Crispy Shrimp Cutlets

time to transform your shrimp

Hello hello!

I gotta be honest with you…I haven’t really been cooking much, which feels shocking to admit. Baking? Sure, I can’t get enough sourdough. But when it comes to especially dinner the last few weeks it’s been less of a mindful production and more of an assembly of bits and bobs found in and around the kitchen/garden. I just want to eat sourdough, cheese, and fresh picked tomatoes and cucumbers for every single meal, can you blame me?

A break from making dinner is okay; a luxury really. But I’m working on getting back to dinner and figuring out what actually sounds good me. Tonight I’m revisiting and hopefully perfecting my tofu pad thai because I promised a recipe for it months ago. But last week I unlocked a new obsession: crispy shrimp cutlets. Dinner has since gotten more exciting.

From looking at these you are probably thinking of shrimp katsu. The patty forms are definitely a variety of shrimp katsu, especially found in a sando situation. But when I first took a bite it immediately reminded me of a dish my family always orders at Chinese banquets, shrimp stuffed crab claws! It’s essentially a crab claw wrapped with an airy shrimp filling that’s coated in either thin rice noodle or panko and fried. It’s a crowd pleaser!

Blending shrimp to transform it’s texture into something delightfully airy and bouncy is a really common technique in Asian cooking. You’ll encounter this style of shrimp numerous times at dim sum, stuffed into various vegetables or fried in creative forms. I used it for these Flat and Crispy Shrimp and Chive Dumplings and a few other recipes in Chinese Enough. This recipe might be the simplest.

All you need is a food processor and a not too warm kitchen to fry these patties in. The method is simple and I actually find the sequence of coating in flour>egg>panko oddly relaxing, so much so that I don’t mind the amount of dirty dishes it produces. Once fried you can eat them in so many ways. Topped on a crispy crunchy salad, layered in between two milk bread slices with some cabbage and pickles, or go the extra simple route and make a rice bowl. I went with latter, obviously. I served the bowl with wispy cabbage that I mixed with kewpie, sriracha, and a pinch of salt (follow your heart for ratios) and a dusting of Woon’s Sea Moss Seasoning because I am addicted to it.

Hope you love the cutlets as much as I do! Have a good week <3

Crispy Shrimp Cutlets

Serves 4

Crispy Shrimp Cutlets

52.7KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

1 lb peeled and deveined shrimp
1 egg white
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp oyster sauce
3/4 tsp coarse salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp white pepper
Avocado or neutral oil, for frying

For coating:

1/2 cup flour
1 egg, whisked
1 1/2 cups panko breadcrumbs

1. Place the shrimp in the bowl of your food processor and pulse a few times until chunky. Add the egg white, cornstarch, oyster sauce, salt, sugar, and white pepper and blend until you have an airy and smooth paste, about 45 seconds.

2. Place the flour, egg, and panko in three individual small rimmed baking pans or plates. Scoop a quarter of the shrimp filling and place it into the flour, repeat with three more remaining patties. Press either side of the shrimp filling into the flour and then form into a patty with your hands (you can wear gloves if you want). The patty can be round or oval, try to maintain a thicker center (about 1/2” thick) with slightly thinner edges. Working with one patty at a time, dip the patty into the egg to fully coat, shake off excess egg, and then coat in the panko, gently pressing it into the panko so it sticks. Place the coated patties on a plate or board.

3. Heat up about 1/2” of oil in a skillet over medium heat (may need to reduce the heat while frying to maintain temperature). The temperature should be about 360F degrees or you can check the oil by dipping the tips of a pair of wooden chopsticks into the oil, if you see a bunch of tiny bubbles appear the oil is hot enough. Fry two cutlets at a time by carefully lowering them into the oil, keep the cutlets moving by nudging them with tongs or a chopsticks so the bottoms can brown evenly (if you don’t move them air pockets prevent the oil from browning the cutlets evenly). Fry until the bottoms are golden, 1 to 2 minutes, flip and fry the other side until just as golden, another 1 to 2 minutes. Once flipped, spoon some oil over any spots that need more color and occasionally press the center of the cutlet down so it fries evenly. At this point if you want to flip the cutlets over a few more times to get more color you can. Transfer the cutlets to a wire rack set over a baking sheet and sprinkle with a little bit of salt. Repeat with remaining cutlets.

4. While warm, slice the cutlets into strips and serve with rice!