Salad Recipe Collection – Cartagena Fishermen’s Salad – 2 of 5

“Avoid seafood in the months without an ‘R’, May through August, the gestation months..” Colloquial Quote by: Fishermen from Cartagena de Indias (my home town.) This salad has been around in homes in Cartagena for decades. This was the first time I had tried to make it, and everyone at home was happy to be my Guinea pigs. It went well, though. 🙂 They said it was refreshing and taste buds were dancing all over their mouths.

Recipe:

1. Boil 1 peeled potato with salt (1/4 tsp), and cut into cubes. Set aside.

2. Clean 4 raw medium or jumbo shrimps, removing shell and tail, and place them on the grill adding salt and pepper after you turn them. Stop cooking when they turn pink. If you prefer to saute them (on the skillet) as I did, you can add butter and garlic to the pan first, before adding the shrimp. Don’t forget to add salt and pepper to the shrimp on the skillet. They will have added flavor.

3. Take a couple of slices of an apple and cut them into small chunks similar in size to the potato cubes. I chose Red Rome Apple, for its sweetness, crunchy texture and because it’s my daughter’s favorite kind of apple. 🙂

Note: You may add mango as a second fruit. I would still suggest leaving the apple as it has more texture than mango.

4. Assemble all ingredients together starting with the lettuce as holders of the potato and apple pieces, then add one shrimp on each side of the plate and finish with salt, pepper and a dollop of simple mayonnaise. Mix together in your plate and get ready to travel to my home town. 🙂

Fishing is an important livelihood for Cartagena natives. They are not shy to promote wind surfing, canoeing or plain beach enjoyment from May to August. They try, although they don’t quite succeed, as fresh seafood is delicious in Cartagena. That said, they want both the fish and seafood to be left alone during the gestation period, so they do make fewer trips out to open sea. You can always enjoy fresh fish and seafood in abundance from September to April. After all, every day is a summer day in Cartagena! 🙂