Servings: 4 Prep: 15 mins Cook: 15 mins Total: 30 min
Have you ever had “shrimp toast”? It’s usually found in Chinese “Dim Sum” restaurants. It’s basically a gingery shrimp paste, which has been spread on toast, then the whole thing is fried into a crunchy, greasy triangle of hot crispy yumminess. I LOVE Shrimp Toast. It’s very possibly one of my favorite things!
These cakes approximate the same flavor as Shrimp Toast. They are very slightly spicy, definitely shrimpy, tastes shrimpy and has some solid sesame notes. One of the missing pieces of the puzzle is the crispity sensation of the fried toast points, but … life without toast is much brighter!
These little Chinese inspired Shrimp Cakes are quite easy to make, very appropriate for any low-carb way of eating, including induction, and are very likely a bit off the beaten path. Put a few of these on a light salad, or serve it alongside some UBER Crack Slaw and you’ve got a really great meal!
Ginger Shrimp Cakes
Print RateIngredients
- 1 lb shrimp peeled, deveined and divided
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup cream heavy whipping
- 1 tbsp hot sesame oil
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp fresh ginger grated
- 4 each garlic cloves minced
- 2 tbsp sesame seeds toasted
- 4 whole green onions (scallions) cut into thin rings
- 2 tbsp cooking oil (ghee coconut oil and/or sesame oil blend preferred)
- salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
Instructions
- Before you do anything, chill your food processor bowl and blade. This mixture needs to be made in a cold environment.
- Add half of your raw shrimp to your food processor with a small amount of salt (about 1/2 tsp.), pepper and an egg. Turn the food processor on.
- Through the hole in the top, slowly drizzle in your cream, until it is well blended. Do the same with the sesame oil. You'll have something that looks like paste. You may need to scrape down the edges and puree for another half moment. When you do this, add the soy sauce. Puree until smooth.
- Scrape your shrimp paste into a bowl and place in the fridge.
- Chop the rest of your shrimp into "chunks". The idea is, as you eat the cakes, you'll see multiple bits of whole shrimp, instead if it all being one pure puree. This reinforces that it's really shrimp, while also adding a little extra textural variety.
- Take your bowl from the fridge and add your chopped shrimp, ginger, garlic, scallions and hot sesame oil. Mix well.
- Pre-heat a flat top griddle, large sauté pan or a skillet over medium-low heat. Add a small amount of oil to the pan and watch for it to ripple. Once it begins to ripple, spoon out small circles of the paste and pat them thinner, to make something resembling pancakes. Cook them until golden brown. Flip them and cook the other side, until golden brown.
- Serve!
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* Learn More: More about this recipe and nutrition …
I love this recipe and want to make it soon. I think it would go great with stir-fried veggies.
I plan to use coconut aminos in place of the soy sauce.
My question is about the oil. Use list the hot oil first (I would have put that in the processor with the shrimp) and then later I see 2 Tbsp sesame oil or blend of oils.
But at the end of the recipe you are adding hot oil to the paste.
So do the 2 Tbsp of sesame oil (Or blend) go into the food processor to make the paste, and the 1 Tbsp of hot sesame oil goes into the paste just before cooking? And, what is hot sesame oil — is it spicy hot or do we need to heat it. If it is spicy hot could we use regular sesame oil and add a dash a sriracha sauce?
Thanks for all your great recipes. I love it that you include all the nutritional info as well. This looks a great low carb recipe that the whole family will enjoy.
Hi Gretchen. I agree it’s somewhat poorly worded. You could add the hot oil while it’s in the processor, but I’d add the cream first. The blend of oils at the end of the recipe is the "cooking oil". So, some is added to the cake batter, and the second oil is for frying the cakes in. Make sense? Like … adding melted butter to a pancake batter and then having more butter to actually fry the pancakes in. Something like that. So, it’s 1 tbsp of sesame oil in the batter and 2 tbsp of cooking oil … for frying the cakes in. Make sense? Hot sesame oil is a store bought oil that you can buy. It’s a blend of chili oil and sesame oil. It’s "spicy", but … I guess it’s also "room temperature". You could definitely use sesame oil and a touch of sriracha in its place. A great alternative! Reading through this … I’m hoping I clarified the issue and … didn’t just make it more murky! Let me know if you have more questions! 🙂
Just made these for a super-late (and super!) dinner, with some kimchi cabbage and cucumbers from my local Asian market. Gosh they’re good. I am thinking about rolling the mixture into balls (after cutting the chunky bits smaller) and poaching them in Chinese stock, with some veggies for a nice soup on a cold day.
Glad you’re back!