Two Recipes: Shrimp on Avocado Boats and Shrimp with Homemade Cocktail Sauce

Sailing, sailing

This recipe is reminiscent of both guacamole and ceviche, with flavors of both. But it's not spicy, unless you consider onions spicy.

You can heat it up with some hot sauce, chili powder, jalapenos, or cayenne and serve it with chips instead of with a spoon if you prefer.

I liked the idea of leaving the avocado in its shell - it made a really pretty presentation. But you could scoop out the meat and mix it with the vegetables instead. Your choice.

For my convenience, I bought the shrimp pre-cooked. Of course you can cook your own. You know, if it's not 90 degrees in your kitchen.

Shrimp on Avocado Boats

1 small tomato
1 small red onion
1 pickling cucumber or 1/2 of an English cucumber
1/2 teaspoon salt
Juice of  1 lime
4 avocados
8 cleaned, cooked, peeled, and chilled medium shrimp

Dice the tomato and put it in a small bowl. Dice the onion and add that to the tomato. Peel and dice the cucumber, and add that as well. Sprinkle with the salt and squeeze the lime juice over the top.

Stir to combine and set aside to marinate for at least an hour - this will mellow the onions and infuse the lime flavor into the cucumbers.

Slice the avocado in half and remove the seed. Cut the flesh first in one direction, then in another, without cutting through the skin, to make cubes or diamond-shaped pieces, When you scoop it out with a spoon, you'll have nice chunks.

Top the avocado with the vegetable mix, then add a shrimp to the top. If you like, you can drizzle a little of the lime juice on top of the shrimp.

Serve immediately.

Some lovely shrimp

I very seldom buy cocktail sauce for shrimp. I don't need another bottle of something lurking on my refrigerator door, and particularly not something that I don't use often. I mean, we don't eat shrimp every week.

The great thing is that cocktail sauce is easy to make from ingredients you might have on hand. For sure they're ingredients I always have on hand.

You can adjust it to your taste, and to compensate for how spicy your horseradish is. Not only are different brands of horseradish more or less spicy to begin with, the longer you keep it, the milder it will get. So, like anything else, I suggest you taste and adjust.

This recipe is tiny - just a little taste of shrimp for two people, but you can make the cocktail sauce in any quantity you like. I like to start with 1 part horseradish to 2 parts ketchup, and adjust from there.

As far as extra ingredients, you can add more heat in the form of cayenne or hot sauce, but you certainly don't have to. The horseradish already packs its own heat, and this simple sauce lets the shrimp be the star. Shrimp cocktail should be all about the shrimp, right?

Shrimp with Cocktail Sauce

1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Hot sauce or cayenne (optional, to taste)
4 cleaned, cooked, peeled and chilled shrimp

Combine horseradish, ketchup, lemon juice and the hot sauce or cayenne, if you're using it. Taste and adjust, as desired.

Divide the sauce into two small glasses and arrange the shrimp in the glasses.

Serve.

For more information about Whole Foods Friday, and my relationship with Whole Foods, see the tab at the top.

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