is the pickle. Crunchy, spicy and tangy at the same time :)

Lyly, thank you. I thought red yam and sweet potato are the same. No? We here do call sweet potato as yam too.

Ummi, I am doing well. Ummi pulak ok tak? I hope try this out. Ni memang sedap :)

Biren, nope need some self control here when come to this snack ha ha.. You can't stop at eating one, that's for sure :)

Sonia, Happy Mother's to you too!

Lena, yea look pretty similar but sweet potatoes gives a sweeter taste. I don't really know what happen. The template changed by itself. I am working on it to change it to something new. I hope I don't mess it up :)

Cheah, Happy Mother's Day to you too. Enjoy the pampering from your family :)

Cathleen said...

This looks incredibly cute!! What a great combination of ingredients, I love it!

My Little Space said...

Phew...this sounds pretty interesting. I think it will be perfect to drizzle on some tangy & spicy chili sauce. Hmmm....
Kristy

Gerard said...

Hola! Thank you for all! Could these be frozen after a flash fry? Or un-cooked?