Our Cold Water Shrimp aka Ice Shrimp is a proud product of Canada, wild caught off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. Have you ever tried Ice shrimp? Very tasty, unique and sure to stir up some excitement on your menus. They come fully cooked, peeled and deveined in a variety of sizes, with the largest being U150 ct per pound.

If you're like me, you are already looking for ideas for spring menus. Here is one that is simple, affordable, and utilizes one of my favourite spring ingredients, asparagus. These Shrimp & spud bites make the perfect sharable appetizer. They look fancy but are very simple to execute. 

With the exception of the grilled asparagus, the rest of the dish is served cold, so the spuds need a bit of TLC to keep them moist. Slice them in half, boil until they slowly fall off a fork then allow them to cool. This par boiling will help the spuds retain some moisture, and also allow you to deep fry to order. For service I like to get a few orders of potatoes fried up ahead of time, so that they can cool to room temperature before plating. I'm using fingerling potatoes, but mini potatoes work just as well.

Grilling the asparagus to order is optional, but I think it's a nice touch. When grilling asparagus it's important to blanch them first. This reduces the amount of time that they are exposed to the grill, so that you get the charred flavour without the asparagus looking like shriveled twigs. Simply toss with a bit of olive oil, season and grill to order. 

To hold the spuds in position on the plate, use small dollops of guacamole as the stabilizer. Place the spuds on top of these and you can build up from there. Be generous with the shrimp and allow some to spill over onto the asparagus. I've tossed the shrimp with a bit of smoked paprika for flavour and colour contrast.  A little sour cream and chive drizzle and some fresh lemon zest and you're good to go. 

They look awesome with the addition of some micro sprouts and placed on a platter as a passed hors d'oeurves.  You could also replace the shrimp with our smoked salmon for a nice twist.  Recipe can be found here.

Stay hungry my friends!