Elizabeth Bissessar

Learn how to make this crispy juicy ca­jun pop­corn shrimp at home with a kick of ca­jun flavour in every bite. This recipe shows you how to make your own ca­jun sea­son­ing which is ver­sa­tile to many savoury dish­es. What I love about this shrimp is light flour coat­ing, adding a crispy tex­ture but doesn’t over­whelm the shrimp it­self. Com­ple­ment­ed with an easy tar­tar sauce that al­ways pairs well with seafood. Serve this mouth-wa­ter­ing shrimp on its own, rice, pas­ta tacos or sal­ads!

In­gre­di­ents

1 pound large shrimp (de­veined with tails on)

2 cups veg­etable oil for fry­ing

Ca­jun Sea­son­ing Mix

2 tea­spoon salt

2 tea­spoons gar­lic gran­ules

2 tea­spoons onion gran­ules

1 tea­spoon lemon pep­per

1 tea­spoon black pep­per

2 tea­spoons cayenne pep­per pow­der

1 tea­spoon chili flakes ( op­tion­al)

Tar Tar sauce

1/2 cup may­on­naise

1/4 cup sour cream

1/2 tea­spoon lemon pep­per

2 tea­spoons ca­jun sea­son­ing

1 ta­ble­spoon ca­pers

2 sprigs fresh dill (chopped)

Dry coat­ing

1 cup flour

1/3 corn starch

2 ta­ble­spoons ca­jun sea­son­ing mix

In­struc­tions

In a large saucepan add veg­etable oil to about 1/2 inch. Heat to 350 de­grees.

In a small bowl, add all sea­son­ings and whisk to­geth­er. Re­serve 2 tea­spoons for the tar-tart sauce.

Sea­son your shrimp with 2 ta­ble­spoons of your ca­jun sea­son­ing mix. Cov­er and al­low to mar­i­nate in the re­frig­er­a­tor for 15 min­utes.

In an­oth­er small bowl, pre­pare the dry coat by whisk­ing to­geth­er the flour, corn­starch and ca­jun sea­son­ing mix

Start prepar­ing your shrimp to fry, be­gin by coat­ing the shrimp in the flour mix­ture and lay on a sep­a­rate plate.

Care­ful­ly add the shrimp to the hot oil and cook on one side for 2 min­utes. Flip and cook for an­oth­er 3 min­utes or un­til they are a rich gold­en brown.

Re­move with a strain­er and trans­fer cooked shrimp to a plate lined with a pa­per tow­el. Fry out re­main­ing shrimp, re­peat­ing the coat­ing process.

Cre­ate your tar­tar sauce by com­bin­ing all in­gre­di­ents and whisk­ing well.

Serve your ca­jun pop­corn shrimp hot with a side of tar­tar sauce.

Recipe by An­n­Marie Ram­bal­ly

An­n­Marie Ram­bal­ly owns a cater­ing busi­ness called An­nie’s Culi­nary Cui­sine. She has been cook­ing since the age of 12 and was taught by her moth­er and grand­moth­er. “Cook­ing is my pas­sion and it brings me great joy to see peo­ple en­joy what I cre­ate.”

Fol­low An­nie on Face­book and In­sta­gram: @An­nie’s Culi­nary Cui­sine