Ensaladilla Rusa is popular throughout Spain as a salad side or a starter along with some crusty bread. And being composed of potato, mayo and shrimp, surprisingly tasty as a sandwich filler too. You'll find this one all over the world as each region (such as the I's: Italy, Iran and Israel) adds their own twist to the recipe.Here we bring you the Andalucían version from our favourite seafood sit-down restaurant, Cunini.
What we're aiming for:
A large side salad or starter enough for about 6 servings Crusty baguette for scooping up the mayo'y potato
The Components:
300g of shrimp, cleaned and peeled
1 clove of garlic, peeled and ready for mincing
1 large red skin potato, cut into cubes (you can use new potatoes if you prefer or peel first, but we love the extra colour)
1 shallot, diced
1 large handful of chopped parsley
2 tablespoons of mayonnaise (you can make your own or spoon from a jar)
2 tablespoons of creme fraiche
2 teaspoons of dijon mustard
Salt and pepper
Olive oil for cooking
The Algorithm:
For the shrimp: - Add a good few glugs of olive oil to a frying pan on a medium heat - Mince in the clove of garlic and let it sizzle in the oil for about a minute until you can smell that glorious fragrance of it cooking - Increase the heat to high and add the shrimp - Stir until the shrimp looks like it's cooked all the way through and opaque, about 3 minutes - Turn off the heat, set aside and let cool while you make the rest of the recipe
For the potatoes and the rest: - Boil the potato cubes until a knife can slip through them, You don't want them to be tooo done - In a large bowl, add the potato, shallot, parsley and shrimp - Then spoon in the mayonnaise, creme fraiche and mustard - Season with salt and pepper.
- Mix well - keeping the chunks of potato if you can. If it tends towards a mash, that's ok too. There's plenty of shrimp to create a lumpy salad.
Place in the refrigerator for 2 hours to cool nicely, then serve with some crusty bread!