Peel ‘n’ Eat Shrimp
Leftover Potato Salad

While waiting for dinner at Brophy Bros Fish Restaurant in Santa Barbara on Thursday, we had a mess of Peel ‘n’ Eat Shrimp. Yum. Carol said, “We should have Peel ‘n’ Eat shrimp for dinner every Sunday night.”

Our Sunday night dinners are usually planned, and then when the time rolls around to cook, one of us says, “who’s cooking?” and the other says “How about (Chinese) (Pizza) (Leftovers).” Our Sundays are rarely structured; we’ve been out or whatever, and we neither are inclined to get it up for a nice meal.

On this particular Sunday, we were just back from a trip to Santa Barbara to attend the beach wedding of Amber — one of Carol’s head teachers — and Will, a fine young Italian. We wrapped extra days around the Friday afternoon wedding to create a nice “foodie getaway.”

Notable was the wedding reception at Aldo’s, a State Street Italian restaurant. For my entrée I chose Cheese Ravioli in a light veal sauce, Carol had the Chicken Piccata. Italian wine flowed freely and perfectly chilled Moscato accompanied the fine wedding cake as a finale.

Our other planned meal was Saturday night at the Cracked Crab in Pismo Beach. Our trips to the southland over recent years have pretty much always included lunch at the Cracked Crab on the way back. We’ve pretty much always said, “We’ll have to come for dinner sometime and have the House Specialty.”

Big Bucket for Two.
“Create your own bucket! Your choice of three items listed below. Your shellfish choices are steamed with spicy Cajun sausage, red skin potatoes and corn cobetts. Casually served; dumped on your table! Accompanied with drawn butter, homemade cocktail sauce, homemade triple mustard sauce, warm sourdough rolls, and tools for pickin’ and crackin’. Each choice is 3/4 pound or more.”

We chose Opilio (Snow) Crab, Dungeness Crab and Domestic Gulf Shrimp. The pickin’ and crackin’ and eatin’ was real good. The rolls, sauces, potatoes, Dungeness and shrimp were excellent. The corn cobetts were overcooked (have you ever met a corn cobette that wasn’t?) and I thought the Snow Crab lacked both substance and flavor. But what a meal! We had four big shrimps and lots of potatoes left over, and since we had the means to keep them cold, we took ‘em out in a box.

Which brings us to Sunday Supper. I reminded Carol of her Sunday supper statement and she said, “But we just had shrimp.”

“All the better,” I said. “We have the leftover shrimp and more to make a meal.”

With that, I sprung into action, getting out our frozen shrimp and throwing them into a bowl of cold water to thaw. For a potato salad accompaniment, I cubed the leftover potatoes, adding another potato, added chopped celery, diced spring onion, peeled and diced leftover red bell pepper from the fridge, and chopped black olives. I tossed the potatoes with garlic olive oil and let them sit for a while. Then I added the other vegetables and about a tablespoonful of T. Marzetti’s Classic Ranch Dressing, mixed it all together and put it in the refrigerator to chill.

We have a few “shrimp boil” recipes and now that we’re scheduled for Sundays, I’m eager to try them all again. For our initial Sunday Supper, I chose an easy one that Eric sent. Eric and Alison get a five-pound block of shrimp from Alison’s parents each Christmas, so they’re well versed in shrimp cookery.

Once our shrimp was properly boiled, I added the four Cracked Crab shrimp and put the mess in to chill. Meanwhile we busied ourselves with the Sunday paper and another favorite Sunday pastime, Sunday Night Baseball with Jon Miller and Joe Morgan on ESPN. That day’s game was the Minnesota Twins at the Detroit Tigers, and while I don’t give much of a hoot about either team, it was a good game, 0-0 in the seventh inning when we sat down to eat.

Our Sunday Supper was as good as any restaurant food we’d had and was a fine repast for a fine, extended, weekend.

Beer Boil for Shrimp Cocktail (from Eric)

3/4 pounds large shrimp
2 bottles beer
1 1/2 cups water
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon cayanne pepper

Mix all ingredients except the shrimp in a deep pan, and heat to boiling.

Add shrimp, shells and all. Cook until the shrimp are just set (about 2 – 4 minutes).

Strain shrimp and immediately immerse in ice water to cool them down. After they’re cool, shell (and devein if you prefer and have the patience).

Refrigerate until ready to serve with your favorite cocktail sauce.

Leftover Potato Salad (by me)

2 cups leftover potatoes, boiled or roasted, cubed
1 tablespoon garlic olive oil
salt and pepper

1 spring onion, diced
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, peeled and diced
6 black olives, chopped
1 big spoonful T. Marzetti Classic Ranch Dressing

Put the potatoes in a bowl and drizzle with the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and let that sit for a while.

Season the onion, celery, bell pepper and olives with salt and pepper and gently mix with the potatoes.

Add the dressing and gently mix. Chill.

The idea is to use what you have that will be good together. I’ve also made it with potatoes, celery, fresh English peas, scallion, endive, olives and Asiago Peppercorn dressing. Good eating!