Shrimp and Avocado Salad

Shrimp is on the menu yet again at the O'Malley house. Maybe it's because it's Lent and we're guaranteed meatless meals at least one day a week, or maybe it's because our grocery store seafood department was completely picked over the last time Sean went shopping and all he could get was three bags of frozen shrimp, but we do seem to be eating a lot of the pink crustaceans these days. And I am totally fine with this, because they are super versatile and always delicious. Charlie and Elizabeth were craving a salad they had the last time we visited my parents in Florida. We had dinner at The Cellar, a lovely Italian restaurant located in the basement of President Warren G. Harding's winter home in Daytona Beach. The food is always fresh and inspired, and the staff gracious and welcoming. The kids love it for the food, and especially for the clowder of curious cats that makes their home in the gingerbread millwork around the house. The salad the kids love most is a whole avocado, split in two, one side filled with crab salad, the other side filled with shrimp salad. As we have no crab, and I had only one ripe avocado, I improvised and came up with this.

Shrimp & avocado salad with bacon, because everything's better with bacon

Being married to a Louisiana boy, I had to begin the recipe by boiling the shrimp in Zatarain's Crawfish, Shrimp & Crab Boil. If you are not familiar with this wonderful product, it is a spice blend full of mustard, coriander and dill seeds, spiked with black and red pepper, that you add to the water when you boil seafood to season it as it cooks. You should really try it - it's a game changer (I feel like I've heard that sentence a few times this week...). After the shrimp was fully cooked, I drained and chilled it, then chopped it into bite sized pieces. The dressing I made also took a Creole turn, as I mixed grainy mustard into mayonnaise studded with celery, parsley and green onions, and seasoned it with a little lemon juice and Crystal Hot Sauce. Not officially a remoulade, but a close cousin. I served the whole mess atop 1/4 ripe, sliced avocado, and plated it on a bed of mixed leaf lettuces dressed in my house vinaigrette, Good Seasons Italian. I had two slices of bacon left over from breakfast that we used as a garnish. With a few crackers on the side, it was a perfect light lunch.

It's a good day when your kids ask for salad

Shrimp & Avocado Salad (serves 4)

Ingredients:

1 lb shrimp. peeled and deveined and tails removed

2 tbsp Zatarain's Crawfish, Shrimp & Crab Boil (you can sub Old Bay Seasoning if you don't have the boil, or just leave it out)

1/3 cup mayonnaise

2 tsp whole grain mustard

1 tsp dijon mustard

1/4 tsp Louisiana style hot sauce (I used Crystal)

juice of 1/2 a lemon

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp black pepper (a few grinds)

1 stalk celery, finely chopped

1 green onion, white and green parts, sliced thinly

1 tbsp fresh chopped parsley

1 ripe avocado, quartered and sliced

mixed greens

vinaigrette dressing

Two sliced crisp cooked bacon, chopped

Crackers

Method:

Boil shrimp in water seasoned with Boil seasoning until firm and pink. Remove from heat, drain and cool. Chop shrimp into bite sized pieces. To make dressing - combine mayonnaise, both mustards, hot sauce, lemon juice, salt, pepper, green onion, celery and parsley in a bowl and stir to combine. Add shrimp and chill. To assemble salad - toss greens in a little vinaigrette dressing and add to plate. Top with sliced avocado quarter. Top that with shrimp salad. Finish with chopped bacon.