Spatula Diaries: Marinated seafood salad just right for the holidays

The best holiday party dishes are ones that fit two criteria: you can make them ahead and serve them at room temperature. Marinated seafood salad, a terrific expression of our local bounty, fits them both. Think of them as a sort of Southern ceviche, even though you’re beginning with cooked seafood.

This time of year, I like to make a couple of different marinated seafood salads—the Mobile, Alabama favorite, West Indies Salad, made with crabmeat, minced onions and an oil and vinegar solution, and the classic Southern pickled shrimp, in which fresh boiled shrimp ride it out in a tangy marinade for a couple of days before serving. They’re delicious crowd pleasers that offer a refreshing counterpoint to the typical holiday buffet.

The original recipe for West Indies salad allegedly springs from Bayley’s Restaurant south of Mobile in the late ’40s, and is still being reinterpreted by food journalists and chefs today. For mine, I place half a finely diced small yellow onion in the bottom of a large plastic container, then add a pound of cleaned jumbo lump crabmeat with a little kosher salt. On top of that, I layer the rest of the diced onion and another pound of crabmeat with a little more salt. Then I combine 1 cup grapeseed oil (vegetable or canola are more commonly used) and 1 cup cider vinegar in a measuring cup and pour the solution over the crabmeat and onions. I top it with fresh chopped parsley, and let it marinate for a least 24 hours. I serve it on a platter surrounded by shredded iceberg lettuce, sliced tomatoes and saltine crackers. It’s easy and delicious.

Admittedly, pickled shrimp is more work since you have to peel, devein, boil and cool the shrimp before you even begin to marinate. But this time of year, my intention is to kill it in the kitchen, so bring on the extra work. This dish has been reinterpreted across the South from its alleged birthplace of Charleston to Texas, where it was apparently a Laura Bush favorite. I like to use a recipe from my hometown, Columbus, Georgia.

Pickled shrimp recipe

Modified from A Southern Collection of Tested Recipes, from the Junior League of Columbus, Georgia

Serves 10

3 pounds large cleaned boiled shrimp
2 onions, sliced thin
5 celery stalks with leaves, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 lemons, sliced thin

For the marinade
¾ cup cider vinegar
¾ cup canola oil
4 ounces bottled capers with juice
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
8 dashes Tabasco sauce
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons celery seed
3 cloves garlic, peeled

Using a tall lidded container or a large jar with tight lid, place a layer of shrimp in the bottom, then follow with layers of onion slices, celery and lemon slices repeating until complete. Mix the marinade ingredients in a blender or food processor and pour over the shrimp mixture. Refrigerate, turning the container often to ensure the flavor penetrates. Marinate for 24-48 hours before serving. Arrange on a bed of butter lettuce or romaine lettuce.

Maggie Heyn Richardson is a regular 225 contributor and the author of Hungry for Louisiana, An Omnivore’s Journey. Reach her at hungryforlouisiana.com.