Watermelon Cocktail Sauce with Spicy Creole Grilled Gulf Shrimp

Here’s a little secret amongst chefs…we are always looking for something new. I gotta say, new ideas are hard to come by, as there is not too many original ideas. So we take to tweaking, swapping, deconstructing and reconstructing, anything we can do to maintain our hunt to be inventive and creative. Like most chefs I have a pile of food magazines, some cookbooks, and a ton of websites I pour over weekly looking for inspiration. While some people might see this as unoriginal, I believe it’s more of a catalyst to my own work; after all, it’s the hand of the chef that makes the flavors sing.

During the weekly voyage thru those piles of magazines and multiple websites, I came across, what I thought was a homerun! It would be perfect for a southern Labor Day cookout. When we entertain at home, we like to have simple, easy and tasty food, along with a few surprises for our guests to enjoy. Watermelon Cocktail Sauce would do just that, refreshing, zippy and quite the “A- ha”.

Watermelon Cocktail Sauce Mis en Place- Perfect for end of summer cookouts!

Watermelon Cocktail Sauce

2 cups seedless watermelon, diced
1 tablespoon yellow onion, rough chopped
3 tablespoon fresh grated horseradish
1 jalapeño pepper, seeds removed
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
4 tablespoons prepared cocktail sauce/ketchup

The method is pretty simple…put all of the ingredients except the cocktail sauce or ketchup in a food processor and puree. Once all the ingredients are puréed smoothly, transfer into a mixing bowl. The cocktail sauce or ketchup is there to thicken the sauce if necessary. Add a tablespoon at a time and stir well until the sauce is thick enough; this can vary depending how juicy your watermelon is. The watermelon cocktail sauce can be made in advance and refrigerated.

Fresh Grated Horseradish- peel it like ginger and then grate.

Fresh horseradish is stronger than the prepared type you can buy in the store. Peel the root and grate it; add more or less depending on your taste.

Marinated Creole Gulf Shrimp

Creole Grilled Shrimp

2 pounds peeled tail on large shrimp
4 ounces olive oil
4 tablespoon creole seasoning

Marinate the shrimp for an hour or so with the olive oil and your favorite creole seasoning before you skewer them. A great tip if you use wood skewers is to soak them in water for a few minutes before you put food on them, this will make sure the skewers don’t burn on the grill.