Oven Baked Potato Shrimp Cakes - Perkedel Udang

I adore deep fried food. I know I shouldn't, they are not good for me, yada yada yada...but I just can't help it. The love is just SO uncontrollable, it is to the point where I will act crazy and junkie-like (shamelessly sobbing, frantically begging, pleading, demanding, screaming for them) without them. Even when I was super sick from a super seriously sore throat (where I could hardly speak well enough to order them), I still craved them, deep fried goodies.

Referring to the concept of "Our body will tell us what's good for us", I concluded that it's either:
1. Deep fried goodies are good for my body
or
2. The above concept is absolutely wrong

Hehehe...I remember watching Anthony Bourdain saying that Singapore's Yong Tau Foo is so healthy (he said it as he was stuffing the deep fried goodies into his mouth) and it made him understand why the Chinese are so slim and healthy. It's because they eat Yong Tau Foo!! LOL! Hey, no offense, I love Tony, I love deep fried food, and I love him loving deep fried food, but it made me doubt his knowledge of what's healthy and what's not. LOL...well if Tony said so, they must be healthy, eh?

Ironically, while proclaiming myself as a deep fried junkie, I totally hate having to do my own deep frying at home. I hate having to use a lot of oil, cleaning the kitchen, getting rid of the hot oil smell, cleaning the exhaust fan, cleaning the wok, etc, the whole "Me vs Mr. Tough Grease" extravaganza. No, I do not own a deep frier, and I don't plan to, unless they are self cleaning ^_* (did I just demand too much?..yes)

This is why...despite my great love for perkedels (Indonesian deep fried potato cakes), I hardly do them at home, due to the deep frying, and boy...potatoes love oil. They absorb so much, I was always left with no oil in the wok and ultra greasy perkedels. So, the idea of oven baking them tempted me. I know the taste will be compromised, but at least I could get some perkedels with deep fried-like crispiness fix ^_^ and maybe live my happy life a little longer to eat more deep fried goodies *grin*

Oven Baked Potato Shrimp Cakes - Perkedel Udang

Recipe
- 1 large potato, mashed
- 1 cup of small shrimp, peeled, roughly chopped
- 1 small clove of garlic, very finely chopped
- 1 small clove of shallot, very finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon white pepper
- a bit of grated nutmeg (or ground nutmeg powder)
- a bit of finely chopped corriander/spring onion
- breadcrumbs, mixed with a bit of salt, sugar and pepper
- olive oil

Preheat oven to 200C. In a mixing bowl, mix everything well (except breadcrumbs), roll into perkedel shape (round-ish? lol). Roll each perkedel to cover with breadcrumbs, lay on an oven proof tray with a bit of olive oil, bake until golden brown. Serve with soy-chilli-corriander-vinegar dip or chilli sauce and your choice of cold poison ^_^

Cheers! Here's to Tony, to fried food, to good health!

Submitting this to Noble Pig's event:
Potato-Ho Down