How to Make Mexican Shrimp Cocktail

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 30 mins

Cooking time: –

Ingredients needed to make Mexican Shrimp Cocktail:

For the cocktail:

• 7 oz tiger prawns, cooked, peeled and deveined
• 14 oz Atlantic prawns, cooked, peeled and deveined
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 2 tomatoes, peeled, deseeded and chopped
• 1 avocado, peeled, cored and diced
• 1 ½ jalapeno chillies, finely chopped
• 6 tbsp fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
• 2 tsp fresh oregano
• Freshly squeezed out juice of 2 limes
• 6 tbsp tomato ketchup
• 4 fl oz orange juice
• Worcestershire sauce, to taste
• Dash of tabasco sauce

For the salad:

• 1 small avocado, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
• 2 handfuls baby spinach leaves
• 4 hearts of palm, quartered longitudinally
• 1 gem lettuce, leaves separated
• 1 tbsp onion, chopped
• ½ garlic clove
• 1 orange
• 1 bunch radishes (half quartered, half thinly sliced)
• 2 tbsp flaked almonds, toasted
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp chitpotle chili paste
• 5 tsp sunflower oil
• Dash of sugar

Cooking instructions for Mexican Shrimp Cocktail:

• To make the cocktail, spoon the orange juice and tomato ketchup into a bowl, followed by a dash of Worcestershire and Tabasco sauce and whisk them all together along with a splash of lime juice, until well combined.
• Stir in oregano, chill and shallots until they are distributed throughout the mixture and plop in the prawns.
• Sprinkle a dash of seasonings to taste and stir them all together until the prawns are well coated with the dressing.
• To make the salad, toss the onion, garlic as well as chitpotle chili paste into a mortar and crush them with a pestle into a paste.
• Sprinkle ½ tsp orange zest into the paste and drizzle oil into it gradually, while whisking it into the mixture using the pestle.
• Season with a pinch of sugar, salt and a splash of vinegar and stir them all together until they are blended thoroughly into the mixture.
• Peel the skin off the orange and chop it into small bits.
• Toss them into a large bowl, along with the radishes, hearts of palm as well as the salad greens and smother them with small amount of the prepared dressing and toss them together until well coated.
• Pile the salad onto a serving dish and arrange the avocado slices on top.
• Sprinkle the flaked almonds over it and set aside.
• Transfer the prawns into cocktail glasses and scatter the cilantro leaves on top.
• Top it up with diced avocado and serve alongside the salad plus salted crackers.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons