Lutong Bahay: Shrimp Balls with Homemade Tartar Sauce

Lutong Bahay is a short tag on the title which I use to feature home-cooked food, either in our own home or at a friend's house, either my own cooking or not.

My dad has recently been obsessing on perfecting his shrimp tempura recipe. So with a surplus of shrimps in the fridge, I thought of making a different shrimp dish following the recipe of one of my favorite Youtubers, ochikeron. I know, I know, this is also deep fried shrimp just like tempura, but this is a nice dish to break the monotony in our house.

This shrimp ball is somehow similar to a katsu dish because of the breading. But I prefer to call it shrimp ball 'cause I don't think it looks anything like katsu. Haha! Oh, and please don't mind the two pieces of burnt shrimp balls on the plate. They were the first two pieces I deep-fried, and turns out, the pan was too hot. Fortunately, I got the right temperature after so the rest were cooked to a perfect golden brown. Anyway, although I know I'm still a work in progress inside the kitchen, let me share with you this nice recipe.

Ingredients:

• 18 to 20 pieces of shrimps (peeled and deveined)
• 1 raw egg
• 3 tbsp. of flour
• bread crumbs
• salt and pepper
• vegetable oil

For the homemade tartar sauce:

• 2 chopped hard-boiled eggs
• 6 tbsp. of mayonnaise
• 3 tbsp. of chopped raw onion
• 1 tbsp. of chopped dill pickle
• salt and pepper

Procedure:

1. On a bowl, beat the raw egg and add in the flour. Make sure to mix well.
2. Season the shrimps with salt and pepper before cutting them into smaller pieces. Then, divide them into 6 to 8 piles and form them into balls.
3. Dip the shrimp balls in the egg mixture then coat with bread crumbs.
4. Fry them in oil at 170C (340F) for about 4 to 5 minutes until golden brown. Make sure to test the oil first if it's too hot so you won't get what I had, burnt shrimp balls.
5. Remove the shrimp balls when they're cooked. Drain them and set aside.
6. To make the tartar sauce, mix the hard-boiled eggs with mayonnaise, chopped onion and dill pickles, then season with salt and pepper to taste.

Now, this recipe is fairly easy. However, I'm sad to say that I somehow messed up with the oil temperature so I accidentally burnt the first 2 pieces. The rest turned out great though, crispy on the outside and soft and succulent on the inside. Anyway, you can also add a twist and maybe put cheese inside the shrimp ball to make it creamy and more interesting. But even as simple as it is, it's already good enough especially when eaten with the tartar sauce which complements this breaded fried dish really well.

Oh, my blog's been featured twice last month. If you have some spare time, do check out the write-ups from The Food Techie and from Filipino Foods Recipes. Thanks!