What to eat with shrimp cocktail
Mexican-Style Shrimp Cocktail - How to Make a Mexican-Style Seafood Cocktail
[Music]
hello this is chef john from food wishes
calm with mexican-style shrimp cocktail
that's right I'm excited to show you my
take on North America's others shrimp
cocktail and I know you didn't even know
there was another kind of shrimp
cocktail but there is and while
certainly not as popular I find this
version much more interesting delicious
and not to mention beautiful to look at
and of course all that subjective which
basically means I could never win or
lose that argument but that's okay who
has time to argue when we could be
making and eating this so let's go ahead
and get started with our shrimp and what
I have right here is one pound that have
been peeled and deveined and in case
you're keeping score at home these are
the 25 to a pound size bus's we're gonna
cut these up after we cook them you
really can use any size shrimp you want
and then speaking of cooking these are
usually boiled in a pot of salted water
but I don't do it that way what we're
gonna do is actually cook these in a
little bit of clam juice which to me
works out better since we're gonna add
clam juice anyway we might as well
infuse it with some shrimp flavor plus
when you cook shrimp in a big pot of
boiling water you run the risk of
leaching out some of the flavor so using
this method we ensure a hundred percent
of the shrimp enos is going into the
cocktail and all we're gonna do is add a
pinch of dry oregano and bring this up
to a boil on medium high heat and as
soon as that does start to boil what
we'll do is transfer in our shrimp and
we'll cook that stirring ideally with a
freakishly small wooden spoon for about
two minutes or until just barely cooked
and don't worry if it seems like there's
not enough liquid there is just keep
stirring and keep them moving until like
I said they're just barely cooked and by
the way don't be afraid if they're
slightly undercooked because there's
anyone that's ever made a ceviche knows
the acidity in our cocktail from the
lime and the tomato will actually finish
the job for you so better to go a few
seconds under then to overcook these so
I cooked mine stirring for just two
minutes until they just firmed up at
which point I'm gonna take my strainer
and quickly remove those from the pot
into a bowl and please do not discard
that liquid what we're gonna do is let
that cool before straining it and
reserving it for later because adding
that stuff to our cocktail is going to
be one of the secrets to this recipe so
like I said we'll remove the shrimp to a
bowl and once that's cool enough to
handle we'll go ahead and cut it up not
to mention remove any of those veins we
might have missed since I can see a
couple here and there
and while we're waiting for that to cool
we can move on to the rest of the
cocktail which is going to start with
some fresh tomatoes and I'm the blog I'm
going to go over all the different
choices you have but today I'm going to
be using some fresh cherry tomatoes
since they were so gorgeous and
incredibly sweet but I've also used a
concassé of regular large Tomatoes as
well as can San Marzano tomatoes so like
I said I will go over those options on
the blog but for this particular version
I'm going to go ahead and quarter up a
generous cup or so of those cherry
tomatoes to which we will add our second
tomato product a generous helping a
premium ketchup and then to that
assuming it's been cooled and strained
we'll go ahead and pour in our clam
juice which has now been infused with
that beautiful sweet shrimp flavor and
then speaking of flavor we're also gonna
want to do some lime juice freshly
squeezed of course and then once that's
set we can move on to the diced
vegetables
which i think is what really sets this
room cocktail apart so we're gonna go
ahead and toss in some diced English
cucumbers which by the way have a very
tender mild skin which is why I left
most of it on if you use regular
cucumbers you should probably peel and
see them we'll also do some diced red
onion as well as some diced celery and
then we'll also go ahead and add some
diced jalapeno which are not only gonna
add a little bit of heat but along with
the celery we're also gonna add a little
bit of bitterness which is I may have
mentioned before it helps bring out the
sweetness in the other ingredients and
then we'll finish up our vegetation with
a very generous handful of chopped
cilantro before we season this up with a
little bit of cayenne as well as a
splash of mexican hot sauce I don't want
to give you the brand but it rhymes with
hallelujah and then last but not least
we will finish up with some kosher salt
and that at least for me is going to be
it and then we'll go ahead and take a
spatula and give this a mix and
obviously whenever we do something like
this it could be adapted to your taste
some people like to put some lemon in or
some garlic or even some horseradish but
as usual that will be up to you
you are the Etzel forward fond of making
sure this doesn't taste wrong so feel
free to add and delete as you see fit
and what we'll do once that's mixed is
set that aside while we cut up our now
hopefully cooled shrimp and for shrimp
this size I usually cut them in three
pieces but there are a lot of different
opinions on the perfect size some people
leave them whole other people chop them
up really fine
but this is my preference right here
although I do like to leave a few of
them uncut
that way we can garnish the top
of our cocktail with a trophy shrimp but
anyway we're gonna go ahead and cut most
of those up before adding those to our
bowl and then we'll give that a thorough
mixing before wrapping it up and
chilling it thoroughly and one thing I
like to do is I finish up the mixing
just take my spatula and give those
shrimp the old poka poka so they're
under the surface absorbing all that
amazing flavor and would that really
make a big difference if we didn't
probably not but I just can't take that
chance
so I'm gonna go ahead and Nestle those
down before like I said we're gonna wrap
this up and pop it in the fridge for at
least two to three hours or until
thoroughly thoroughly chilled you do not
want to eat a Mexican shrimp cocktail
that has no chill and besides we want to
give all those flavors enough time to
mingle together so we'll leave that in
the fridge for a few hours at which
point we can pull it out unwrap it and
move into final production and the first
thing I'm going to check for is the
viscosity all right this should be a
little juicier than when you put it in
the fridge because that salt will have
drawn out a little bit of liquid from
the vegetables but I generally tend to
add a little more liquid at this point
because I don't like this to be too
thick and we could thin this with tomato
juice or some more clam juice or my
other secret ingredient a little splash
of pickle brine so to paint on what
yours looks like you'll have to decide
whether to do that or not and yes you
could just use a little bit of fresh
cold water but I'm gonna use a splash of
brine to just lighten this up a little
bit and then yes of course you're gonna
taste for salt and acid and spice and
adjust if need be and then once we're
happy with the texture and the taste we
can go ahead and add the last optional
ingredient some diced avocado and the
prep those all we have to do is take a
half an avocado and cut across this way
right down to the skin by the way the
skin of the avocado not your hand and
then we'll turn it and cut across the
other way and by the way there's two
ways you can safely do this with a dull
knife and no towel to protect your hand
or a sharp knife in a towel to protect
your hand okay so to recap do not cut
your hand and once we've cut those both
ways all we have to do is take a spoon
and as you scoop it out you'll see it's
all perfectly diced and we'll go ahead
and add that to our cocktail and stir it
in and as soon as that's combined we are
pretty much ready to serve although it's
never a bad idea to give it one last
taste I didn't show any more but this
almost always needs a little more salt
so we may or may not have to adjust
those seasonings but we'll give it one
last taste just in case and then once
we're happy with that we'll go ahead and
serve it up into hopefully some kind of
clear dish or bowl okay it's gonna taste
the same no matter what you serve it in
Bob being able to see through to that
beautiful cocktail is a nice bonus and
I've never once got this at a Mexican
restaurant where it wasn't served in a
glass bowl so that's the official
recommendation as is topping with one
whole shrimp that you'll probably want
to dust with a little bit of cayenne or
some Chipotle if you want a little bit
of smokiness and then we'll finish up
with a fresh cilantro oh yeah I don't
want to brag but that sprig placement
was money and that's it our Mexican
style shrimp cocktail is done and you
may have already known about this but I
really hope you haven't because when you
make and try this you're gonna be like
oh my god I can't believe I didn't know
about this before I'm gonna need to make
up for lost time this is one of the most
delicious and interesting seafood
cocktails you will ever eat
I mean imagine the best gazpacho you
ever had combined with the best shrimp
cocktail you ever had that's sort of
what's going on here we have those
perfectly cooked pieces of sweet shrimp
swimming in our aromatic herbaceous kind
of spicy kind of tangy extremely
flavorful vibrant sauce there's just
nothing not to like about this I mean
sure if you want a nitpick there's like
15 or 20 minutes of dicing involved but
that's a small price to pay for
something that's amazing
not to mention I think this is also
relatively healthy in fact it might even
be paleo friendly and I'm not gonna lie
I don't know a lot about what they call
the caveman diet most of what I know I
learned from the Flintstones but if you
do swing that way I believe this would
be a good option but anyway that's it my
take on a Mexican style shrimp cocktail
I'm not saying there's anything wrong
with the regular shrimp cocktail you're
used to I'm just saying there's so much
right with this one so I really do hope
you give this a try soon head over to
food wishes comm for all the ingredient
amounts and more info as usual and as
always enjoy
you
