Crispy kangkóng

Water spinach leaves fried in a thin cornflour batter, with every leaf completely dry first.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 300 g water spinach leaves, stems removed
• 100 g cornflour
• 60 g rice flour
• 250 ml ice-cold water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 0.5 teaspoon white pepper
• 0.5 teaspoon garlic powder
• oil, for deep frying

Method

1. EVERY LEAF COMPLETELY DRY FIRST. Wash them, spin them in a salad spinner or a clean pillowcase, then lay them out on a cloth for 20 minutes. A wet leaf hitting 180C oil spits violently and steams its own batter off, and you get limp green rags.
2. Strip the leaves off the stems and use leaves only. Stems hold water in their hollow middle and never crisp.
3. Batter: cornflour, rice flour, salt, pepper and garlic powder whisked with the ice-cold water to the thickness of milk. Thin -- you want a film on the leaf, not a coat. If it clings like pancake batter it is too thick.
4. No wheat flour and no egg. Both make a batter that goes soft within two minutes of leaving the oil.
5. Keep the bowl of batter sitting in iced water while you work. Cold batter into hot oil is what makes it shatter.
6. Oil to 180C. Below that it absorbs oil and goes greasy.
7. Dip a few leaves, let the excess run off for a second, and drop them in separately rather than in a clump. 60 to 90 seconds, until the bubbling has almost stopped.
8. Lift onto a rack, never paper. Salt them the moment they come out.
9. Eat within five minutes, with a vinegar dip. There is no version of this that keeps.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Philippines · All recipes