Tuesday, July 30, 2013

No-Fry Shrimp Crackers


Many of us in Indonesia grew up eating fried shrimp crackers. I love them but I don't generally eat them because: 

1. I don't know what they are made of. The one shown above is made of cooked dried shrimp, special tapioca flour, sugar, and salt. Who knows how they "cook" the dried shrimp and what is in their "special" tapioca flour. I'm also sure they used refined sugar and salt. 

2. They are commonly deep-fried using regular vegetable oilRegular vegetable oil is rancid, unstable, and prone to oxidative damage when heated, which causes free radicals to form. Free radicals causes premature aging and many harmful diseases including heart disease and cancer. 

So please, please, if you must have fried shrimp crackers, either:

1. Deep-fry them in coconut oil (only that coconut oil is very expensive and I personally cannot justify the use of it to fry shrimp crackers).

2. Microwaving them for one minute. Place a few crackers in the microwave at a time, cook them for one minute (the crackers above were microwaved). I know the use of microwaves is a highly controversial topic, but let's discuss them some other time.




4 comments:

  1. how about oven baked it? Have you try it? Or Air Fryer?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Anita,
      I have not tried baking it in the oven. But it works in an air fryer.

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  2. i use macademia cold pressed oil from ntuc to fry these crackers. i find that they have a neutral nutty flavour that works better than coconut oil or ghee. just make sure you heat it only to 160-180 deg celcius as this monosat fat smokes and oxidizes at high temp.

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