In our home, making a quick meal often involves some ground meat, a pinch of herbs, diced onions, ginger or garlic and finally some rough hand-shaping before it is thrown down on the pan. It is then christened burger or kebab. Last night was one of those evenings, except; the predictability of ground chicken was getting dull. A fleeting thought was to use crab but again, the density felt unappealing. The mind and palate feeling a bit weighed down by all this winter business wanted to take a short flight somewhere fun and flirty – perhaps the South. Are you thinking shrimp?
Shrimp is such a wonderful protein to work with. Treat her well and she will show you her ‘lychee’ side; sweet and fleshy. Overcook her and she will seize up like rubber. With such attributes, very little work needs to be done on her. I decided on shrimp burgers. Chives work really well with shrimps adding brightness in flavor and a hint of an oniony taste but without the heavy handedness. The burgers are gently held together with a coating of breadcrumbs and mayo but if you want a tighter patty, feel free to add more breadcrumb as a binder. I served the shrimp burger on sweet and delicate challah bread – a perfect suitor given the delicate flavor of the shrimp don’t you think? Barely 6 minutes later (including prep time) and you will have a juicy and flavorful burger in your hands.
Recipe for Shrimp Burgers
Ingredients
Shrimp Patties
1 ½ lbs. medium shrimp, shelled, deveined, and chopped in to ½ cm pieces
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. Tabasco
1 tsp. chopped chives
Zest of 1 lemons
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp. per burger
1 cup dry bread crumbs for dredging and 1 tsp. for burger mixture
8 slices of Challah bread
Butter (to butter challah bread)
Chive Mayo
½ tsp. of chives
2 tbsp. mayo
½ tsp. lemon juice
Method
- Combine shrimp, mayonnaise, onion powder, Worcestershire, tabasco, and salt and pepper to taste and bread crumbs into a medium bowl and mix well. Set aside for if you have time for 10 minutes
- Heat the oil on medium/high in a sauté pan
- Lay out 1 cup of breadcrumbs on to a plate. Portion the mixture in to 4 and shape in to patties. Gently dredge patties in to the breadcrumbs on both sides and fry until golden. Cover the pan with a lid when cooking the second side to cook the shrimp through. Remove with slotted spoon and drain on paper towel
- Combine the chives, may and lemon juice.
- Butter the sliced challah bread and toast on a pan on both sides, spread lightly with chive mayo and serve with burger
4 Comments
I recently had a lobster burger!! it was amazing but too expensive and too much of a chore to make at home. This is a lovely picture and probably tastes similar
What an amazing recipe and seems easy to prepare. My kids will think they did something great this week to get such a treat!
I haven’t had shrimp burgers in so long..thanks for bringing them to life for me again – Oh, lovely pix by the way
Love this – will you be teaching a class on burgers?