This post is inspired by the “camaron” taco at our favourite taqueria in Vancouver, Los Cuervos. If you haven’t been before, you should check them out. Their tacos are the best in Vancouver. For more information about Los Cuervos, check out our recent write up under the restaurants tab or click here: https://westrosa.com/restaurants/los-cuervos-taqueria/
If you want to try making my version of these tacos at home, here’s my recipe.
Pico de gallo salsa ingredients:
1/2 cup diced white onion (1/2 an onion)
2 tbsp diced jalapeno (1 jalapeno pepper, no seeds)
The juice of one lime
1 tsp salt
3 medium firm tomatoes, diced (remove seeds)
3 tbsp cilantro
I would recommend making the salsa first and refrigerating it until you’re ready to serve the tacos.
In a bowl, add your diced onions and jalapeño peppers. Then add the lime juice and salt. Stir.
Add the diced tomatoes to the bowl, but do not stir the tomatoes in with the other ingredients. Just lay them on top for now. The salt and lime juice can make your tomatoes soggy. Add your cilantro to the bowl. Again, don’t stir. The cilantro can taste soapy if it rests in the lime juice for too long.
You can combine all of the salsa ingredients just before spooning the pico de gallo onto your tacos.
Taco Ingredients:
8 small warm tortillas (corn or flour)
16/20 medium sized deveined raw shrimp
2 diced avocados
The juice of 1/2 a lime
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup plum sauce
Get all of your taco ingredients ready before making your shrimp batter so that the batter doesn’t rest too long and so that you can serve the tacos as soon as the shrimp are cooked.
Squeeze the juice of half a lime on the diced avocados so that they don’t turn brown. Salt your avocados and put them in the fridge until you’re ready to serve your tacos.
Shrimp batter Ingredients:
1 egg
1 cup ice cold water
3/4 cup sifted flour
1/4 cup corn starch
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp paprika
Whisk all of the ingredients together. Try not to over mix the batter. It will make the batter gummy. Submerge the shrimp into the batter.
I don’t like to use a lot of oil to fry the shrimp, just enough to cover the bottom of a small saucepan.
Be careful. You may get some splatter when frying. I like to use chopsticks to place the battered shrimp into the pan. It allows me to keep my hands a little further away from the hot oil.
Do a test run with just one shrimp to see how things go. Fry the shrimp in small batches. You don’t want to overcrowd your pan because it will reduce the temperature of the oil and you may end up with a soggy oily batter. The oil needs to be hot. Set your oven burner temperature to high.
Cook them for a minute or two on each side and them flip them over. The batter should look golden brown.
To assemble your tacos, drizzle the plum sauce onto the warm tortillas. (You can warm the tortillas in a pan or put them in the microwave for 20 seconds). Then add some avocado, some cooked shrimp and top with the pico de gallo salsa.
It’s not difficult to make these tacos, but it does take some time and effort. That’s why we usually have them at Los Cuervos. They are delicious and they do all the work for you. They’ll even bring you a delicious margarita while you wait. Here’s the link to their menu: http://www.loscuervos.ca/Menu.html
Enjoy!