Okoy has numerous variations using a variety of other ingredients, including replacing the shrimp with small fish or calamari. Okoy batter can also be made with regular flour, rice flour, or an egg and cornstarch mixture. It can also refer to omelettes made with mashed calabaza or sweet potato, with or without the shrimp.[2][3]
Etymology
According to Filipino linguist Gloria Chan-Yap, the name okoy comes from Hokkienō+kuè, meaning "cake made from taro". However, they are very different dishes. The Hokkien dish is made from deep-fried taro and minced pork, while the Philippine dish utilizes none of those ingredients. The only similarity being that they are deep-fried and pancake-shaped.[4]
Description
The most basic traditional okoy recipe uses a small amount of galapong (ground soaked glutinous rice) as the batter, spiced to taste with onion, garlic, salt, and scallions. It is mixed with mashed kalabasa (calabaza) and unshelled small shrimp. They are deep-fried as small flat patties until golden brown. Excess oil is drained on paper towels and the dish is served warm and crispy.[5]Okoy batter can also be mixed with kamote (sweet potato) or kamotengkahoy (cassava), instead of, or in addition to calabaza. Other ingredients are also traditionally added, including mung bean sprouts (togue) and/or juliennedcarrots, onions, and green papaya.[6][7] The dish is sometimes dyed bright orange with achuete seeds.[1]
Okoy can be eaten on its own or with white rice. It is usually eaten as a snack, as appetizers, or as a breakfast meal. Traditionally, it is served with a vinegar-based dipping sauce; like sinamak (vinegar with labuyo chilis, ginger, garlic, peppercorns, and onion) or pinakurat (vinegar with fish sauce, labuyo chilis, peppercorns, ginger, garlic, and dried mangoes).[3][8][9] But it can also be dipped in banana ketchup, tomato ketchup, sweet and sour sauces, or even garlic mayonnaise.[10]
Variants
Modern versions typically use regular flour or rice flour, instead of galapong.[5]Egg mixed with cornstarch can also be used.[3][8]Okoy is also used to refer to savory omelettes made with mashed calabaza or sweet potato (more properly tortang kalabasa or tortang kamote, respectively), with or without the shrimp.[2]
The shrimp may also be omitted completely, especially when using mashed calabaza or sweet potato. The shrimp can be replaced with small fish like dilis (anchovies) or dulong (noodlefish), as well as calamari or even shredded chicken.[9][11][12] Larger shrimp, shelled and butterflied can also be used, and can be cooked tempura-style.[7]
A similar dish is tortang dulong or maranay which is an omelette made from very small fish from the family Salangidae known as dulong in Tagalog and ipon, libgao, or maranay in Visayan.[13][14][15][16]
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Okoy, and is written by contributors.
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