Vietnamese-Style Crispy Shrimp Cakes

By Melissa Clark

Vietnamese-Style Crispy Shrimp Cakes
Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times
Total Time
35 minutes
Rating
4(218)
Comments
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These crispy shrimp cakes were inspired by chao tom, Vietnamese shrimp on sugar cane, a delectable appetizer you'll find at restaurants in which shrimp is whirled into a paste in the food processor, then patted on pieces of sugar cane and steamed before grilling or frying. This version leaves out the sugar cane, which can be hard for some home cooks to find, but keeps the essence of the dish: golden-edged, pan-fried cakes that are served with nuoc cham, a piquant sauce. Although traditional recipes keep the shrimp seasonings to a minimum, making up for it later with the sauce, this one spices up the paste, adding lemon grass to the shrimp along with green chiles and scallions. (If you don't often cook with lemon grass, this video will show you how to prepare it.) You can serve the cakes as an appetizer wrapped in lettuce leaves or herbs (large basil leaves are wonderful in summer). Or fry them up for dinner, heaping them on rice noodles and dousing it all with nuoc cham.

Featured in: Vietnamese Shrimp, From Cane to Cake

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Ingredients

Yield:14 cakes
  • 1pound shelled large shrimp, coarsely chopped
  • ¼cup cornstarch, more for dusting
  • 2tablespoons minced lemon grass (tender inner stalk only)
  • 2garlic cloves, minced
  • 2serrano or jalapeño chile peppers, seeded and minced
  • 4scallions, thinly sliced, white and light green part separated from dark green tops
  • 1tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 1teaspoon coarse kosher salt
  • ¼cup Asian fish sauce
  • Finely grated zest of 1 lime
  • ¼cup fresh lime juice (from 2 to 3 limes)
  • Peanut oil, for frying
  • Cooked rice noodles, optional, for serving
  • ½cup fresh cilantro leaves, optional, for serving
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (14 servings)

161 calories; 11 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 5 grams monounsaturated fat; 4 grams polyunsaturated fat; 9 grams carbohydrates; 0 grams dietary fiber; 2 grams sugars; 7 grams protein; 446 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    In the bowl of a food processor, combine shrimp, cornstarch, lemon grass, garlic, chiles, white and light green scallion bottoms, 2 teaspoons sugar and salt. Pulse until mixture forms a coarse paste.

  2. Step 2

    In a small bowl, whisk together fish sauce, lime zest and juice, 1 tablespoon sugar and the dark green scallion tops.

  3. Step 3

    Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Wet hands to keep shrimp paste from sticking. Form 2 tablespoons of shrimp mixture into a ½-inch-thick patty. Dust patty with cornstarch. Repeat with remaining batter. Fry patties in batches until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Serve over rice noodles, if desired, drizzled with fish sauce mixture and strewn with cilantro.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
218 user ratings
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Comments

Joe

I wonder why the author calls for large shrimp? Since one is going to make a paste of the shrimp, wouldn't salad shrimp do just as well and be a lot cheaper? Just curious.

Karen N

Further to my post, here is my mom’s Nuoc Mam (fish sauce). This yields about 1/4 cup of sauce. To make more, just follow the proportion of ingredients. 1 Tbsp fish sauce 5 Tbsp water 1 Tbsp sugar 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice/or white vinegar (she prefers lemon juice) 1 clove garlic (or more if you prefer) 1 Thai chilli Use a mortar and pestle to pound the sugar, chilli and garlic till pasty. Add the remaining liquids and mix. Done. The beauty is, you can adjust the ingredients to taste.

LGL

Was extremely disappointed to waste a pound of gorgeous wild caught shrimp on this recipe. Prep time was much longer (of course It is with every recipe unless you have staff to do the prep work....). My complaint differs from some below. My guess is that they skipped the cornstarch for the patties. 1/4 cup of cornstarch was WAY too much - my patties came out like hockey pucks. I would recommend 2 T to others attempting this recipe. Which I won't - too many recipes, too little time.

Chris in Seattle

terrible soggy mess. I suspect using previously frozen shrimp is the culprit. Wayyyyy too much moisture in the paste. And flavorless too - again, the shrimp probably the was not flavorful. I will be going back to standard shrimp cakes with bread crumbs and egg binder.

Heidi

Made these cakes this week and used a little less corn starch based on a previous reviewer. Also to make the process go faster I used my 2 tablespoon scoop and packed the mixture into the belly of the scoop, pressed them down a bit. That way I didn't have to form any ball. The sauce seemed a bit thin so I added some corn starch (heated it with the rest of the sauce) to help it stay on the cake better. Good recipe.

banana

I love these and have made them multiple times exactly as directed, the only addition being some hours or overnight in the fridge before frying, and sometimes I add sliced serranos to the dipping sauce too. Last time instead of serving over noodles we cut them with sliced cucumber and folded into lettuce wraps, topped with cilantro and sauce. Delicious.

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