Pickled Shrimp

Sounds weird, eh? Well, I will admit to experimenting with this one. I had a pound of thawed cooked shrimp and I didn't know what to do with them. I'd seen pickled shrimp on Paula Deen's show and I perused some other recipes for them and then cobbled together a recipe of my own, based on my reading and what was in the fridge and the pantry.

It's an easy recipe to throw together, and I'm thinking about putting some jars together to give as gifts over the holidays. It does look pretty in the jars.

I have to confess that most people will need to make a very slight adjustment with one of the ingredients. I am fortunate to have a jar of my friend, Lisa's pickles. They are an addictive sweet-hot pickle that the people at Mt. Olive and Vlassic are just now beginning to see the light on. Either of those brands will do as a substitute. Just get either the sweet-hots or the hot or zesty bread and butter pickles. I'm fortunate because Lisa's pickles have several cloves of garlic tucked in that have marinated in the sweet-hot pickle syrup; that's the garlic I used in my pickled shrimp. You could take a whole bulb of garlic, though, and marinate it in the sweet-hot pickle juice. Or not. Like most recipes, I consider this a jumping off point that people can adapt to their tastes and the ingredients available to them.

This would be a nice change from the standard cold, peeled shrimp and cocktail sauce for a party and would make a nice pre-dinner nibble. Maybe with a little glass of sherry, as it reminds me of a tapas type thing.

Pickled Shrimp:

1 lb. whole shrimp. If you are using raw ones, you'll want to cook them, cool them and then peel and devein them. I used peeled, cooked shrimp (with their tails on) and just rinsed them and made sure they were dry before starting. The size I used was in the 41-50 range.
bay leaves
garlic cloves (I used ones that had marinated in sweet-hot pickle juice)
whole peppercorns
1 thinly sliced medium red onion
pickled jalapeno slices
a few grinds of black pepper
1 cup cider vinegar
juice of 1/2 a large lemon
1/4 c. sweet hot pickle juice
1 tbs. kosher salt

In a 1 quart, wide-mouth Mason jar, put a layer of red onion. Put a layer of shrimp on top; they can overlap a bit. Place one bay leaf, 6-7 peppercorns, a garlic clove, and 2-3 jalapeno slices. Repeat the layers until the jar is full. About halfway up the jar, put in a few grinds of black pepper. Combine the vinegar, lemon juice, pickle juice and salt. Stir to dissolve the salt. Put the lid on the jar and stick it in the refrigerator on a small plate. After 2-3 hours, turn the jar upside down and let it sit that way for 2-3 hours, then turn the jar right side up again. Repeat this process a couple times, whenever you happen to be in the fridge. Let jar sit in the refrigerator for at least a day before eating the shrimp.

Some recipes call for capers. I didn't have any on hand (more likely they are hiding in that teeny jar at the back of the refrigerator behind all of the mustards or something), which is where the jalapenos came in. These aren't too hot. You could up the spice and heat level by adding chili flakes or little dried red peppers. Celery seed or mustard seeds might be tasty additions, too.