I had the best Mexican Shrimp Cocktail a couple of days ago and had to share it with everyone. Living in Utah, there are not a lot of native Mexican restaurants around, so this was a real treat for me.

In Mexico, the idea of shrimp cocktail is more like a cold shrimp soup. It sounds much different than the traditional Shrimp Cocktail (shrimp on ice with cocktail sauce), but believe me, you will definitely want to give this a try if you like shrimp cocktail.

Here are the recipe highlights:

Ingredients:

Shrimp – De-veined with the tails removed
Ketchup
2 Limes
Worcestershire Sauce
Salt & Pepper
Garlic Salt
Onion
Tomatos
Cucumbers
Avacado
Red and Green Peppers
Jalapeño Pepper or Chili powder for heat
Cilantro

Directions

Bring several cups of shrimp to boil for a few minutes. Let the shrimp stock cool in the refrigerator overnight. Add two good long squirts of ketchup, the juice from 2 limes, some salt and pepper, a glug of Worcestershire sauce, and some garlic salt to complete the broth of the Shrimp Cocktail. If desired, include some chili powder to heat things up.

Cut the shrimp, onions, avocados, peppers, and tomatoes into bite sized pieces (about the size of a dime/nickel). If desired, finely chop some jalapeño peppers to spice things up a bit.

Serve the cocktail in a cocktail glass or small bowl. Start by adding the broth to the glass or bowl. Add to the mix a generous helping of chopped shrimp, avocados, onions, peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers. If you want it a little hotter, add some finely chopped jalapeño peppers. Top it off with a touch of cilantro and you are good to go.

Mix it all together and serve with crackers or tortilla chips and a spoon.

It is great!

A couple of good modifications for variety – give them a try, you might like them.

  1. You can substitute the catchup with spicy V8 juice for a tangy alternative.
  2. Add some minced garlic to the broth before putting it in the refrigerator.
  3. If you really want to make it spicy, add some horseradish (to taste) to the mix to bring out the flavor of the Mexican Shrimp Cocktail.

The only problem is that you might fill up on the shrimp cocktail and won’t leave room for a good steak!

Enjoy!

Flickr picture by: Edith*Tequila y sal*{aztec girl}