Fried Shrimp Cobb Salad

This salad was inspired by a trip I took to Ocean City, Maryland this summer! We went to a cute restaurant right on the water and I had a similar salad there, except with fresh crab meat. Obviously crab is a bit pricey and potentially hard to find, so I opted for more budget-friendly fried shrimp for this recipe.

I really think you could go with any type of seafood here like salmon, sauteed shrimp, tuna, etc. My favorite part of the salad is the buttermilk dressing from the NYT Cookbook. If you have the NYT cooking subscription you can find the recipe HERE, but any ranch or buttermilk dressing will work - homemade dressings really are the best though! I’ll be honest - I always opt for regular milk (2% or whole) because I know I won’t use a whole carton of buttermilk. I’ve found if you add 1 tbsp of white wine vinegar to 1 cup of milk, the result is the same as buttermilk.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Romaine Lettuce (typically comes in bag with three heads which should work perfectly)

8 slices of Bacon

1 Cucumber

1-2 ears of Corn (I prefer fresh/raw corn, but canned corn works too)

1 pint of Cherry Tomatoes

1 Avocado

4 Eggs (for jammy hard-boiled egg on top - this is optional but highly recommend)

Salt + Pepper

Seafood of choice - see Fried Shrimp recipe below, you could also get frozen fried shrimp and bake them!

Herbed Buttermilk Dressing of choice - highly recommend the recipe in this NYT book that can be found online HERE if you have the cooking subscription, but I think this one HERE would be good too!

1. Prep Herbed Buttermilk Dressing if making from scratch and refrigerating - this can be done in advance to let the flavors meld.

2. Cook bacon - to get perfectly crisp bacon crumbles I suggest dicing the bacon and then cooking over medium to high heat in a medium pan until nice and crispy. Let them cool on a paper towel to absorb excess grease.

3. While the bacon is cooking, prep the veggies - dice tomatoes and cucumber and cut the corn off the cob. Save the avocado until right before serving so it does not brown.

4. Cook seafood of choice and boil the eggs.

   1. I prefer a jammy egg where the whites are completely set, but the yolk is slightly runny. The best way to do this is to lightly boil water in a medium pot over medium to high heat. Use a spoon to gently drop the egg into the water and keep it at a low boil for about 7 to 8 minutes. If you want completely hard boiled eggs, cook for about 10 to 11 minutes. Immediately remove the eggs and place them in a bowl with ice to cool down.

5. Assemble salad, season with salt and pepper and top with the delicious dressing - enjoy!

Michael’s Fried Shrimp

So interestingly enough, my brother Michael taught me this fried shrimp recipe. It is beyond easy and truly goes great with the salad!

Ingredients:

4 to 5 peeled Shrimp per person

1 cup of Buttermilk or 1 cup of milk + 1 tbsp white wine vinegar - perfect if you are already making buttermilk dressing!

1 cup of Seafood Breading Mix (Michael Recommends Autry’s, but I found this one at Safeway and it worked great)

Frying Oil - so, if you want to go all out you could deep fry the shrimp in canola oil, but to be a bit healthier you could pan fry the shrimp in olive oil.

1. Make sure the shrimp is peeled and deveined.

2. In a medium bowl let the shrimp soak in the buttermilk - you could do this when you are making the dressing, frying the bacon and prepping the veggies for the salad.

3. In a plastic bag add 1 cup of the seafood seasoning and remove the shrimp from the buttermilk and place in the bag.

4. Shake the bag so the shrimp gets evenly coated in the seasoning.

5. Depending on the frying method, add oil to a pot or pan.

   1. If deep frying with canola oil you will want to use a heavy bottomed pot and add enough oil so that there is about two inches of oil and heat over medium to high heat.

      1. Technically, you would want to make sure the oil was at about 370 degrees, but what I do is test the oil with a pinch of the shrimp seasoning to see if it bubbles/fries. If it does, you can add the shrimp to the pot.

      2. You may have to do this in batches depending on how many shrimp you do and the size of the pot, but add the shrimp and cook for about 2 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and place on a paper towel and season with salt

   2. If using olive oil you will want to use a medium sized pan and add enough oil to coat the pan and go about halfway up the shrimp, so maybe about ½ inch.

      1. Heat over medium high heat, test the oil with a pinch of the seasoning,add the shrimp and cook for about 1-2 minutes on each side. Remove and place on a paper towel and season with salt.