Cream Cheese Shrimp Spread
Great for spreading on savory crackers, celery sticks or Belgian Endive leaves as hors d'oeuvres with cocktails.
A lot of shrimp dip or shrimp spread recipes are available on the Internet. Some are cold, others baked and almost all of them are designed for dipping with chips or spreading on savory crackers.
But this spread would also lend itself to being served with celery sticks, round slices of cucumber, or more elegantly, individually stuffed leaves of Belgian Endive.
There also seemed to be a number of shrimp recipes on the Internet that were to be made with tiny canned shrimp. Somehow, the idea of using tiny shrimp that have been sitting on a shelf in a can gives me more than a passing frisson of revulsion. I much prefer a shrimp product that I know has been freshly caught and cooked, then flash-frozen, all within a matter of hours.
Cream Cheese Shrimp Spread
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb jumbo shrimp, cooked peeled, de-veined and tail removed
- 8 oz whipped cream cheese (like, Philadelphia Whipped)
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- juice of 1/2 fresh lemon
- 1 tbsp dried parsley
- 1/2 tsp garlic salt
- 1 tsp lemon pepper (like, Mrs. Dash)
Instructions
- Pat the shrimp on paper towels and place them in a food processor.
- Pulse 6-7 times until the shrimp is finely minced, but do not pulse so much that you liquefy them.
- Combine the cream cheese, mayonnaise and lemon juice in a mixing bowl and use a whisk to ensure the mixture is homogeneous.
- Add the parsley, garlic salt and lemon pepper and mix again.
- Gently fold in the shrimp until well distributed throughout the spread.
- Chill for an hour before serving with crackers or veggies.
Notes
- Frozen shrimp thaw very quickly in a colander under cold running water, turning and tossing the shrimp frequently to get its cold water shower.
- Do this about 30 minutes prior to cooking, then wrap the shrimp in paper towels and put in the refrigerator to dry out before using.
