I wanted to make a shrimp cocktail.
I had found a recipe for an old-school British version, which called for serving the shrimp in a (very) basic mayonnaise, ketchup, Worcestershire, and Tabasco sauce dressing on top of some shredded lettuce in a tall glass, that looked good, but needed a bit of zipping up, in my opinion.
Then, I came across a kinda cool recipe for “MTK’s Sauced Shrimp” in The Tabasco Cookbook, and thought, zipped up, indeed!
INGREDIENTS
Dressing:
•1/2 cup sour cream
•1/4 cup mayonnaise
•2 tbsp cocktail sauce
•1/2 tsp salad vinegar
•1 tbsp horseradish
•1-1/2 tsp Worcestershire
•1/2 tsp hot sauce
– I used Cajun Power Spicy Garlic Sauce
•1-1/2 tsp curry powder
•1 tbsp mango chutney (Major Grey’s)
•2 tbsp capers, drained
Salad:
•1 lb shrimp, deveined, peeled, and cooked
•Romaine
•Asparagus, roasted, cooled, and sliced
•Chopped fresh parsley
OK, so the dressing is a little bit more involved than ‘ketchup, Worcestershire, and Tabasco sauce’ but trust me – it is SO MUCH BETTER – and it really isn’t at all hard to toss together.
I should note that the original recipe from the nice folk at Tabasco called for using 2 pounds of shrimp and serving it as a munchie, with the sauce on the side for dipping, if you prefer. I thought using just 1 pound allowed the extra sauce to spread around nicely over the lettuce and asparagus.
And, ermmm, I just had the one pound of shrimp on hand…
Speaking of the shrimp: I boiled mine for 3 minutes in water with seasoned salt, rinsed ’em with cold water to stop them from cooking any more and stashed ’em in the fridge to chill, but next time (and trust me, there will be a next time – this was one fine salad) I plan on grilling them along with the asparagus.
OK, shrimp and asparagus cooked/grilled/roasted/whatever and cooled; let us make the dressing.
Add all the ingredients to a large bowl and stir to combine.
Yep, that’s it.
Add the shrimp to the dressing, toss to coat well, then cover and stash in the fridge for 3 hours or (more better) overnight.
When ready to serve, arrange the torn romaine on a large platter and top with the shrimp and all of the sauce.
Tuck the sliced roasted asparagus around the edges of the platter and dust the whole thing with the parsley; I will remind you that the parsley is SO MUCH MORE than just a garnish – it adds a nice bit a flavor to an already flavorful dish – so don’t skip it.
Nice salad – and, as a handy side note, we had a bit of the salad leftover, and I stashed it in a covered bowl in the fridge, thinking that the flavor would make up for the no-doubt wilted, dressed lettuce the next day. WHO KNEW? The dressing did not wilt the romaine, and it was still all good the next day, and not too, too bad the day after that! OK, so, I had made a LOT of salad.