Shrimp Cakes

Adapted from How to Eat by Nigella Lawson (John Wiley & Sons, 2000)

If I were hard pressed—I mean really hard pressed—to have only one cookbook in the world, I would have to seriously consider the 2000 American paperback edition of How to Eat by Nigella Lawson. I love this book for its soft feel, the deliciousness of the food inside the pages, for the sense memories it brings back to me as a child having spent so much time in England, for Nigella Lawson's interest in Italy and Italian food, and for the precision of the descriptions and the lavishness (not opulence) of what Nigella eats.

This is a recipe that is so much fun to make if you have a really good friend over and you're hanging around the kitchen quaffing down light white wine (think slightly frizzante low-alcohol Vinho Verde) or a couple of cold light beers—or (why not?) your favorite Champagne—and you want something yummy to munch on. If you try these little shrimp cakes, you'll come up with accompaniments of your own, which will depend on your eating preferences. But I think a tart green salad made simply from Boston lettuce to pick at with your fingers, while you dip these little puppies in a mayonnaise-y accompaniment as fast as they come hot out of the frying pan and pop into your mouth, would be good.

Nigella Lawson’s Shrimp Cakes

½ pound shrimp, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
2 scallions, white and green parts, minced
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons dry sherry
Neutral vegetable oil (I use grapeseed)
Mayonnaise-y Dip

Put the shrimp, garlic, scallions, salt, flour, sherry, and enough water to make a thick batter in a food processor. Turn the machine on, and process until a thick batter is formed. Put the batter into a bowl, and let stand, covered with plastic film, for one hour.

Put the oil to a depth of 2 inches in a pan, heat, then drop in the shrimp batter by the teaspoonfuls, and fry until golden brown, about a minute on each side. Drain on paper towels.

Mayonnaise-y Dip
Make homemade mayonnaise, omitting the Dijon mustard, substituting lime juice for lemon, and adding a handful of fresh chopped cilantro at the end. If you don't feel like making your own mayo, add lime juice and chopped cilantro to your favorite store-bought brand. It won’t be as good, but it will be good enough—because these morsels of shrimp can carry the day. If too exhausted even for that, just squeeze fresh lime juice on them and carry on.

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