Ingredients
- 15-20 medium size shrimps (remove heads and shell, devein)
- 1 egg yolk (or half an egg)
- 1/4 cup medium soft tofu (not the firm one, but not the silky tofu)
- 1-2 Tbsp corn flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp white pepper powder (or about 10-15 white peppercorn if you like it hot)
- 2-3 cloves garlic
- 1 big coriander roots or 3 small roots, or about 1 Tbsp of chopped green stem if roots are not available
- 1/2 Tbsp light soy sauce
- 1/2 Tbsp oyster sauce
- Breadcrumbs or Panko for coating before deep frying
- 2 cups vegetable oil for frying
Directions
- On a chopping board, flatten the shrimp with the side of a big heavy cleaver with force to smash the meat, 1 shrimp at a time. Then chop the shrimp coarsely altogether to form a mass of ground shrimps. Transfer to a medium size mixing bowl.
- In a mortar and pestle, grind peppercorn (if using), add garlic and coriander root, grind to a paste. This is like a Thai “mirepoux” and used for many other recipes.
- Add the paste in the mixing bowl with shrimps, add soy sauce, oyster sauce, egg, tofu, and corn flour. Mix well (you may use your hand as well for fast and efficient mixing).
- Form the mixture into about 2 inches patty and half an inch thick. Coat all sides well with breadcrumbs. Lay coated patties separately on a plate. You can store them on a container (with cling film between each layer so they won’t stick) in the fridge and fry them when ready to serve.
- In a deep frying pan, add oil and put on medium heat. Shrimp doesn’t take long to cook so 175 degree C frying will take about 1 minutes until golden on each side. (TIPS! You can also do this in a skillet with oil as shallow as half an inch. The oil when frying should cover half of your cake patty that when you flip them the other half got fried thoroughly. But keep an eye on them at all times coz the bottom can brown very quickly if they don’t get to float as in deep frying)
- Fry the patties on both sides until nicely golden. They’re super hot out of the frying oil so you have a few minutes to plate them up with coriander garnish. Serve with sweet & sour chili sauce. Enjoy!
Note: You can also grind the shrimps in a food processor. Start with several pulses, then add egg, tofu, sauces and ground paste. Pulse the mixture several times until combined well. (If you press grind and let the food processor run continuously for more than 1 minutes the protein will strengthen and the end product will be chewy. Some may like it. But I recommend the crumbling bite that you can still see shrimp bits)
