Launch your dinner party on a high note with this slightly liquored-up seafood cocktail. Dazzle your guests with tasty morsels of shellfish swimming in a spicy sauce enhanced with avocado and tomatoes. We suggest a festive presentation, with appetizer portions served in elegant (twisted or multi-colored) martini glasses. Feel free to make a toast before digging in. The “Kitchen Shrink” thanks Chef Patrick Lowe, Food and Beverage Director at the Paradise Point Resort and Spa for sharing his divine recipe with all FreeRangers.
Cheers!
Serves 6
- 8 ounces of lobster meat or tail, cooked and chopped
- 8 ounces of lump crab meat, cooked and chopped
- 8 ounces of Bay shrimp, shelled and cooked
- 1 dozen whole jumbo shrimp, shelled, deveined and whole
- You may also add to, or substitute for the above, cooked mussels, clams and scallops.
Sauce ingredients – when possible, choose organic:
- 2 cups of R.W. Knudsen’s organic “Very Veggie” tomato & vegetable juice. (This brand contains Lycopene, and comes in Regular and Spicy versions. Choose your preference.)
- 1 cup of tomato juice
- ¼ cup of fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons of Tabasco sauce (less if you use the spicy Very Veggie)
- ¼ cup of Absolut Peppar Vodka
- 2 tablespoons of yellow onion finely minced
- 2 tablespoons of peeled, seeded, finely minced cucumber
- 2 tablespoons of minced cilantro (Note: some people dislike cilantro, in which case you may substitute parsley.)
- 2 Roma tomatoes seeded and minced (If Roma unavailable, other tomato species will work, too.)
- 1 firm avocado, diced
Garnish Ingredients:
- Lemon twists
- The biggest stuffed green olives you can find
- Cilantro (or parsley) sprigs
IN a medium-size glass bowl combine all the ingredients for the sauce. Set aside the dozen jumbo shrimp, and add the remaining shellfish to the sauce and toss gently. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours. Evenly distribute the seafood mixture into six martini glasses. Add 2 jumbo shrimp to each martini and top with additional vodka as desired. Garnish with lemon twists, gigantic stuffed olives and cilantro or parsley sprigs.
