KOREAN-STYLE FRITTERS WITH SEAWEED AND POTATO

Serves 4 Preparation: 10 minutes Cooking: 20 minutes Ingredients

Fritters

500g potatoes with firm flesh

100g carrot

½ red onion

40g rehydrated seaweed (wakame, hijiki,

sea spaghetti, etc)*

40g rice flour

2 pinches salt

Neutral vegetable oil

Sauce

Juice ½ lemon

3 tbsp soy sauce

2 tsp toasted sesame oil

2 pinches raw sugar

1 tsp toasted sesame seeds

A few coriander leaves

*For 40g rehydrated seaweed, use about 4g dried wakame; about 5g dried hijiki or about 26g fresh and salted sea spaghetti or wakame.

This is a dish inspired by the Korean savoury pancake, chijimi, which is very popular in Japan. You can also use seafood, such as prawns or oysters.

Method

To make the sauce, mix all the ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

Rehydrate the seaweed according to the packet instructions.

Peel the carrot and onion and cut into thin matchsticks. Peel and grate the potatoes. Cut the rehydrated seaweed into bite-sized pieces (if the seaweed pieces are very large). Combine the carrot, onion and seaweed in a bowl and mix together. Add the grated potato and mix well by hand. Add the rice flour and salt and mix well by hand. Shape into 16 fritters. Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a frying pan. Once the oil is hot, put the fritters into the pan. Cook over medium-high heat, until the first side is golden brown. Turn the fritters over and cook the other side. Repeat the process until all the fritters are made, using generous amounts of cooking oil to grease the pan. In my frying pan, I made four batches of four fritters.

Serve with the sauce and a sprinkling of coriander leaves.

Image and text from Japanese Home Cooking by Maori Murota, photography Akiko Ido. Murdoch Books, $50