Ensalada de Camarón

Tweet
Pin It

My original idea for a green salad was to use shrimp prepared from an Agua Chile recipe and to dress the salad with the lime juice of the Agua Chile as the vinaigrette. That idea bombed after trying it. I changed direction and prepared a chile-shrimp by sautéing the shrimp with chile flakes.

Does preparing shrimp with chile flakes make it a Mexican recipe? Maybe not, but consider this. Tomato, chile, avocado and piloncillo are native ingredients of Mexico. Lime, oregano and cilantro, though not native, are keystone ingredients of Mexican cuisine.

I say let”s get started with this Mexican salad.

Ingredients

Salad for 4

12 cherry tomatos halved

¼ large red onion, sliced semi-circles

2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano

½ cup whole cilantro leaves

Green lettuce of choice

Avocado slices

Vinaigrette

1 tablespoon lime juice

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon granulated piloncillo or brown sugar

Salt and pepper

Shrimp

1 lb shrimp, peeled, deveined, tails removed

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic, diced

1 teaspoons chile flakes (Chile Piquin, Arbol or minced Serrano)

1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice

1 tablespoon chopped cilantro

Preparation

Salad

Piece the lettuce to bite size. In a salad bowl, lightly toss the lettuce, tomatoes, onion slices, oregano and cilantro. Save the avocado slices for later. Refrigerate these ingredients for the time being. Prepare the vinaigrette.

Shrimp

Salt and pepper the shrimp. Heat the oil on a low-medium temperature, add the chile flakes and sauté for 1 minute. Add the garlic, sauté 1 minute, add the shrimp and sauté for 2 minutes or until the shrimp is pink. Flip the shrimp and sauté for 2 minutes more. Add the lemon juice, stir and sprinkle with minced cilantro.

Final Step

Only dress and toss the greens with half the quantity of vinaigrette.. Lightly salt the avocado slices. Combine the avocado and shrimp in the salad and lightly toss the salad again with more vinaigrette as needed.