Virginia's Emerald Isle Shrimp!

I wasn’t going to bother with St. Patrick’s Day - seeing as how I’m on Spring Break, and Dr. Husband is visiting his family, and last year's St. Patrick's Day offering was fairly successful so why mess with a good thing – but a post from Yinzerella shamed me into action (I follow her with regularity, as you all should be).

I’m not sure who “Virginia” is, or why she’s so averse to flavor of any kind, but here’s her recipe for St. Paddy’s Day shrimp. You know how flamingos are pink because of all the shrimp they eat? This is kind of like that, only you're imparting the color of the spinach into the shrimp (which wasn't entirely successful here. Maybe shrimp are more color resistant these days? I blame Monsanto). 

As I write, there's a little over an hour left of St. Patrick's Day, but if you're still standing and need something to do, here's the recipe:

3 dozen medium shrimp
2 pounds fresh spinach
2 cups dairy sour cream
2 packages (8-oz size) cream cheese
6 lemons, cut into wedges

Peel and devein shrimp, leaving tails intact; sprinkle lightly with lemon juice and set aside.
Carefully wash and devein spinach; tear leaves into bits. Place in large saucepan with 2 cup water. Place shrimps on top of spinach leaves. Bring water to boil; cook slowly 3-4 minutes or until spinach is wilted and shrimp are cooked through. Take care not to overcook lest shrimp become tough.
Shrimp will turn pale green as they absorb color from the spinach. Remove shrimp from saucepan and refrigerate for later use.

Drain spinach and purée in blender or food processor; measure 2 1/2 cups cooked puréed spinach and place in mixing bowl; fold in dairy sour cream and cream cheese; mix thoroughly.
Lightly oil 6-cup ring mold; spoon spinach-cheese mixture into mold. Cover and refrigerate until firm, about 3 hours.

Unmold spinach-cream mixture onto plate; arrange shrimp on mold in decorative manner; fill center of mold with lemon wedges arranged in sunburst fashion.

Full disclosure, I halved the amounts of the spinach-cream mixture, and it was plenty. Plenty of flavorless nuthin'.  Almost any addition would make this not half bad - a packet of ranch dressing mix, horseradish, minced onion, pepper jelly - in fact, almost anything that actually possessed flavor, which spinach, cream cheese, and sour cream do not. Do you agree, panel?

Our Rating: Three Screaming Husbands!

(all dishes are rated from one to five Screaming Husbands. One Screaming Husband equals a happy home where all problems are solved during cocktail hour. Five Screaming Husbands signals the beginning of divorce proceedings.)

St. Patrick's Day Salad

contributed by Dr. Bobb

 

As long-time followers will know, today's ingredients are very dear to my heart, as the very first recipe on the blog, Guess What Salad, involved corned beef and Jell-O.  I was anxious to try something similar, now that my methodology is more precise, and my palate for gelatin-meat combinations much more refined.

Knowing that I wanted my dish to incorporate both corned beef AND cabbage, I went in search of a suitable recipe. The closest to what I had in mind was from Knox On-Camera Recipes (1960), the instructions to which are found below:

I followed the instructions to the letter - as you know, working with Knox requires the accuracy and precision of a scientist - but for whatever reason, the cabbage layer just wouldn't set up right. In desperation, I just went ahead and mixed it all together, in hopes that the gelatin in the corned beef layer would prime the cabbage gelling process, and left it overnight to chill, but no dice. So i dumped the whole mess down the disposal and started from scratch with my own concoction, a mélange of the above and this recipe, with lime Jell-O replacing the Knox just to make it extra-St. Patricks-y.

1 box (3 oz.) Lime Jell-O

1 cup boiling water

1/2 cup cold water

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup shredded green cabbage 

1 cup mayonnaise

1 12-oz. can corned beef, diced

1/2 cup diced celery

1/2 cup sweet pickle relish

Dissolve Jell-O in boiling water. Add cold water, lemon juice, and salt.

Spread cabbage in bottom of  8-inch square baking dish or ring mold. Add just enough Jell-O mixture to cover cabbage. Chill until slightly firm.

Meanwhile, add remaining ingredients to the remainder of Jell-O mixture. Spoon onto cabbage layer. Chill several hours or overnight. To serve, unmold and cut into squares.

Guest taster Patrick (because it's St. Patrick's Day - see what I did there?) has a go at the finished product:

Our Rating: Zero Screaming Husbands!

(all dishes are rated from one to five Screaming Husbands. One Screaming Husband equals a happy home where all problems are solved during cocktail hour. Five Screaming Husbands signals the beginning of divorce proceedings.)