As always, I'm on a mission to try new foods and/or recreate foods I've had in the past or seen online. Since I don't live in a big city where I can go to special markets and restaurants to find these ingredients and flavors, I just do my best with what I have. I know my creations are not super-authentic, but they make me happy and they'll do for me!
Today's food is lotus root or "renkon." I found this at H Mart and wanted to try to fry them up with a shrimp filling placed between two slices of renkon. I followed the recipe from RecipeTinJapan, a blog by Yumiko. Yumiko explains that there are few ingredients in this dish so the shrimp flavor and lotus root texture can really come through. And what is lotus root texture like? I find it a bit like if a potato were more crunchy. It has a mild starchy flavor like a potato, but also has some crunch to it. Not as crunchy as a water chestnut, but definitely has structure and texture to it.
Following Yumiko's recipe and description, here's my renkon journey.
Assemble ingredients--renkon, scallion, minced ginger, cornmeal (my substitution for corn starch), and shrimp (mine are thawing in some water).
Slice lotus root--slice can be thin but not TOO thin, maybe 3-5 centimeters.
Here I'm trying to keep the slices in pairs so my "sandwiches" will have pieces around the same size.
The recipe says to pat the lotus root dry and then coat one side in cornflour. The shrimp filling will go on this side.
I prepared the shrimp filling by chopping raw shrimp and combining with scallions, soy sauce, ginger, and mirin (instead of sake). Then I topped half the lotus root slices with the filling.
Next, the "lids" go on each sandwich.
Then, the sides of the sandwich also get dipped in cornflour. You do not coat the the top and bottom.
It's frying time! These get "deep fried" in about a centimeter (or less) of oil.
I found to get a nice browning, it took about 5 minutes of frying per side.
This is not the most gorgeous photo, but I'm happy to say that Shrimp-Stuffed Renkon was a hit with the family, and we all enjoyed this as a savory side dish. They're great with a dipping sauce like Tamari + brown rice vinegar or whatever you enjoy!
Have you ever tried renkon? Also, have you heard of trypophobia, which is an aversion to clusters of holes? I think this recipe would NOT be recommended for someone with trypophobia. I hear that lotus roots and seed pods are horrifying to people who HATE HOLES.
