lie to your dad if need be

If I had five words to describe Tom's reaction to my cooking it would be "What the hell is that?". 

Since then I have learned two important things 1) make sure the pepper grinder is on fine so he doesn't think that the large chunks of pepper corns will change the entire taste of a dish and result in him not even trying the food or 2) totally lie to him - right to his face - without being bashful about it.  This was approved by mom and we both plan meals together to trick Tom. 

Sometimes we just omit certain ingredients when we tell him what is in it.  Sometimes we switch out things w/o telling him.

When it came to this one dish - Tom's first reaction was of course: "What the hell is that?" but when we said it was Irish Shrimp Cocktail he tried it and ate it - dare I say he liked it.  Now, if you ask him today he will act like he doesn't remember a thing.  Trust me on this.

But given that it is almost saint Patrick's day I figured I would post my recipe for Irish Shrimp Cocktail.  Actually it is super close to Giada De Laurentie's Shrimp in Endive Boats - ya pretty much spot on. 

Irish Shrimp Cocktail:
Ingredients:
12 oz uncooked shrimp, peeled and de-veined (doesn't matter what size)
5 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and Pepper
3 teaspoons of lime juice
1/4 cup fine chopped parsley
1/4 cup low-fat sour cream
1/4 cup low fat plain yogurt
3 tablespoons fresh chopped chives
1 tablespoon fresh chopped thyme
2 tablespoons drained small capers
2-3 heads of Belgian endive (google this if you are not familiar)

This recipe has two parts 1) make the shrimp and put it into the endive boats and then 2) you put sauce on it.

Making the shrimp: Toss shrimp in one tablespoon olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and heat over medium heat for until shrimp is cooked, pink about 2 minutes per side transfer to a plate, toss with 1 tsp of lime juice and let it cool completely.  Once cool dice into small bits.  Toss the bits with the chives, capers and remaining 2 teaspoons of olive oil.  Check again and see if it needs more salt and pepper.

Sauce: blend parsley, sour cream, yogurt, remaining 2 tsp of lime juice a smidgen of salt and pepper either in a blender or stir really fast and hard (this is what men are for).

You can serve this one of two ways:
1)Separate the endive leaves and arrange them on a platter, add some shrimp to each boat and add a tsp or so of parsley sauce - maybe put a little twig of thyme to make it look snazzy or

2) Once separated put the endive into one bowl, put the sauce into another bowl and put the shrimp into another bows.  Of course you will have to demonstrate how to eat it because people aren't a bright as you may think they are these days.

This is good and also happens to be pretty darn healthy - adkins friendly and I am sure I could ask my mom and she would tell me how many weight watchers points it has - she is like a human points calculator. 

Now