I♥CC-Adios y Gracias Rick Bayless: Acupulco-Style Shrimp Cocktail~

It’s time to bid farewell to our chef of the last 6 months, Rick Bayless at I♥CC…  While I didn’t take the whole ride, it was quite an experience to get to know this chef’s recipes better.  I didn’t start out a Rick Bayless fan…but I ended as one.  I’ve really enjoyed getting to know Rick’s style, and not just his efforts to share an accurate regional representation.  My favorite Mexican cookbook will never change, but it will be accented by Rick’s recipes now.  I’ll reach for his cook books again and again, because there are so many MORE recipes I’m dying to try!!

My recipe selection from Rick’s vast compendium of recipes was his Acupulco-Style Shrimp Cocktail…

Rick’s Acupulco-Style Shrimp Cocktail~
Coctel de Camarones, estilo Acapulco

Makes 4 cups, serving 4 to 6
Recipe from Season 3 of Mexico – One Plate at a Time

Ingredients
1 pound cooked shrimp
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
3/4 cup ketchup
1 to 2 tablespoons hot sauce (Tabasco Chipotle Pepper Sauce is delicious here)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 small white onion, finely diced
1/2 cup (loosely packed) chopped cilantro, plus a few springs for garnish
1 ripe avocado

Of course, there must be a story to go along with the dish…  I had picked up a bag of cooked and frozen shrimp quite by accident.  This recipe called for 1 pound cooked shrimp…this should be okay then…maybe a little off texturally, but still plenty tasty!  The sauce was soooo good!!  Enough chili bite and enough lime…and it’s very, very close to one of my signature appetizer dishes.  I thawed and rinsed the shrimp, stirred it all together and added the shrimp cocktail as a starter for a steak dinner for two.

Evidently, not only did I accidentally buy precooked shrimp, I also bought an off brand.  While the sauce was absolutely divine, the shrimp had an overpowering old seafood taste…  I was crushed.  While it looks lovely, and the sauce is fabulous, the shrimp were the deal killer.  Rick’s incredibly flavorful sauce ALMOST saved the dish…but I just can’t do icky fish or seafood.

I’ll be making this again, as soon as I can lay my hands on FRESH shrimp!!

Thank you all for sharing your dishes these past months.  I love the opportunity to see and hear how others’ dishes came out during my participation time.  I’m anxious about Indian cuisine…nervous and excited by turn.  I’m hoping to play along (it’s going to require more pre-planning on my part…that could get difficult!) for the whole 6 months and I’m trying to draft a friend who loves Indian to cook with me.  I’m looking forward to the new experience, and I have my cookbooks ready to go!