Gambas con gabardina

The dish before being cooked
Course	Appetizer
Place of origin	Spain
Main ingredients	Shrimp, batter (flour, egg, beer and cornstarch)

A serving of gambas con gabardina as eaten in Spanish bars

Gambas con gabardina (shrimp in a trenchcoat) is a popular Spanish tapa that started to gain prominence in the 1950s, when it was included in the Manual de Cocina, a cookbook published by the Sección Femenina and given to all Spanish housewives after they completed their Social Service, the female equivalent to conscription during the Francoist dictatorship.^[1] It consists of shrimp coated in a flour, egg, beer and cornstarch batter (known in French as à l'Orly) and then deep fried in olive oil. The tails are left during cooking as the shrimp is eaten by hand. The batter may have a yellow tint due to the use of saffron. The name of the dish comes from the way the batter covers the shrimp, as it does so in the fashion of a trenchcoat. A variant popular in Murcia is known as caballitos (seahorses), as the peeled shrimp takes the shape of this fish through the use of a toothpick which is then used to eat the snack.

References