This was the brainchild creation of Dan for our Prideful Prawn appetizer at our 7 Deadly Sins dinner party. It was incredibly over-the-top with raspberries, cantaloupe squares, mini key lime wedges and chives as garnishes. Dan even peeled tiny little lime zest curly cues from the key limes that were ridiculously cute. With ribbon roses of Westphalian ham distributed throughout and painted arches of mango-chili reduction and dabs of raspberry lime coulis to finish the dish off. The entire masterpiece was served on top of a mirror to really emphasize the pompous sin of pride.And let me tell you....IT WAS DELICIOUS.
We wrapped the shrimp with the Westphalian ham and scooped up the other sauces and fruit until the whole thing was an empty mess.
The best combination was the shrimp wrapped in Westphalian ham and dipped in the mango-chili reduction. Soooo yummy! If you've never had Westphalian ham before, it's very similar to prosciutto from Italy....it comes from Germany and has a smokey flavor. If you can't find Westphalian ham you could easily substitute prosciutto or even cooked bacon.____________________________________________________________________
Serves 4 as an appetizer
8-12 large shrimp, peeled and deveined with tails left on
8-12 slices of Westphalian ham
2 tbsp butter
Mango-Chili Reduction:
2/3 cup Mango nectar
1/2 Thai chili, deseeded and minced
1/4 cup sugar
To make the reduction, pour all the ingredients into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Let reduce for 3-5 minutes until it becomes the consistency of a nice sauce. Remove from the heat and let come to room temperature before serving.
To make the shrimp, put a frying pan over medium heat along with the butter. Once the pan is hot, add the shrimp. It should take a couple minutes per side to cook the shrimp. They will turn bright pink and the tail will curl up. Don't overcook the shrimp. Remove from the heat.
To serve, you can either wrap each shrimp in a piece of ham or serve the shrimp on a plate with the ham curled into roses amongst the shrimp. Serve the mango-chili reduction for dipping.
Click here for printable version of Westphalian Ham Wrapped Shrimp with Mango Chili Reduction
____________________________________________________________________
THE RESULTS?
The combination of sweet, smokey and spicy is wonderful. I loved these shrimp. I had never had Westphalian ham before but I'm definitely going to create more dishes with it. And the mango-chili reduction...superb.