Water Chestnut Fritters

The ten water chestnuts I had purchased, after peeling, weighed 150 g, which determined that I would have to base the rest of the ingredient quantities around that, i.e. half the amount stated in the recipe.

water chestnuts, chopped (125 g)
water chestnut flour (125 g)
caster sugar (70 g)
water, divided (500 mL)
custard powder (12 g)

Mix the water chestnut flour and custard powder with 125 mL of cold water evenly into a smooth batter.

Chop the water chestnuts. Do not dice them too finely or you’ll lose the crunchy texture of the water chestnuts in the final product, but also do not cut them too coarsely or the dish will look rough.

In a pot, bring to the boil the remaining water, adding the caster sugar and chopped water chestnuts. Cook until all the sugar is dissolved.

Add the batter slowly, whilst stirring the boiling liquid all the while. Keep stirring constantly until you have a smooth, thick paste.

Pour the cooked batter into a square or rectangular dish. You may want to line the dish with cling film for easy removal of the steamed cake later. Place the dish in a wok and steam over high heat.

Set the timer for 15 minutes. The dish had turned translucent after 15 minutes but I left it for an extra 10 minutes just in case.

After steaming, cut the cake into slices. I found that the cake became more firm when it cooled.

Can be eaten cold, reheated by steaming, or fried. I found the dish tasted too sweet at this point and gave me the feeling of being rather yin. So although I had planned to eat it after steaming, I decided to fry it in batter to counter the sweetness and ‘cooling’ effect.