Course: Main Dish
Cuisine: Grilled, Seafood
- 1-2 cloves garlic peeled
- 1 dried or fresh chile stemmed, seeded and deveined, or more to taste
- 1 1 inch piece ginger peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 1/2 pounds shrimp peeled and deveined
- 1/4 cup roughly chopped shallots scallions or red onion
- 1/4 cup roughly chopped red or yellow bell pepper optional
- salt and pepper
- 1/2 cup cilantro leaves or to taste
- Neutral oil like corn or canola, as needed
- Toasted buns optional
- Lime wedges or ketchup for serving
Start a charcoal or gas grill; fire should be moderately hot and rack about 4 inches from heat source.
Combine garlic, chili, ginger and 1/3 of the shrimp in a food processor and purée, stopping machine to scrape down sides of container as necessary. Add remaining shrimp along with shallots, bell pepper, salt, pepper and cilantro, and pulse as many times as necessary to chop shrimp, but not too finely. Shape mixture into 4 patties. Chill for 15 to 20 minutes.
Brush grill or patties lightly with oil and place them on grill. Cook undisturbed until a dark crust appears on bottom and they release fairly easily with a spatula, about 5 minutes. Turn and cook an additional 3 to 4 minutes on the other side. Serve on buns or not, as you like, with ketchup or lime juice as a condiment.
