Shrimp Dip or Mold



Photo Source:  Google Images

I was flipping through my recipe box looking for potential New Year's Eve dips when I found a recipe I thought was long-lost.  My mom used to serve this dip at parties and I loved it.  I wrote it on a recipe card...and it got stuck to another one in the recipe box...and I didn't realize it was there.  The last time I made it was in the early 90's...haven't been able to find it since.  Today, I took all the recipe cards in the appetizer section out of the box, and lo and behold, there it was!

This is one of those recipes where I went "HUH, really???" when I saw the ingredients.  Not what I was expecting...but it really tastes good.  I got lots of compliments back in the day when I made it regularly for parties.

I don't have personal photos to show you, because it's way too much to make for one family of 3...but if you have a crowd, this is a tasty and unusual dip to serve.  I usually molded it, using gelatin, in a fish-shaped copper mold...and surrounded the molded dip with crackers on a nice big platter.  Once I sliced green onions into very thin ovals (on a diagonal) and lay them on the fish (one by one) like fish scales.  Made for a pretty presentation!  I Googled some images and found a sample of something very similar...and a picture of a copper mold almost identical to mine...my fish was not quite so arched...but darn close!  So, this will give you some ideas anyway :-)
 

Photo Source:  Google Images


SHRIMP DIP, OR MOLDED DIP

Ingredients:

2 8-ounce bricks cream cheese
2 10 1/2 oz. cans Campbell's Tomato Soup
2 cups onion, finely chopped
2 cups celery, finely chopped
2 cups red bell pepper, finely chopped
3 cans baby shrimp - drained (I've also used freshly boiled shrimp which I chopped into small pieces)

Method:
Melt together cream cheese and tomato soup, stirring (and then whisking) constantly until smooth.
Add onion, celery, and bell pepper - mix well.
Stir in drained shrimp until evenly distributed.

May serve, chilled as a dip
OR
May mold by:
Dissolve 3 envelopes plain gelatin in 1/2 cup hot water.  Allow to bloom.
Whisk into hot cream cheese and tomato soup mixture, then add the rest of the ingredients as above.
Pour into mold and refrigerate for several hours or over-night.
May lightly oil mold prior to pouring in mixture if you have concerns about unmolding (especially if it has lots of little nooks and crannies).

Now that I've typed this...and since I haven't made it in a long time...maybe I'll halve the recipe.  I think we might be having it for New Year's Eve after all! 

Bon Appetit Y'all!!!