Food of the Opposing Team week 5, sitting at 3-1 and headed to Las Vegas. I have to admit, when I started thinking about foods of Las Vegas I was a little stumped. Even after quite a bit of research there were very few things that people agreed on except for: shrimp cocktails, prime rib and fancy drinks.
Diving into the history of the shrimp cocktail was actually pretty interesting though. In 1959, the Golden Gate casino used them as a promotion to keep gamblers at the tables. It was a treat then to get something like shrimp in such a landlocked place and for $0.50 a cocktail, they did their job. A staple of the Golden Gate until 2017 when they stopped selling them, there are plenty of other places to grab one on the strip and (I guess) the shrimp cocktail has its place in Vegas history.
I was tempted to do one of those yard drinks for the cocktail of Vegas. Everywhere you go you see people drinking 3 ft novelty drinks, but that may be a touch dangerous for a football Sunday. We went with this spicy cocktail that has a fun little secret game attached if you want to play it. It’s called the Hush Hush. At one Las Vegas bar, every time you order it you write a secret down add it to a box that’s guarded by a statue of the late owner’s Pomeranian. You can write down anything, but our secret is that we still realllllllllly don’t like Tom Brady. Shhh. Go Bills!
Shrimp Cocktail Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1.5 lbs jumbo shrimp (raw tail-on peeled and deveined are the least hassle)
- 6 cups water or Court Bullion (white wine and water with a bay leaf, garlic and lemon halves)
- 2 Lemons (juiced into the water and for garnish)
- ¾ cup ketchup
- 2 tablespoons horseradish (or to taste)
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- ¼ teaspoon Tabasco sauce (or more, to taste)
- ½ teaspoon celery salt
Bring your 6 cups of water or white wine water mixture with a halved lemon, a few cloves of garlic and a bay leaf to a simmer. Turn off the heat and drop in the shrimp. Cover the pot and let them sit for 3-5 minutes until they are cooked. Immediately transfer shrimp to a bowl of ice water to cool for at least 5 minutes.
While the shrimp cools, mix together the ketchup, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce and celery salt. Mix well.
Assemble cocktail glasses and scoop some of the cocktail sauce into the bottom of the glass. Arrange the shrimp along the rim of the glass and garnish with lemon wedges.
Hush Hush Cocktail Recipe
Ingredients:
- 2 oz jalapeno infused vodka (can just rough cut a jalapeno and add to a glass with vodka for at least 15 minutes)
- ½ oz Triple Sec
- 1 oz strawberry puree
- ¾ oz fresh lime juice
- ½ oz hot honey
- Jalapeno or strawberry slices for garnish
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add jalapeno vodka, triple sec, strawberry puree, lime juice and hot honey. Cover shaker and shake well. Strain into a martini glass.
GO BILLS!
