Shrimp Paste and Shrimp Cakes 蝦滑
By Michael · from our van kitchen
Shrimp paste, ha waat (蝦滑) in Cantonese, is Rina’s favorite thing at hot pot. So I’ve made it myself in the van a few times now. Shrimp, salt, a little pepper, a little garlic powder, and a lot of throwing.
Shrimp cakes in San Diego
In December 2024 we were stealth camping in San Diego, and I was cooking surf and turf that night, ribeye with scallops and shrimp. For the shrimp I wanted to do something a little different, so I chopped it up into a paste instead. You can watch me make it.
I seasoned it, mixed it, and left it in the bowl while I cooked the steak and the scallops. Then I put it in the same cast iron and flattened it into one big shrimp cake. It came out golden on the outside, with that chewy texture. Spencer tried it and said it was yummy. I think I did a pretty good job with dinner that night, with the ribeyes and the shrimp cake. The scallops were the fail. I couldn’t get a good sear on them. The rest of that dinner is in our surf and turf recipe.
Why you throw it
Why does throwing it matter? I think it’s because you’re adding air to it. When I made it again at a rest area on Lake Superior in July 2025, I kept throwing it, and it came out with a nice chewy, bouncy texture. That night it went into a tomato soup and turned into a little hot pot, with fatty beef. That one is in our hot pot at home post.
Rina made shrimp paste in the van too, in May 2025, for a tomato soup with beef. Beef and shrimp paste are our favorite ingredients, so it was basically hot pot. It was a success. And when we got back to New York, my mom made shrimp paste for us in a fish, tomato and corn soup, because she watches our videos and knows Rina really likes it.
Homemade or store-bought?
You can buy shrimp paste ready made at the Asian supermarket, and that’s obviously more convenient. But when you make it yourself, you know exactly what ingredients you used. If we lived in a house, I’d make my own beef balls and shrimp balls too.
Ingredients
Shrimp paste
- Raw shrimp, peeled
- Salt
- A little pepper
- A little garlic powder
Steps
- Smash the shrimp with the flat of your knife, then chop it up on the board until it's a paste.
- Put it in a bowl and season it with salt, a little pepper and a little garlic powder.
- Mix it and keep throwing it. I put a plastic bag over my hand for this. Throwing it adds air, and that's what gives it the chewy, bouncy texture.
- Leave the shrimp paste to the side while you cook everything else. In San Diego I cooked it after the steak and the scallops, in the same cast iron.
- Put the shrimp paste in the cast iron and flatten it into one big shrimp cake.
- Flip it over and cook the other side.
- Put it on the board with the rest of dinner.
- For hot pot, skip the pan: spoon the shrimp paste into the soup and cook it there.
Amounts are what I said in the video. Where I didn't measure, it says "to taste". Cook it your way.
