Vietnamese Shrimp Cakes or Patties
One bite of these Vietnamese shrimp cakes or shrimp patties will blow your mind. What’s even more exciting is that they’re super easy to make. It’s inspired from the traditional Vietnamese shrimp on sugarcane (Chạo Tôm) but without the sugarcane. They’re super simple to make and crazy delicious to eat. Make a double batch.
What is Vietnamese Chạo Tôm ? Shrimp on Sugarcane
This is a traditional and very tasty street food that you’ll see in many Vietnamese restaurants and deli’s. It’s finely minced or mashed shrimp paste, seasoned with wonderful aromatics and wrapped on sugarcane. Sometimes this shrimp mixture is wrapped around lemongrass sticks too. The shrimp is then grilled to a nice char. When biting into the shrimp, you get a bite of the sweet sugar cane or aromatic lemongrass. All this is an intense flavor bomb and incredibly delicious.
Simple Shrimp Cakes or Patties without the Sugar Cane
So we’ve made a variation of the traditional shrimp as a simple patty or cake, without the sugarcane or lemongrass sticks. It’s easier to cook on a pan and most importantly, it’s often hard to find fresh sugarcane or lemongrass. Also, eating these as a patty is great for sandwiches, in a spring roll or on a bed of Vietnamese rice noodles. It’s the perfect patty for a Vietnamese shrimp rice noodle bowl!
What to Serve with Vietnamese Shrimp Patties?
There’s so many delish ways to serve these savory seafood cakes! Here’s some traditional and more contemporary ways of eating Vietnamese shrimp cakes:
- They’re great as a simple appetizer! To take them to another level, serve them alongside some sliced cucumbers, fresh herbs and lettuce. We love making them into lettuce wraps to bring out the freshness in every bite.
- Make a big green salad with a side of shrimp patties. So good!
- How about a Vietnamese shrimp cake banh mi? We love banh mi and have a big collection of banh mi recipes.
- Shrimp fresh spring rolls are always a hit. Just wrap them in fresh rice paper alongside herbs and lettuce. Here’s our tutorial on how to roll fresh rice paper spring rolls.
- A traditional Vietnamese noodle bowl is always a hit with shrimp.
- Tacos! Yes, it’s a modern take but these shrimp patties are wonderful in a taco.
- As a slider. The shrimp patties are perfect to make into a Vietnamese Shrimp Slider.
- Serve them on pasta, quinoa or couscous.
Fish Sauce Nuoc Mam Dip
Dip these patties in whatever sauce you like. We’re not sticklers on tradition and have been known to dunk these shrimp cakes in dill pickle ranch, hot sauce, and bbq sauce. But if you want to experience it in the most classic way, then make yourself a batch of our Vietnamese Fish Sauce Dip. It’s funky yet flavorful. Umami is what you will experience in every bite. The level of spice and sweetness is your personal choice. Make it your own.
Video: Vietnamese Shrimp Cakes or Patties
Tips on Making Vietnamese Shrimp Cakes
- Don’t buy large fancy tiger shrimp. It’s a waste of money. Save the pricey large shrimp for recipes where you can bite into each shrimp. Instead, the small shrimp are perfect for this recipe because you’re chopping them up into a mash.
- Make sure to chop the shrimp as fine as possible, almost to a paste. If the shrimp is too coarse, it will fall apart. We don’t use egg or bread crumbs in this recipe so the more fine, paste-like texture is what holds the shrimp cake together.
- Caution on seasonings: shrimp is naturally salty already, so we start with a bit of seasoning for flavor. You don’t need any salt at all. The fish sauce or soy sauce is plenty.
- Test patty: After mixing the shrimp mixture, take a small ball and flatten it. Cook it and taste. Is it salt enough? If no, then add more seasoning to your mixture before forming all the patties.
- All Vietnamese shrimp cake recipe details are in the recipe box below.
Vietnamese Shrimp Cakes/Patties
Ingredients
- 1 pound (454 g) raw shrimp , peeled and deveined
- 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) peeled and minced fresh ginger
- 3 cloves garlic , minced
- 3 green onions , minced
- 3 Tablespoons (45 ml) minced cilantro
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) fish sauce or soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) sugar (optional)
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) frying oil (vegetable or grapeseed oil), or more if needed
Instructions
- If you’re using thawed frozen shrimp, make sure they’re completely thawed and use a paper towel to squeeze out excess moisture.
- Finely chop the raw shrimp (it should be almost paste/mashed like – if it is too coarse, the patties won’t hold together well. We don’t use egg or bread crumbs in this recipe so the fine, paste-like texture is what holds the shrimp cake together).
- Place finely chopped shrimp in bowl and add ginger, garlic, green onions, cilantro, fish sauce, sesame oil, optional sugar, and black pepper. Mix everything together until evenly combined.
- Using lightly oiled hands, spoon about 2 Tablespoons of shrimp mix and shape into a flat 1/2 inch thick patty. Repeat for all the mix and set aside.
- Add thin layer of oil to skillet and heat on medium-high heat. Pan-fry the shrimp cakes for about 2 minutes or until browned.
- Flip the shrimp cakes and continue to cook for another 2-3 minutes or until cooked through. If you make thick patties then it will take a little longer to cook through.
- Allow cooked shrimp patties to cool.
- Serve with dip as an appetizer with lettuce and herbs, or in a sandwich as a banh mi or with rice noodles.
Video
Nutrition Information per Serving
Our Favorite Fish Sauce Brands:
This has been our house fish sauce for decades. Great stuff! We’ll use it to make our dipping sauces as well as marinades.
100% all-natural first press extra virgin Vietnamese fish sauce. One of the best artisan fish sauce producers.
Another good fish sauce. Clean flavors, good depth. It’s the one Diane’s mom most often uses for cooking.
How to Store Leftover Chao Tom Patties
Hopefully you didn’t have too many leftovers because they’re so good! Store them in the fridge for about 3 days max in the fridge. After that you can freeze them in airtight bags or containers for up to 2 months. Don’t wait too long to eat them because the flavor and texture is totally different from fresh. Also, if they’re thawed, they will break apart and lose their patty or cake shape. Not good!
This recipe paired with your fish sauce is so amazing. I can’t get enough of it.