Hubei Traditional Snack -100% Crispy Lotus Root Balls

1. Wash the lotus root and remove both ends, then peel it. Use a scraper that can remove fine powder to grind the lotus root into fine powder.

I really only have one lotus root left... that's all I need to wipe out.

3. Use gauze to squeeze out the water from the cleaned lotus roots. On the left is the squeezed lotus root powder, and on the right is the squeezed juice. Pay attention to the shape of the lotus root powder in the left bowl, it's quite forcefully squeezed. Only in this form of lotus root powder can it remain intact when fried for a while. So we don't need flour, starch, glutinous rice flour and so on. 100% lotus root balls.

4. Mix salt, pepper, and MSG evenly in the lotus root powder (I use vegetable MSG, so some of the small red dots visible in the picture are carrots).

5. Pinch it into a solid round ball with your hands. It must be squeezed tightly to prevent it from falling apart. You can first pinch a small ball, and then gradually pinch the lotus root powder upwards. My quantity is too small, I can only make this small one. A regular lotus root ball would have to be bigger than a ping pong ball.

6. It is recommended to pinch all the lotus root balls first, and then fry them together in the pot. Because pinching takes some time, it's not easy to get flustered.

7. Heat up the oil and add lotus root balls.

8. Fry until golden brown, then remove and drain oil.