By Gretchen McKay, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
I miss my husband when he’s out of town for work (of course), but come dinner time, I can’t help but appreciate being able to cook whatever I want for dinner without worrying about whether he’ll walk away from the table happy.
Translation: Though I usually steer clear because he’s highly allergic to shellfish, finally, I can fill up on something I love — shrimp!
Fried, steamed, cooked with garlic in a scampi or served over sushi rice as nigiri — I could eat shrimp every day in one fashion or another and never get tired of it.
This easy recipe for fried shrimp patties served burger-like on a squishy bun satisfied my craving for the seafood.
Pulled from food creator Seema Pankhania’s cookbook “Craveable: All I Want to Eat” (Ten Speed, $30), the dish is both easy to pull together — if you hustle, you can have dinner on the table in about 20 minutes — and packed with flavor.
It’s based on a sweet and savory chile crab dish the social media star (and Lucky Cat alum) enjoyed in Singapore and then reimagined with shrimp to make it a little easier on the pocketbook.
I doubled the patty recipe to make four burgers (I shared two with a colleague for his dinner), and substituted one large jalapeño pepper for the three long red chilies.
Even with double the number of patties, there was more than enough sauce for all four servings, with some leftovers for sandwiches. Unless you slather it on like cream cheese on a bagel, the recipe also makes more than enough mayo for four sandwiches.
Singapore Shrimp Burgers
PG tested
For shrimp patties
8 ounces medium raw shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails removed
2 green onions, finely chopped
1 egg white
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup fine bread crumbs
For sauce
1/2 onion, roughly chopped
4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1/2 inch piece ginger, grated
3 long red chilies, stemmed and chopped
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon black peppercorns, crushed
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon soy sauce
Vegetable oil, for frying
To serve
4 green onions, sliced
Juice 1 lime
2 burger buns
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1/2 clove garlic, grated or minced
Lettuce leaves, for serving
Very finely chop half the shrimp (or blitz in a food processor) and roughly chop the rest.
Put into a bowl with green onions, egg white, white pepper, soy sauce, salt and half of the breadcrumbs.
Divide the mixture in half and shape into patties. They’ll be sticky so press them into the remaining breadcrumbs to coat evenly.
Chill the patties on a plate in the fridge while you make the sauce.
Put onion, garlic, ginger and chilies into a bowl with a splash of water and use an immersion blender to blitz them into a smooth paste (you also can finely chop them; I used a food processor).
Heat a generous glug of oil in saucepan (about 2 tablespoons) and saute the onion mixture for 5 minutes. Add chili powder, black peppercorns, ketchup, soy sauce and 6 tablespoons water.
Cook for 2 minutes, mix well, and once combined, turn off the heat. Taste and season with salt.
Heat about 1 1/2 inches of oil in a skillet and gently shallow-fry the shrimp patties for 5 minutes or until golden on all sides.
Once they are cooked, transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to absorb any excess oil, then return the pan to the heat and toast the buns until golden. (I drained the leftover oil into a jar before adding the buns.)
Combine 4 green onions with a pinch of salt and lime juice. Combine the mayo and sesame oil and add the garlic. Stir to combine well.
Assemble burgers: Spread the mayo generously on the bottom halves of the buns. Add a few leaves of lettuce, the patties and then the spicy sauce and zesty green onions.
Finish with the top halves of the buns and enjoy.
Serves 2.
— “Craveable: All I Want to Eat” by Seema Pankhania
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