These shrimp and corn pancakes were wasted as a salad topper. This recipe will make a further appearance this summer as a star in its own right, in bite sized form, with drinks. With corn at four for a dollar at the very beginning of the season, this should be a budget friendly corn-centric summer!
The tapioca flour that I used as a binder made for a texturally perfect pancake -- crispy exterior and a pleasantly sticky, glutinous and mochi-like interior. It also, unfortunately, made the pancake shiny, which, try as I might, did not make for a lovely photo. I will photograph these again when I make them next and change out the illustrative image, but please do not let these detract from making them -- they are utterly delicious.
This recipe makes 2 pancakes the size of your hand. You will plan on eating only one and will eat both.
6 large shrimp, raw, tailed and shelled and eat shrimp halved and then each half cut into three pieces. You want visible chunks in the pancakes.)
1 ear of fresh corn, husked, de-silked and kernels cut off of the cob
1 Tbsp scallion, chopped
1 tsp coriander leaves, chopped
1/2 tsp grated gingerroot
1/4 cup tapioca flour (you could use regular flour here as well, but the texture of the finished pancake will not be sticky. Delicious still, but not glutinous or crunchy)
1 Tbsp ice cold water
1 Tbsp vegetable oil ( I used avocado)
Half a lime
Salt to taste
Combine all of the ingredients except for the oil and lime in a bowl. Set aside for 5 minutes so that the tapioca flour can absorb any liquid that pools to the bottom of the bowl.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium. As soon as it is shimmering, give the shrimp and corn batter a quick stir to recombine all of the ingredients and ladle the mixture into the pan. As mentioned, I made 2 largish pancakes, you could make small, bite-sized ones.
Cook the pancakes for 2 minutes on each side, lowering the heat if the pancakes start to brown too much.
Remove from the pan onto a paper towel lined plate to absorb any excess oil.
Spritz each pancake with some fresh lime juice squeezed from the lime half and a bit of finishing salt if so desired.