Last week’s menu was “south of the border” in honor of Cinco de Mayo and one of the menu items was grilled southwest shrimp using a Cooks Illustrated recipe. The grilled shrimp tasted fantastic but they needed a dipping sauce to make it more like a “cocktail”.
I wanted a “southwest” flavor to compliment the grilled shrimp and my head was screaming ”limes and tequila”. Not finding anything directly like that I’m going to modify an existing salsa recipe from Get Saucy to get what I’m after.
Grilled Southwest Shrimp
Hardware
- 4-5 metal skewers
- gas or charcoal grill
- large bowl for brining and tossing shrimp
- medium bowl for mixing salsa sauce
- small heavy skillet
Software
Shrimp
- 1 lb (16-20 per) raw frozen shell on shrimp – shells split and de-veined if you can find them
- 1/2 cup kosher salt or 1/4 cup table salt
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp + 1 tsp lime juice
- 1 tbsp fresh minced cilantro leaves (optional)
Southwest Cocktail Sauce
- 1-2 Arbol chile, seeded
- 1 navel orange
- 1/2 sweet onion, quartered and sliced thin
- 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp tequila
- 1.5 tsp olive oil
- 1.5 tsp fresh chives
- salt & pepper
Preparation
Once shrimp are thawed, pour 1 quart cold water in a large bowl, add salt and sugar and stir until dissolved. Add shrimp and let stand in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
While shrimp brine, heat oil in a small skillet over medium heat and add garlic, chili powder, and ground cumin. Saute until garlic is fragrant, 30 seconds or so. Remove mixture to heat-proof bowl and let cool. Mix in lime juice and cilantro, if using.
Drain shrimp. If shrimp shells are not split and de-veined, cut open backs with scissors and de-vein as necessary. Toss shrimp with garlic-chili mixture to coat.
Start the grill. Charcoal grill should be medium hot with lid on for 5 minutes and gas grill should have all burners on high for 15 minutes. Make sure grill grate is clean.
Thread the shrimp onto skewers first about 1/3 of the way up the tail and then the body, about 1/3 of the way from the head. Should form a “C” shape on the skewer. 4-5 shrimp per skewer.
Grill shrimp for 4-6 minutes total turning once. Shimp should be bright pink and just charing. Charcoal grilling should be done uncovered while the lid should be down for gas grilling. Can be served right off the grill or cooled to room temperature.
For the cocktail sauce, heat a small heavy bottomed skillet over high heat. Remove seeds from the chilis and place in hot pan. Press down with metal spatula until pliable, about 5-10 seconds per side. Remove from pan and when cool cut into small pieces using scissors.
Peal orange to remove skin and all the white pith. Working over a strainer set in a bowl, segment the orange between the membranes and drop segments into strainer. Squeeze remaining membranes over bowl to extract juice. Cut segments into 1/4-1/2″ pieces and add them to the bowl along with the chilis and the reminder of the ingredients. Salt & pepper to taste.
The southwest cocktail sauce can be prepared up to 2 days ahead.
