Sweetbread fritters were supposed to be on the menu today. However, they weren't something I wanted to taste, but may have to if they're on the list of recipes at Le Cordon Bleu Ottawa. Instead, the Whisk Wednesdays group decided Spiced Shrimp Balls sounded tastier and found it in one of Le Cordon Bleu cookbooks called Le Cordon Bleu Complete Cook Home Collection.

Moving away from typical French cuisine and into something a little more Asian-inspired was a nice change. Practicing deep-frying technique is always helpful and usually renders something crunchy and tender at the same time.

This is a simple recipe. I used my food processor to mince the shrimp into a purée. Then, I stirred in the remaining ingredients. After whipping the egg whites, I folded them into the mixture. Finally, I formed the shrimp mixture into balls and rolled them into sesame seeds.

I followed the same technique for deep frying that I learned when frying potatoes.

Recipe

Serves 6


1½ pounds large uncooked shrimp
1 tablespoon oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
½-inch piece fresh ginger, finely chopped
¼ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon chopped fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon cornstarch

½ egg white, whipped

2/3 cup sesame seeds

Oil, for deep frying
You can find the recipe for Spiced Shrimp Balls in the book Le Cordon Bleu Complete Cook Home Collection. To see how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group fared with their recipe, click here (or check out the sidebar) and then click on each blogger!

Tasting Notes
Crunchy and yummy.

Next Class
• Grenadins de Veau au Coulis de Celeri-Rave (Veal with Celery Root Cream Sauce) pages 330-331 in Le Cordon Bleu at Home cookbook

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Running total: $1,521.17 + $19.04 = $1,540.21
($3.17 per serving)

Butter used so far: 12 pounds, 31 tablespoons

93% complete Basic Cuisine (on blog) / 3% in real life

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