Shrimp and Crab Cakes

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I love the taste of the cilantro with the red onion and garlic in these little crab and shrimp cakes. The cilantro in this recipe turns the shrimp cakes slightly green. If you make this recipe with all crab, add a little bit of pureed shrimp in to the batter as a binder rather than the usual breadcrumbs.

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  • 15

Ingredients

  • 1/2 1/2 1/2 pounds shrimp, peeled and deveined
  • 1 1 1 pound lump crabmeat
  • 1 1 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
  • 1/2 1/2 1/2 small red onion, diced
  • 3 3 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
  • 1 1 1 tablespoon Asian fish sauce (nam pla)
  • 1 1 1 cup Japanese-style Panko bread crumbs
  • 1/4 1/4 1/4 cup peanut oil
  • Ingredients
  • 5 5 5 tablespoons fresh lime juice
  • 1/4 1/4 1/4 cup water
  • 2 2 2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce (nam pla)
  • 2 2 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/4 1/4 1/4 cup minced cucumber
  • 2 2 2 teaspoons Asian chili-garlic sauce

Preparation

Step 1

Instructions
Combine the shrimp, garlic, onion, cilantro, and fish sauce in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Purée the mixture for 2 minutes. Add in the crabmeat. Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl and cover with plastic. Refrigerate for about 1 hour or until the mixture is chilled and firm. Line a baking sheet with plastic wrap. Dip your hands into cold water. Shape the shrimp mixture into approximately 15 small patties and place them onto the baking sheet. Wash your hands and dry them well. Coat each patty with some of the Panko bread crumbs. Heat the oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add just enough fish cakes to the pan so they aren’t crowded. Sauté the shrimp cakes for about 3 minutes. Carefully turn the shrimp cakes over with a spatula, and cook on the other side for an additional 3 minutes. Remove the shrimp cakes and drain them on paper toweling. Serve with our Asian-style dipping sauce. Makes about 15 cakes.

Note – I usually like to buy Alaskan king crab. I use the shells for stock. King crab shells are nice and clean and easy to work with versus other varieties of crab shells.


Sauce

Instructions
In a medium bowl, whisk the lime juice, water, fish sauce, sugar, cucumber, and chili-garlic sauce to combine. Makes about 1 cup. Nam Pla is a salty, fermented fish sauce with an extremely pungent odor. It’s used as a condiment, sauce and seasoning ingredient. Nam pla is popular throughout Southeast Asia and is known as nuoc nam in Vietnam and as shottsuru in Japan. Ancient Romans used a nam pla counterpart called garum.

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