If I’m lucky, the cooking I do for Girl Cooks World carries me though most of the week and there’s little or no need to do extra cooking on weeknights.
But there are those inevitable evenings when I come home late from work, shopping or working out and I want something quick but substantial. A quick egg scramble often comes to the rescue.
But now I have another quick weeknight meal option that’s infinitely more fancy pants: Shrimp and Egg Pancakes from Andrea Nguyen’s Vietnamese Cookbook Into the Vietnamese Kitchen.
In this dish, shrimp, eggs and green onions combine to create little pancakes. The difference between these and your standard fried eggs? A liberal amount of cooking oil changes the texture, creating crispy, browned edges.
This dish works just as well for dinner as it does for brunch. I loved them dipped into fish sauce, but those of you who are less enamored with the funky, stinky sauce than I am could use soy sauce, sweet chili sauce or even ketchup spiked with Sriracha.
Shrimp and Egg Pancakes
Yield: 2 as a main dish, 4 as an appetizer
Prep Time: 10
Cook Time: 10
Total Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
* 1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
* 1-2 Tablespoons salt
* 4 eggs, beaten
* 3-4 green onions, cut on the diagonal into 1-2 inch pieces
* canola or vegetable oil for frying
* fish sauce, gluten-free soy sauce, sweet chili sauce or Sriracha-spiked ketchup for dipping.
Directions:
Place the shrimp in a colander and toss with salt. Rinse under cold water and let drain. In a large bowl combine the shrimp, eggs, and green onion.
In a large skillet or frying pan heat a thin layer of oil over medium-high heat. Heat until the batter immediate sizzles when dropped into the oil.
Ladle about 2-3 Tablespoons of batter for each pancake, taking care to make sure that each pancake has at least two or three shrimp and some green onion. Do not crowd the pan or the pancakes will overflow into one another.
Fry for about 2 minutes, or until the bottom has browned and the pancakes have set. Carefully flip the pancakes and fry until the second side has browned. Transfer to a plate and repeat with the remaining batter, adding additional oil if necessary.
Serve on a plate with a small bowl of your desired dipping sauce(s).