There are some recipes that some families only eat during Holy Week and Easter. Traditionally, on days like Holy Thursday and Holy Friday when Catholics abstain from eating meat, they usually have shrimp cakes or tortitas de camaron with nopales. Except that many people don’t like the taste of the dry ground up shrimp because it can taste nothing like shrimp and very salty. This is a great recipe that has all of the traditional ingredients, except it uses real shrimp and potatoes, and chances are you’ll kick the dry shrimp cakes to the curve after you taste this recipe.
Easter Shrimp Cakes with Cactus (Compliments of the Latin Kitchen)
Ingredients
2 large Idaho or Russet potatoes, peeled and cut into small pieces
2 dried guajillo chilis
1 cup reserved guajillo chili water
1 small chipotle in adobo sauce
2 large tomatoes
1 onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves
1/2 cup cilantro, divided
1 cup cactus, chopped into 2-inch strips
2 eggs
1 pound of medium shrimp, cleaned and diced into 1/2 inch chunks
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups oil for frying
Directions
In a small pot, boil the potatoes in water until fork-tender. Drain and cool.
Toast the guajillo chilis in a dry frying pan until pliable. Boil in 4 cups of water until tender and scoop out one cup of the chili water. In a blender, mix the chilis, chili water, chipotle pepper, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and ¼ cup of cilantro until smooth.
Pour the sauce in a frying pan and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the cactus at the end just to warm through, about 2 minutes. Mash the potatoes with a fork and mix in the eggs one at a time. Add the shrimp, ¼ cup of cilantro, salt, and pepper, and stir to combine. Using a ¼ cup measure, pan-fry the shrimp cakes in oil until golden brown, about 3 minutes per side or until golden brown. Gently flip the cakes as they are delicate. Drain the cakes on a paper towel and then plate with the sauce.
You can also make these with green sauce as pictured above. For the green sauce, blend 5 green tomatillos, one jalapeño pepper, 1/4 onion, 1 garlic, a small bunch of cilantro, and salt and pepper to taste. In a pot simmer until the sauce is thick and add the shrimp cakes. Garnish with cilantro and onions.