Southern Shrimp Salad

Here’s a favorite recipe from my book, Amy’s Table: Food for Family and Friends. Every time my family and I are in Florida we eat ourselves senseless on seafood salad. I love it on a slightly salty cracker- or right out of the fridge when no one’s looking. The difference between this salad and the Florida stuff is that I don’t add imitation crab. Add it if you’d like- I’m the first to admit it tastes good. A scoop of Southern Shrimp Salad on greens makes a nice lunch, or serve it on endive spears for a light hors d oeuvre.

It’s best made several hours in advance and can be made a day ahead; refrigerate until ready to serve. Heating the flavorful mixture in the cooking water for 5 minutes or more makes it, and therefore the shrimp, really flavorful. Use the same technique for shrimp cocktail. To get shrimp cocktail well-chilled for serving, place a Ziploc bag of ice in a shallow dish. Lay the shrimp on top of the ice-filled bag; cover and chill until ready to serve.