Shrimp Sweet Potato Fritters with Sweet-Hot Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 lb. shrimp
• 5 sweet potatoes
• 1 onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 1/2 cups oil for frying

Sauce

• 3 tsp ketchup
• 3 tsp sugar
• 3 tsp rice vinegar
• 2 tsp honey
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• 1/4 cup water
• 3 dried chili peppers, re-hydrated and chopped (optional)
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tsp hot sauce of your choice (I used sriracha)
• 2 tsp chili oil (with the flakes/seeds)

Cooking

1. boil and mash potatoes. let cool down to a temperature that is bearable to handle.
2. shell and de-vein shrimp if using fresh shrimp. also, if using fresh shrimp, slightly cook the shrimp until just barely pink in a pan. let shrimp cool down. combine mashed potatoes with onion, garlic, half the flour and seasoning. form the mixture into fritter shapes with your hands and push 1 or 2 shrimps into each fritter, then dredge in flour.
3. in a cast iron pan or dutch oven, add the frying oil. once up to temperature (365F) add in 2 - 3 fritters at a time and fry until golden brown.
4. in a sauce pan, add the ketchup, sugar, salt, water, hot sauce, chili oil, fish sauce, honey, rice vinegar, and if used, chopped chili pepper. bring to a high simmer and let simmer for 5 minutes while stirring and mixing. let cool down and serve with fritters.

bon appetit