Giada De Laurentiis Adds A Spicy Extra Ingredient To Shrimp Cocktail

Bite-sized seafood snacks, whether that's smoked salmon and cream cheese tarts, dainty spoonfuls of caviar atop crackers, or single-serve shrimp cocktails, can take your dinner parties and soirées to a whole new level.

If it's the latter option you're going for, however, you can elevate things even more by taking a leaf out of Giada De Laurentiis. She takes her shrimp cocktail up a notch by adding kimchi to it. Kimchi is a traditional Korean side dish made of spicy fermented vegetables. The most well-known variety of kimchi is made of cabbage, although it can be made out of other types of veggies as well.

When paired with your shrimp cocktail, this ingredient adds a kick to your appetizer. It also has sour, tangy notes that offset the sweetness of the seafood. Plus, it's got an umami punch that adds depth to your cocktail. It's also an incredibly easy addition to your meal, taking just a few minutes to whip up this Asian-inspired dipping sauce.

To get started making this sauce, the first step is to choose your kimchi. A baechu variety, made of napa cabbage, is what most people think of when they hear the word kimchi. However, you could experiment with a different variety as well. Radish, cucumber, and mustard leaf are all a few veggies you might find turned into this spicy side. A radish variety has a subtle peppery flavor to it, while mustard greens are more refreshing and mildly sweet. Cucumber kimchi, for its part, has a garlicky, salty flavor. You can usually find a few different varieties of kimchi at your local Asian grocery store.

Once you've selected which type you'll use, you'll need to chop it into smaller pieces. That's because it typically comes in larger chunks, which won't mix seamlessly into your cocktail sauce. To get around this, just toss the kimchi into your food processor and use the pulse function to cut it up.

Once you've prepped your kimchi, it's time to actually put the cocktail sauce together. The good news is that if you're using a food processor, you can just toss all the ingredients directly into the appliance, meaning you don't need to dirty extra dishes.

To get the tomatoey flavor that shrimp cocktail sauce is usually known for, you'll add 3 tablespoons of ketchup. Plus, add ½ cup of mayonnaise to create a creamy consistency. Finish the whole thing off with a dash of salt and 1 teaspoon of grated ginger. The ginger adds spicy, slightly sweet notes that complement the fire of the kimchi. When your sauce is mixed up, pop it in the fridge to chill it before serving it with cooked shrimp.

You can also add a garnish to the sauce to finish things off. For instance, a dusting of nori flakes could add a salty touch to the dish. Or, you could top it off with a sprinkling of black sesame seeds. Feel free to experiment with other garnishes that complete your shrimp cocktail, and then enjoy this twist on a tasty appetizer.