Lightly Spiced Tiger Prawn, Sweet Potato, Daikon & Thai Basil Fritters with Green Nahm Jim
This was a dish we used to make for kids at the Begging Bowl. It was a nightmare to fry during service, messy and relentless, but people loved them and kids especially went mad for them. The combination works because of one thing that doesn't appear in most fritter recipes: shredded sweet potato. Julienned fine and mixed through the batter with the daikon and prawns, it fries up into a tangle of crisp, golden strands that hold the whole thing together. That texture is what separates this from a standard battered prawn, and it's difficult to replicate any other way.
The curry powder is made from scratch. I make my own at Farang and it's not something I'd suggest skipping here. It goes into the egg batter before frying, and the depth it gives the fritter is the difference between something that tastes interesting and something that tastes like it came from a takeaway. The recipe makes more than you need. Keep the rest in a sealed jar. It will go through stir-fries, marinades and egg dishes for weeks.
Getting the fry right is most of the work. The oil needs to be properly hot, 180°C, before anything goes in. Too cool and the batter absorbs oil before it has a chance to crisp, and you get something heavy and greasy. Flip the fritters halfway through: they need heat on both sides to cook through evenly, not just brown on top. When they come out, rest them on a wire rack or kitchen paper for a full minute before serving. The oil needs somewhere to go.
The nahm jim alongside is sharp, sweet, salty and properly hot. Green bird's eye chillies, coriander root, garlic, lime, mandarin juice and fish sauce. It takes five minutes to make and it's the thing that ties the whole dish together.
Lightly Spiced Tiger Prawn, Sweet Potato, Daikon & Thai Basil Fritters with Green Nahm Jim
Serves: 2 as a starter or snack | Prep: 30 mins | Cook: 20 mins
Ingredients
For the curry powder (makes more than needed, keep the rest in a sealed jar)
3 tablespoons coriander seeds
3 tablespoons cumin seeds
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
1 tablespoon cloves
15 Thai cardamom pods
15 pik kwan, stems removed (small dried Thai peppers, optional but worth finding)
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
3 tablespoons homemade dried chilli powder (equal parts dried bird's eye chillies and dried long red chillies, see chef's notes)
1 tablespoon dried ginger, ground
2 tablespoons dried turmeric, ground
For the nahm jim dipping sauce
3 cloves garlic, peeled
5 green bird's eye chillies, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons coriander root, finely chopped
3 tablespoons caster sugar
200ml fresh lime juice (around 6 to 8 limes)
60ml fish sauce (Mega Chef is a good brand)
Juice of 2 mandarins
For the fritters
6 whole tiger prawns, shells removed, tails and heads intact
1 sweet potato, julienned (use a julienne peeler or mandolin for even strips)
200g daikon, julienned (use immediately once cut)
20g Thai basil, picked
10g white sesame seeds
2 free-range eggs
100ml sparkling water
1 tablespoon rice flour
1 tablespoon curry powder (from above)
1 pinch Maldon sea salt
2 litres cooking oil, for deep-frying
Method
Make the curry powder first. Put the coriander seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, cloves, Thai cardamom and pik kwan into a dry pan over a medium heat. Keep everything moving. Toast until the spices are deeply fragrant and beginning to colour, then add the peppercorns last as they tend to pop. Tip onto a flat tray and leave to cool completely. Grind to a fine powder in a spice grinder or pestle and mortar, then stir through the dried chilli powder, dried ginger and dried turmeric. Taste a little on your finger: it should be warm, aromatic and complex, with heat building slowly at the back.
Make the nahm jim. Put the coriander root, garlic and chillies into a pestle and mortar and pound to a coarse paste. Add the caster sugar and work it in. Stir in the lime juice, mandarin juice and fish sauce. Taste now: it should be sharp and sour at the front, sweet in the middle and properly salty and hot at the back. If it tastes flat, it needs more lime. If the sourness is sharp without anything else coming through, a little more fish sauce and a pinch more sugar will bring it into balance. Set aside.
Julienne the sweet potato and daikon using a julienne peeler or mandolin. Aim for even, consistent strips: if the pieces are uneven they won't cook at the same rate and some will be raw while others are overcooked. Pat both dry with kitchen paper and use immediately, especially the daikon, which loses its crunch quickly once cut.
Make the batter. Whisk together the eggs, sparkling water, rice flour, 1 tablespoon of the curry powder and the Maldon salt in a bowl until just combined. Don't overwork it. Chill in the fridge for 10 minutes. The sparkling water is what keeps the batter light rather than heavy and claggy.
Put the julienned sweet potato, daikon, Thai basil, sesame seeds and tiger prawns into a large bowl. Pour the chilled batter over and fold everything together until evenly coated. The mixture should hold together loosely when pressed but not be swimming in batter.
Heat the oil in a deep, heavy-bottomed pan or wok to 180°C. Test with a small drop of batter: it should sink slightly, then rise immediately to the surface and sizzle. Using a kitchen spider or slotted spoon, lower a generous handful of the fritter mixture carefully into the oil. Don't overcrowd the pan. Fry for 2 minutes, then flip and fry for another 2 minutes until golden all the way through and properly crisp. Lift out and rest on a wire rack or kitchen paper for at least a minute before serving. That rest matters: it lets the excess oil drain and stops the fritter going heavy.
Serve hot with the nahm jim alongside and a few extra Thai basil leaves scattered over the top.
Chef's notes
The curry powder recipe makes a large batch deliberately. It keeps in a sealed jar away from direct heat for a couple of months and goes through a lot of things: stir-fries, marinades, anything going on the barbecue. Making it from scratch is not complicated and the difference between this and bought curry powder is real and immediate.
Pik kwan are small dried Thai peppers available in most Asian supermarkets or online. If you can't find them, leave them out and increase the coriander seeds slightly.
For the chilli powder: the best results come from smoking the dried chillies before grinding rather than just toasting them. At Farang we do this over a wok burner with the intensity that produces real smoke. At home, the best approach is a dry pan on the highest heat you have, keep the chillies moving until they're smoking, then cover tightly with foil and put into a hot oven for 1 minute. Let them cool fully before grinding. A 50/50 mix of dried bird's eye and dried long red chillies gives heat and sweetness together. One warning: breathe away from the pan when the chillies are smoking. The fumes are not forgiving.
Drying your own turmeric and ginger is worth the effort. Peel the roots, slice thin and lay on a drying rack in a warm dry spot for at least 24 hours until completely dry, then grind to a powder. The flavour is more vivid than pre-ground bought spices. Fresh turmeric stains everything it touches a deep orange. Gloves are not optional.
Fritters are always slightly chaotic to fry and always worth the mess.
Visit us at faranglondon.co.uk. Sauces and pastes for cooking Thai at home at payst.co.uk.
For more recipes, signed copies of my cookbooks are available at Payst: Cook Thai and Thai in 7.
Head chef & founder of Farang London restaurant. Cookbook author of ‘Cook Thai’ & ‘Thai in 7’. Chief curry paste basher and co-founder of Payst London.