Tortillitas de Camarones "Shrimp Cakes"
Tortillitas de Camarones is a regional tapas dish from Andalusia. To be honest, I have not seen these in the rest of Spain. They use a small tender shrimp that is usually only found in the Cadiz region called camarones. This small shrimp is mixed into the batter whole to create this delicate and crispy cake. This recipe uses chick pea flour. As you can imagine, this is hard to find but very much worth it if you can. I could not find it either, so I made my own. I just took some dry chick peas and put them in my coffee grinder (they may be too hard for most food processors). I ground them down into a nice flour, easy! If you can't do this, normal flour will work too. I had to make this dish a few times before I got something I was happy with. I could not find the small shrimp where I was, so I chopped some larger ones. I suggest if you can find the smaller fresh shrimp, use them whole, they would be more authentic than chopping larger shrimp. Also, I found the batter should be very thin. If it is too thick, you get a softer more bread-like texture like the bunuelos. Keep the batter just thicker than milk, and you will be good to go! Try Tortillitas de Camarones, they are not well known outside of Andalusia, but everyone who has been there always raves about them! Give them a try and let me know how you like them! 
Serves 4-6 tapas portions Preparation time: about 20 minutes INGREDIENTS 2/3 cups chickpea flour (or normal flour if you can't find or make this) 1/3 cup bread flour about 1/2 lb small fresh shrimp (or chopped large shrimp) 2 TB fresh flat-leaf parsley finely chopped 2 shallots (or 1/2 onion) finely chopped 1/2 clove garlic finely chopped pinch of saffron or 1/2 ts sweet paprika 1 ts salt olive oil for frying DIRECTIONS Add the flours to a large bowl. Add about 3/4 cup of water and mix well to remove any lumps. We are looking for a light batter just thicker than milk. Continue adding water until you reach that consistency, it will be very loose. Now add the remaining ingredients and add salt to your taste. Mix well. Add about 1 inch of olive oil to a skillet. Heat the oil and when hot add a spoonful of the mixture. It should flatten out. Cook for about 1-2 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Remove to a paper towel and then serve hot. Enjoy!  Return from Tortillitas de Camarones Recipe to Home Page
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