Seductive Little Shrimp Cakes from Tacolicious

July 1, 2014

Got this book the other day, and decided to try the shrimp cakes as a little snack last night, when a group of friends were standing around the kitchen, drinking wine.  Straight out of the pan, the shrimpcakes were an enormous hit. There was one left over, and I ate it cold this morning. Better warm – but still completely irresistible. Definitely a recipe I'll do again.

Shrimp Cakes with Corn-Tomato Salsa

(very slightly adapted from Tacolicious by Sara Deseran)

Shell a pound and a half of wild shrimp and pulse them very quickly in a food processor so that there are still a few chunks. Stir in an egg and 3 teaspoons of lime juice.

Chop a stalk of celery very fine.

Chop 3 scallions very finely.

Chop enough parsley to make a third of a cup.

Stir the vegetables into the minced shrimp mixture.  Add 3 tablespoons of mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon of adobo sauce (from a can of chipotle chiles in adobo sauce), 2 teaspoons of salt, a good grind of black pepper, 1 1/2 teaspoons of paprika and a half teaspoon of celery salt.  Stir in 1 cup of panko.  The mixture should be loose.

Pile some panko into a plate.  Scoop up about a twelfth of the mixture and pat into a loose little cake about 2 inches in diameter and a half inch thick.  Plop it into the panko and quickly coat each side. Set on a wax paper lined baking sheet; repeat until you have 12 to 14 little cakes. Cover with plastic wrap and set in the refrigerator for at least half an hour (and up to a day).

Just before serving, heat a couple tablespoons of oil in a large skillet and cook over medium heat about 3 minutes on each side, just until lightly browned.  

Serve with this salsa.

Tomato-Corn Salsa

Scrape the kernels from 3 ears of corn (you should have a cup and a half) into a bowl.

Chop one medium tomato (again, a cup and a half), and add to the corn.

Add a cup of diced Armenian cucumber, a half cup of finely chopped red onion and a diced jalapeno chile.  Stir in a couple teaspoons of salt and the juice of half a lime.  Allow the flavors to marry for at least a half hour, then taste for seasoning. 

This will seem like too much for the shrimp cakes; it is, in fact, the perfect amount. 

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