Recipe: Aguacate Relleno con Cóctel de Camarones | Venezuelan Shrimp Avocado Cocktail

Sometimes when I close my eyes I can still feel the sun shining, the sea breeze drying out the salty water drops from my skin, and that distinct scent of ocean and sunscreen. These are some of my most treasured childhood memories.

My grandfather was a member of a beach club located on the coast, close to the international airport in Maiquetía. This is where I would spend many weekends, long weekends, special occasions and long vacations as a child. My grandfather owned an apartment close to the beach club, so the whole family would travel from the capital city to the beach and stay there enjoying the apartment and entry to the club.

The club, Playa Grande Yachting Club, was gated and safe. I remember my cousin and I would roam around from one end of the club to the other without supervision… or permission. We would enjoy the beach, play in the sand, roller blade through the walkways, buy chucherías from the many little stores inside the club, jumping from the diving board in the adult pool and playing games in the kids pool, watching movies in the open-air theater, riding bikes, collecting seashells, water skiing with our uncle, and so much more.

One of the best parts of the club was the food. They had several different restaurants and small food huts all throughout the club. Our parents would send us off to buy a dozen empanadas from the pool hut to bring back and enjoy together on the beach.

One of the restaurants, La Capitanía, was atop of one of the man-made piers, it had the best views of the marina where all the fancy yachts swayed with the waves. It was a bit higher up than the rest of the club, so it had the best views of the sunset as well. It was surrounded with rocky cliffs that we were told many times not to climb, from where stray cats would meow asking for scraps of food. The eating area was open on the sides but covered from the sun, you could feel the sea breeze as you enjoyed the fresh seafood.

One of my most vivid memories is visiting this restaurant with my family one day. I was a very picky eater as a kid, and seafood always looked weird to me. I didn’t want to try any of it. The waiter had brought an appetizer for the table, like everything else, it looked weird to that picky eater. It also looked very fancy, though. It had some pink moon-shaped pieces, on top of a large green soft bowl of sorts, and it was all served in a very large and tall cocktail glass and drizzled with pink sauce. I asked my mom “¿Qué es eso?”, she said it was cóctel de camarones… then I asked what the green stuff was, and she said it was aguacate… then I asked what camarones are, and I didn’t care for the answer because it was seafood. At least I knew what the pink sauce was, and I already knew I liked it. My mom was insistent that I tried it. I refused several times. My family ate it all before I tried it, but it was so good that they ordered a second one. My mom finally convinced me to try it. It was the most delicious thing that picky eater had ever tried. This was the day avocado became one of my favorite things in the world… and it still is. That’s probably why I remember it so vividly. That day I also learned to try everything, at least once.

Throughout all the years we spend visiting the beach club, I developed a few favorites: cóctel de camarones, limonada frappe con granadina, and torta opera. I have had limonada frappe con granadina, and I was thinking about posting the recipe here, too. I have had Opera cake when I found it in an Italian market in South Florida, but I hadn’t eaten that delicious shrimp avocado cocktail, probably since the last time I had it at the club, many, many, many years ago. It was time. While visiting my sister in Illinois we decided to recreate the recipe from memory with a few twists of our own, and now I want to share this recipe with you. If you are lucky enough to live near the beach, serve it outdoors, enjoying the sea breeze.

What you need:
– 1 large avocado
– ½ bag of frozen shrimp (ready to eat)
– 1 or 2 limes
– Extra virgin olive oil
– 1 cup mayo
– 6 tbsp ketchup
– 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
– ¼ tsp salt
– 1/8 tsp white pepper

Preparation:
1. Start by thawing the shrimp. Follow the instructions on the bag. It will depend on the brand, but it usually involves running the shrimp under cold water until completely thawed. I am not really providing measurements of how much shrimp because it will depend on how many servings you wish to make, and how big your avocados are.

2. Mix the mayo, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. This is what we in Venezuela call “Salsa Rosada”, or pink sauce. You can add a few drops of hot sauce if you want to spice things up a bit, but that’s optional.

3. Open up the avocado in half and remove the pit. It is best to have the largest avocadoes you can find. I didn’t find any large ones, so I had to use Hass avocados, but the larger the better. Scoop out some of the avocado to create the “bowl” where you will serve the shrimp. Do not discard the avocado meat you scoop out. Keep it, since we will mix it in later.

4. Once the shrimp is thawed, you can choose to serve whole or remove the shells and chop them up. For this recipe we chose to remove the shells and chop the shrimp, as well as mix the avocado meat we took out with the chopped shrimp.

5. Add a bit of the pink sauce to the mix. If you choose to leave the shrimp whole, you can put the shrimp inside the avocado halves and drizzle the pink sauce on top. We chose to chop the shrimp, add the avocado and then add the pink sauce into the mixture. If you chose to mix everything up, add some lime as well.

6. Serve with additional pink sauce on the side and a wedge of lime. You can also drizzle a bit of olive oil on top.

¡Buen Provecho!

⭐

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Recipe: Tortilla Española…Venezolana! (Venezuelan Spanish Tortilla)

As I have mentioned before, Venezuelan food is influenced by many other cuisines around the world.   One of the most noticeable influences is Spanish cuisine (from Spain).   Most Venezuelans can track their ancestors to Spain, and have adapted some Spanish dishes passed down generation to generation, to make them their own.   Some of my relatives who have close Spanish roots have introduced me to delicious Spanish dishes like the Spanish Tortilla.   But don’t be confused by the name, this is no regular tortilla.   When I told my husband I would make him this Spanish Tortilla, he imagined a Mexican Tortilla… but it is more like an omelet, a giant omelet.   I remember eating Spanish Tortilla when invited over to my second cousin’s house for sleepovers.   My cousin’s grandma is a true Spaniard, so they knew what they were doing over there.   My other aunt’s grandmother also made me delicious Spanish Tortilla every time I came to visit.   I think she must have had a secret ingredient (LOVE) when she made her Spanish Tortilla, because it tasted amazing.   She was sweetest little lady, may she rest in piece.   My mom made this dish sometimes as well, and she accompanied it with Salchichitas, or what my husband explained to me are called smokies here in America (Recipe next week).   So here is my version of the Spanish Tortilla, which I made a bit more interesting by adding some Chorizo in it.

Ingredients for Spanish Tortilla

Ingredients:

– 2 Potatoes (medium)
– ½ Onion (medium)
– 3 to 4 Eggs
– 90 gr. Chorizo (about two links)
– ½ Teaspoon Salt
– ¼ Teaspoon Pepper
– Vegetable Oil (Enough for frying)

Preparation:

1. Peel the potatoes and then cut them in slices as thin as possible (as if you were going to make potato chips).   Cut the onions in the same manner, in strips, or simply Julienne the onion.

Cut the Potato in Thin Slices

2. Place the potatoes and onions in a bowl, add the salt and mix together.

Mix Potatoes and Onions

3. In the meantime, start heating up the oil in a large enough frying pan or wok.   Use enough oil to cover the entire bottom of the pan so that it just covers the potatoes and onions.
4. When the oil is hot, add the potatoes and onions to the pan and begin to fry them.   The potatoes shouldn’t become golden brown, but it’s ok if they do just a bit.   You should move them around with a wooden spoon so that you don’t break them, but they get cooked evenly.   It takes about 10-12 minutes at medium heat for them to cook thoroughly.

Begin to Fry the Potatoes and Onions

5. In the meantime cut the chorizo in thin slices as well and set aside.

Cut the Chorizo

6. In a bowl, beat the eggs, only 3 at first.

Beat the Eggs

7. When the potatoes and onions are done (potatoes should break in half easily when pinched with a fork), take them out and drain in a colander and let them cool down a bit.   Drain as much of the excess oil as possible.

Drain the Potatoes and Onions

8. Compare the size of the potatoes and onions mix to the beaten eggs, and then decide if you need to add the other egg.   There should be more potatoes and onions mix than eggs.   The size will depend on the size of your potatoes.
9. Add the potatoes and onions mix, as well as the chorizo slices and pepper to the beaten eggs.   Mix well and mash the potatoes just a bit, not too much.

Add Potatoes, Onions and Chorizo to Beaten Eggs

10. Pre-heat the frying pan in which you will be cooking the tortilla.   It is better to have a smaller pan so that the tortilla will be thick, than to have a larger pan, because the tortilla will be too thin.   For this mixture I used a large frying pan to fry the potatoes and onions, and a smaller pan to cook the tortilla.   You should have a non-stick pan, but either way grease the pan with some oil or cooking spray before adding the mix to it.
11. Add the mixture to the frying pan and cook at medium/low heat.

Add Mixture to Frying Pan

12. When you can see that the bottom half is cooked thoroughly, by lifting one side carefully (or after about 8 minutes), you can proceed to the tricky part.   Grab a flat serving dish, larger than the circumference of the frying pan, pace it on top of the pan, and then carefully flip the tortilla on to the plate.   Clean the pan, and spray or coat with a bit more oil, then carefully slide the tortilla back into the pan to cook the other side.   Make sure to tuck in the edges so you get a clean round edge.

The Tricky Step

Flip Onto Plate and Slide Back Into Pan

13. When the other side is ready, simply serve by flipping it into a serving dish.

Ready !!!

Cut and Serve with Ketchup

Tips
– This is great to serve with a bit of ketchup and Salchichitas Glaseadas, or smokies.

... and Smokies

*Makes about 4 servings.

¡Buen Provecho!