book version
Dollar Shrimp
蝦球
When we got back from the market, we noticed that the $5 bag of 250-count shrimp was already cooked—but at 4pm it was too late for another grocery run. Besides, the barrier on this recipe is so low (just shrimp and water chestnuts and not much prep) that we may as well test it with both cooked and raw shrimp. The cooked shrimp seems to be considerably wetter than raw—or, rather, maybe just as wet, but in a different way. The shrimps interiors may be less moist, but the surfaces are wetter, and not in that sticky way that raw shrimp has. I think this is the important point of using raw shrimp here: the balls didn’t really want to hang together. Even after we added another teaspoon of cornstarch, it seemed a little dicey.
Once the balls (gently) hit the hot oil, though, everything was golden. We made a quick sauce with soy sauce, black rice vinegar, a drop of sesame oil, and a little chili paste. They were great, and satisfied some of the clamoring for a puupuu platter. We’d rolled half of the balls in panko (science!) but they didn’t make much of a difference, actually kind of interfering with the surface texture by tipping it from crispy to crunchy. We’ll try this one again soon with raw shrimp.