Shrimp appetizer recipe

[Fernwood]

Okay, my eGullet resolution for 2005 is to learn how to search effectively--is it possible?

I saw a shrimp recipe recently that I would like to find again. Unfortunately, I'm not even sure which forum it was, nor am I sure that the post was recent, or even in a recently active thread, as I may have been browsing back in Special Occasions, say. I have tried searching Cooking, General Food Topics and Special Occasions, without success. I feel that the thread was not specifically about shrimp, but maybe someone asking for ideas for appetizers for a particular occasion, but I could definitely be wrong about that.

The shrimp recipe I'm thinking of was offered enthusiastically, as "favorite" or "best" and I believe it involved a long soak in a (initially warm) marinade. If I could remember more specifics I might be able to search better, but I'm hoping someone will know what I'm talking about... please?

Fern

[Gifted Gourmet]

Fernwood, I put the terms "shrimp marinade", "marinated shrimp", and added the words "favorite" and "best" into both site search and Google search for eGullet .. turned up a few different possibilities, but not exactly what your question asks ....

If you can not locate it here, and only you will know it when you see it (the recipe and post it is contained within), might I suggest that you simply do a Google search on the Web on your own? There is so much information here, that only one who knows what he/she is seeking specifically, could even begin to identify ...

see what I mean? you then have to "sift" for the recipe...

[Fernwood]

Well, this is a pathetic one, because I can't remember anything specific enough from the post to do a decent search, even if I had confidence in that process.  My comments about searching in general, however, reflect the fact that, even when I think I know exactly what I'm looking for on a forum search, I am sometimes swamped with results that seem quite irrelevant, even though I am looking for something that was the focal topic of a particular thread.  I keep thinking that there may be more to know about how to use forum search effectively, but I will have to make some time to look into it.

About this shrimp, I am just hoping that someone will recognize the thread, or their own recipe, from my feeble recollections and be able to show me the way.

Thanks for trying. Fern

[fifi]

I don't think this is what you saw since the marinade isn't warm but maybe it is what you are looking for. For some stupid reason, I can get to the old RecipeGullet and so I copied it from there.

Pickled Shrimp

Submitted by: fifi

Keywords: Appetizer, Easy, Shrimp, Snack, Hors d'oeuvre

This recipe is at least 50 years old. I remember eating it at my Aunt Audrey’s house where we went every Christmas Eve. She was old enough to be my father’s mother so there is no telling how old it is. My sister got this recipe from her before she died and it has been handed down in my family ever since. It is truly terrific and I find it fascinating that this was around so long before recipes like this were trendy. Think of it as a very early escabeche. I have no idea where she got the capers back then but she did use them. I remember wondering what the heck those things were.

2 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined

3 medium sweet onions, thinly sliced

12 or so whole cloves

6 or so bay leaves

1-1/4 c salad oil (Canola or other light vegetable oil, NOT olive oil)

3/4 c white or cider vinegar

1 large clove garlic, finely minced

1-1/2 tsp salt

2-1/2 tsp celery seed

2-1/2 tsp capers and juice

Boil cleaned shrimp. Do not over cook. Arrange shrimp and onion rings in layers in a glass bowl or jar.

Sprinkle with cloves and tuck in bay leaves as you go.

Cover with marinade made with the last 6 ingredients.

Let stand in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight. Can be kept for 3 days in a jar with a good lid.

Pretty served in clear glass.

Notes:

I tend to increase the cloves, bay leaves and capers. I think it makes it better.

I have marinated blanched asparagus in the left over marinade after eating all of the shrimp. Fabulous. You could do other vegetables as well and serve on top of greens as a terrific salad, including the onions.

Fresh shrimp are always best but you could get pre-prepared shrimp from the grocery and it would probably still be good. At least that might inspire you to make this.

[Fernwood]

Pickled Shrimp

Submitted by: fifi

(snipped)

←

Yay fifi!

I think that was indeed the recipe I was remembering. I just knew that some wonderful, psychic, eGulleteer would come to my rescue.

Thanks very much, Fern

[fifi]

Oh goody! I do hope you try it. It is a really spectacular recipe. My sister and I figured out that it is really older than the 50 years I indicated in the introduction. She remembers eating it as a kid in the early 40s and it was already a tradition then.

[Fernwood]

fifi,

I did and it was great. It's a keeper. My only issue is the labor to peel the shrimp. (Once or twice a year I discover, yet again, why I don't do these various shrimp things more often.) When I looked for eGullet wisdom about shrimp peeling I found, of course, your thread on the subject. Highly relevant but, ultimately, didn't help much. I keep thinking there must be someone out there with a better technique, cause it always seems a terrible chore to me. I did do it with more deliberate attention this time and found a routine that was somewhat more efficient, but I still think it's a drag. So, sometime later this year, when I've forgotten how much I hate peeling shrimp, I'll make Aunt Audrey's recipe again.

Many thanks,

Fern

[fifi]

I am so glad you tried it. I am in total sympathy about the shrimp peeling. I use one of these things and peel and devein them raw. It is still a pain in the butt and I have been known to cheat and use the preprepared shrimp, especially if I need a really big batch. They aren't as tender as when you carefully cook your own but it still gets gobbled up.

[Anna N]

I also tried this shrimp preparation and it was received with raves and is now a permanent part of my repertoire. Thank you.

[Jaymes]

My only issue is the labor to peel the shrimp. ... I keep thinking there must be someone out there with a better technique, cause it always seems a terrible chore to me.

My folks came up with a better way to peel the shrimp. They made us kids do it. One of my earliest memories is of sitting at a table piled with shrimp, my little arms itching down to the elbows where the shrimp juice had run.

Fifi, that recipe looks great. I've tried several marinated shrimp recipes and been disappointed. In many areas of Mexico, the term "pico de gallo" refers to a chunky dip/appetizer thing, served in a shallow dish, that you poke around in with a toothpick and stab various items that look tasty. I've been told that when you see several folks picking and stabbing with their toothpicks, they look just like a bunch of chickens, and that's where the name comes from. So that's how I plan to serve your shrimp. Do you think I could chunk the onions so that you could stab one of those with each piece of shrimp?

Edited January 12, 2005 by Jaymes (log)

[Susan in FL]

Okay, my eGullet resolution for 2005 is to learn how to search effectively--is it possible? 

So far it hasn't been possible for me, either. I suck at searches on eG. I just can't seem to enter the right words to find what I want among the many search results, and then I'm too lazy to read through them all to look for what I wanted to find.

I don't think this is what you saw since the marinade isn't warm but maybe it is what you are looking for. For some stupid reason, I can get to the old RecipeGullet and so I copied it from there.

Pickled Shrimp

Submitted by: fifi

Keywords: Appetizer, Easy, Shrimp, Snack, Hors d'oeuvre

This recipe is at least 50 years old. I remember eating it at my Aunt Audrey’s house where we went every Christmas Eve. She was old enough to be my father’s mother so there is no telling how old it is. My sister got this recipe from her before she died and it has been handed down in my family ever since. It is truly terrific and I find it fascinating that this was around so long before recipes like this were trendy. Think of it as a very early escabeche. I have no idea where she got the capers back then but she did use them. I remember wondering what the heck those things were.

2 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined

3  medium sweet onions, thinly sliced

12  or so whole cloves

6  or so bay leaves

1-1/4 c salad oil (Canola or other light vegetable oil, NOT olive oil)

3/4 c white or cider vinegar

1  large clove garlic, finely minced

1-1/2 tsp salt

2-1/2 tsp celery seed

2-1/2 tsp capers and juice

Boil cleaned shrimp. Do not over cook. Arrange shrimp and onion rings in layers in a glass bowl or jar.

Sprinkle with cloves and tuck in bay leaves as you go.

Cover with marinade made with the last 6 ingredients.

Let stand in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight. Can be kept for 3 days in a jar with a good lid.

Pretty served in clear glass.

Notes:

I tend to increase the cloves, bay leaves and capers. I think it makes it better.

I have marinated blanched asparagus in the left over marinade after eating all of the shrimp. Fabulous. You could do other vegetables as well and serve on top of greens as a terrific salad, including the onions.

Fresh shrimp are always best but you could get pre-prepared shrimp from the grocery and it would probably still be good. At least that might inspire you to make this.

←

I love this shrimp! Thank you both for reminding me of it again... it's been a while since I made it last time.

[fifi]

Fifi, that recipe looks great.  I've tried several marinated shrimp recipes and been disappointed.  In many areas of Mexico, the term "pico de gallo" refers to a chunky dip/appetizer thing, served in a shallow dish, that you poke around in with a toothpick and stab various items that look tasty.  I've been told that when you see several folks picking and stabbing with their toothpicks, they look just like a bunch of chickens, and that's where the name comes from.  So that's how I plan to serve your shrimp.  Do you think I could chunk the onions so that you could stab one of those with each piece of shrimp?

←

I had never heard that story about the origins of the term "pico de gallo" before. Makes sense.

Hmmm . . . chunking the onions. The idea makes sense if you are going to stab them and eat them like a rooster. I am wondering though if you shouldn't maybe increase the amount of onion since the chunks won't have as much surface area as the thinly sliced and therefore won't give off as much flavor to the mix. But then, this is a pretty flexible recipe and you can vary all you want and it will still be good. Like I said, I tend to go a bit nutsy with the cloves, capers and bay.

[Jaymes]

Search tips that help me:

First tip....don't search on the first page that comes up. Click on "options."

Second tip....on the "options" page, click on the "show topics as posts" option. I hate wading through ten-page threads looking for something.

Third tip....be sure you've selected "and older" under the date options, unless you're SURE what you're looking for has been really recent. Remember how time flies when you're having fun? And eGullet is fun, isn't it?

Fourth tip....select "all forums." The engine defaults to whatever forum you were in when you decided to begin searching. So, for example, you might have been reading something in "Food Media" when you remembered a shrimp dish you liked. So be sure when you begin searching that you're either searching in the right forum, or if you're not sure (which I never am) you've selected "all forums."

Don't know if this is any help, but it's made life easier for me. I never used to even look at, much less actually consider, all of the options. I'd just plug in a word, and then hit search. But after I carefully read all of the options available, I could begin to see where I'd been going wrong.

Edited January 12, 2005 by Jaymes (log)

[Jaymes]

In many areas of Mexico, the term "pico de gallo" refers to a chunky dip/appetizer thing, served in a shallow dish, that you poke around in with a toothpick and stab various items that look tasty.  I've been told that when you see several folks picking and stabbing with their toothpicks, they look just like a bunch of chickens, and that's where the name comes from. 

I had never heard that story about the origins of the term "pico de gallo" before. Makes sense.

At least that's what I was told when I was given a wonderful recipe for a mango, orange, jalapenos and jicama pico de gallo.

Edited January 12, 2005 by Jaymes (log)

[reesek]

Search tips that help me:

Second tip....on the "options" page, click on the "show topics as posts" option.  I hate wading through ten-page threads looking for something.

←

exactly!...the dinner thread invariably comes up

jaymes - thank you! you've just improved my life.

note to self - read directions.

[Fernwood]

Search tips that help me:      ...Snipped....

Don't know if this is any help, but it's made life easier for me.  I never used to even look at, much less actually consider, all of the options.  I'd just plug in a word, and then hit search.  But after I carefully read all of the options available, I could begin to see where I'd been going wrong.

←

Thank you Jaymes!

I never even realized about all those options. I've just been using the "Search forum" field at the bottom of each forum page. I'm experienced, though not expert, at general-purpose Googling but I've been clueless about searching eGullet.

Fern

[Susan in FL]

Same here, thanks Jaymes. I'll give those tips a try next time.

[Jaymes]

Somehow, this is wildly amusing....the shrimp thread has turned into the tips for searching thread.

But hey, y'all, if it helps, I'm glad. So thanks for the thanks. And you're welcome.