Flour, water, shrimp, parsley and onion. Five ingredients that cost next to nothing, and the result sells in three-star restaurants. Andalusia's tortillitas de camarones are proof that the difference between poor cooking and expensive cooking is almost never in the list of ingredients.

The origin is traced somewhere in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with a possible influence from Genoese traders and their mixtures of flour and water. In Cádiz that met the bay shrimp that were there in abundance, and from that came the version known today - almost transparent, crisp, packed with tiny shrimp.

Two women and two decisions

The entire modern form of this dish comes out of one tavern - Venta de Vargas in San Fernando. Catalina Pérez changed the flour ratio to get a thinner tortillita. María Picardo then swapped the water for soda water, and that is the move that gives them the bubbles and the lace around the edges.

Neither of them patented anything. Today the same technique runs from bar counters to Ángel León's Aponiente, and nobody remembers any more that it comes down to two decisions made in a tavern.

María Lo's recipe

The MasterChef winner gives these proportions: 120 g fresh shrimp, 90 g soft wheat flour, 70 g chickpea flour, 240 g very cold iced water, half a spring onion, a splash of cold beer, freshly chopped parsley, salt and olive oil for frying.

The onion is chopped fine, the parsley picked off the stems and chopped. In a bowl you mix the onion, parsley, both flours and the water - but not all at once, three quarters of it, then adjust gradually. Then the beer, just opened and cold, and the salt.

The batter has to stay liquid. This is the first place the recipe fails - every instinct shouts to thicken it so it will "hold", and that is precisely what kills the lace.

The oil goes into a wide pan over high heat, properly hot but never smoking. The shrimp go in right before frying, not earlier. A ladle drops the batter into the oil and you open it out immediately with the tip of the ladle - that is where the thinness comes from. When it turns golden on one side, flip it. Lift it out with tongs, drain on paper and eat it at once, with your hands, while it is still burning hot.

Not one part of this recipe requires equipment. It requires the right temperature and twenty seconds of patience - a costlier investment than any gadget off a shelf.