Childhood Memories at Pappaw’s Beach House
Growing up on the Texas Gulf coast, shrimp, crab, and all manner of seafood are plentiful. One of the many Mexican-style dishes enjoyed by all who live on the Gulf of Mexico is Shrimp and Crab Campechana. It is simply a dressed-up seafood cocktail that features shellfish, as I’ve done here, or you can add cooked fish, octopus, scallops, or just about anything edible from the sea.
While I use frozen seafood here, it is preferable to use fresh shrimp and crab in the recipe, and I exclusively do in the summertime. The dish is very savory and addictive. For me, it preserves the taste of summer in the wintertime since I often use frozen pre-cooked ice shrimp. As I write this, I can see myself at a warm beachside outdoor bar with an ice-cold beer about to dive into a parfait of jumbo lump crab meat and shrimp.
Additional Ingredients
Let your imagination run wild. If you have a source for cooked octopus, scallops, squid, oysters, mussels, clams, or geoducks, go ahead and chop them up and add them to the party.
Serving
I like to serve Gulf Coast Campechana with crackers or tortilla chips in a chilled parfait dish. It also makes a great seafood cocktail dip; keep it cold over ice if you serve it this way.
Gulf Coast Campechana, the light and refreshing taste of gulf coast summer, is always a hit.
For this recipe, I use cooked ice shrimp. Ice shrimp, also known as cold water shrimp, are 90ct + per pound shrimp in size. They are inexpensive and readily available in most areas. They come frozen but thaw out quickly in cool water.
This recipe is easy since most ingredients measure out to a 1/4 cup.
Add all the chopped ingredients to a medium to large mixing bowl. Add also the Clamato, Tabasco-style hot sauce, ketchup, chili sauce, and oil.
To get an avocado out of its skin, use a medium-sized spoon and work around the edge to release the avocado pulp.
When making guacamole or Campechcana with avocado, immediately add some lemon, lime, or both, which seasons the avocado and keeps it from oxidizing and turning brown.
Add the shrimp, lump crab meat, avocado, and sliced hearts of palm to the rest of the ingredients in the mixing bowl.
Toss gently to merge all the ingredients. Try to keep some of the lump crab meat in large chunks.
Serve Gulf Coast Campechana in a chilled parfait glass with extra hot sauce, crackers, or warm tortilla chips.
Beverage Pairings: Buckets of ice-cold longneck beers such as; Corona, Dos Equis Amber, Shiner Bock
Wine Pairings: Dry Reising or Gewurztraminer
Gulf Coast Campechana
Ingredients
Vegetable Ingredients
- ¼ cup olives, green, sliced
- ¼ cup onion, white, peeled, and minced
- ¼ cup parsley, chopped fine
- ¼ cup cilantro, chopped fine
- 1 tbsp oregano, fresh chopped
- ¼ cup tomato, seeded and diced
- ½ cup hearts of palm, sliced (optional)
- 2 whole Hatch (Sandia) chilies, roasted, peeled (substitute jalapeno or serrano)
- 2 large cloves of garlic, smashed and minced
- 1 whole avocado, peeled, pitted, and diced
Liquid Ingredients and Seasonings
- ¼ cup avocado oil (substitute any neutral-flavored oil of your choice)
- ¼ cup lime juice
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- ⅓ cup ketchup preferably, Heinz Organic
- ¼ cup chili sauce, Heinz is fine
- ¼ cup Clamato tomato juice (Clamato is four parts tomato juice 1 part clam juice if it is not available in your area)
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tsp Tabasco-style hot sauce
- 2 pinch of salt
- 2 pinch of coarse grind black pepper
Seafood Ingredients
- ½ pound ice shrimp, cooked (Any cooked shrimp can be substituted, chop them into bite-sized pieces.)
- ½ pound lump crab meat, cleaned and picked over
Instructions
Prepare the Base
- Prep the first nine ingredients and place them into a medium or large mixing bowl. Next, add all the liquid ingredients along with the salt and pepper. Reserve
When Ready to Serve
- Add the avocado oil to the mix and prep the fresh diced avocado. Dice the avocado, then add to the mixture along with the lemon and lime juice.
- Finally, add the shrimp and crab. Gently mix to combine.
- Serve in individual portions in a chilled parfait dish. Alternatively, serve as a savory cold dip with crackers or tortilla chips.
I’m so glad C. and I were able to taste this dish. It was phenomenal. Can’t wait to make it ourselves.