Here are a couple of versions. The first comes from Enriqueta
David's
"Recipes of the Philippines" and the second comes from Madhur
Jaffrey's
"World of the East Vegetarian Cooking".
Ukoy with shrimps
1 cup bean sprouts a few dried boiled shrimps (omit if you want vegetarian) 1 tsp salt 1 cup shrimp liquor (shrimp juice from mashing shrimp by mortal and pestle or by food processor - Ken.) 1 cup corn starch or rice flour 1 onion, chopped achuete seeds (generally for colouring, I suppose either a small
bit of
turmeric mixed with a small bit of paprika might do, or red food
colouring. Otherwise, if the appearance is not important to you,
omit
this.) 2 eggs well beaten oil for frying vinegar, pepper, garlic and salt
Dissolve corn starch or rice flour in about 1/4 c water with
achuete
colouring. Mix thoroughly starch-mixture, salt, shrimp liquor,
onion
and well-beaten eggs until a smooth batter is obtained. Add bean
sprouts. Heat oil in a deep frying pan and pour about 1/4 cup of
the
batter at a time. Gather all particles together and lay pieces
of
boiled shrimps on the surface. Fry until golden brown. Drain
and serve
with vinegar-garlic sauce.
Ukoy (Vegetable Fritters)
1 cup all-purpose unbleached white flour 1/4 tsp baking soda 1 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper 1 large egg 1 cup cold water vegetable oil for shallow frying 2 cup peeled and coarsely grated butternut squash 1 cup bean sprouts, washed, drained thoroughly, patted as dry as
possible 3 scallions, cut into 2-in pieces and then cut lengthwise into
fine
strips
Make the batter by sifting the flour, baking soda, salt, and
pepper
together in a large bowl. Beat the egg in a separate smaller
bowl and
slowly add the water to it. Then slowly add the egg-water
mixture to
the flour mixture, beating as you do so.
Heat 1/2 inch oil in a skillet over a medium flame. The ideal
temperature for frying the fritters is between 350 F and 375 F.
Put the grated squash, bean sprouts and scallions into the batter
and
mix. Remove heaping tablespoons of the fritter mixture and drop
gently
into the skillet. Fry for about 3 minutes on each side or until
firtters are a nice medium-brown colour. If the fritters begin
to brown
too fast, turn the heat down. Remove fritters with a slotted
spoon and
drain on paper towels or on a wire mesh rack. Do all fritters
this way,
putting only as many in the oil as the skillet will hold easily.
Serve hot, with small, individual bowls of your choice of dipping
sauces.
Note: All Filipino sweets are considered veg, so refer to other
places
for them.
1 cup 
