Fried Spinach

I have been wanting to make fried kangkong ever since I first tried it several years ago. The closest I can come up with is fried spinach, since I couldn't find native "kangkong" here in the US. Kangkong, after all, is "Water Spinach." ;-)

The dish was very, very good, although it was really unnecessary to coat a perfectly good veggie with batter and deep fry it in oil.  But, as with Filipino tradition (which is mostly fried foods), I just had to do this recipe and satisfy my curiosity need to cook this dish.
 

What you need:

1 pack of Spinach
1 cup of water
1 cup corn starch
1/2 cup flour
1 egg, beaten
salt, to taste
oil, for frying

For the sauce:
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon soy sauce


What to do: 

Wash your spinach gently, either by placing them under gently running cold water or putting them in an ice bath. Pat dry and place on paper towels.

Meanwhile, combine water, corn starch, flour, beaten egg and salt. Mix well. The batter shouldn't be runny, else it wouldn't stick to the spinach leaves. 

Heat a wok or frying pan over medium-high and add enough oil to deep fry the spinach. Dip a spinach leaf in the batter and carefully drop in the hot pan. Fry for about a minute, or until coating turns light brown. Remove from oil and let drip on paper towels. Repeat until you have used up all spinach leaves.

For the sauce, just combine all the sauce ingredients and mix well. Serve with hot fried spinach.


Tips, Tweaks and Tricks: 

1. When prepping the spinach, leave a little bit of stem at the end of the leaf. This is what you would hold to make dipping it in the batter easier.
2. Use cold water! It helps retain the color and slows down the wilting of the spinach.
3. Make sure spinach is dry before dipping it in the batter.