Gizelle Alvarez-Janzso
2021 Arrival, ALT Ehime Prefecture BOE, Toon SHS
2024-2025 Mikan Blog Editor
Gizelle is a Canadian JET and a foodie girlieΒ π©βπ³ππ.Β As a Filipino/Hungarian, living in a society with such a mosaic of cultures, food was the one consistent thing that kept her connected to her own heritage.Β We’ve all heard that food is a love langauge. She truly believes food is more than just nourishment. It connects cultures,Β people. It can also tell you a lot about who you are.Β
If you ever have a question about cooking or restaurant recommendations, feel free to reach out to her!
About the Recipe
We’re starting off the new recipe series with the very first recipe I made for other JETs! I actually invented this dish right here in Ehime! Here’s the storyο½
My Creamy CajunΒ Shrimp Dip made its debut at the first Halloween party I’ve EVER hosted. Naturally, I wanted to bring out all the stops for my guests. First, I thought of home. Whenever I’d go over to a friend’s house for a gathering, there would ALWAYS be a classic grocery store veggie platter with that slaaaappin’ ranch dip in the center. It’d always be the first thing to get devoured. BAM! The decision to serve some sort of cruditΓ© and dip was made! It also fit my witchy theme perfectly- I could call the carrots, fingers π. Shout out to my super cool prof. from my Glendon days, Marie-HΓ©lΓ¨ne Larochelle. Her horror short story, Les cruditΓ©s, about a Tinder date gone wrong, low-key inspired this dish, too. Give it a read if you can! It’s in the book Monstres et fantΓ΄mes.Β
OKAY. NEXT! What kind of dip? CHEESE! When does that NOT go over well (well… if you’re lactose intolerant… oof. But WORTH)!?
What else!? Originally I wanted to make crab dip to match my witchy theme since crabs look spidery. Unfortunately, when I went to Fuji, I could only find super expensive frozen crab legs and zero ει‘ (50% off) stickers. I could have opted for kanikama/surimi (imitation crab) but I felt like it wouldn’t be the texture and flavour I was hoping for. SO, I grabbed some fresh, shell-on shrimp as an alternative and hoped for the best.
With all my key ingredients gathered – cream cheese, shredded cheese and shrimp, I was ready to get witchy and start concocting. I went to the pantry first! That’s where I got inspired to use my giant bottles of cajun seasoning + garlic and onion powder (thank you for overestimating how many spices you’d need from Canada, Nikkiβ€οΈ). Since I love dill and know it goes well with seafood, I decided to add dried dill to the mix, too. You can find the garlic and onion powder at any grocery store and the dill at Kaldi. Cajun spice will be tougher to find, tryΒ AmazonΒ orΒ iHerb! Otherwise, you can stick to just coarsely ground, dried chili!Β
While I let the shrimp marinate in the spices, I mixed together the softened cream cheese, grated cheese and the same spices I used on the shrimp. I found that it was a bit dry so I added in an unsweetened, plain yogurt cup I had in the fridge and a squeeze of mayo! For bite, I added some chopped green onions.
After quickly pan frying the spiced shrimp in a bit of olive oil and cooling them, I chopped and mixed them into the cheese mixture! Then, I put the mix into an oven-safe dish, sprikled a bit more cheese on top and put that baby into my air fryer for 5 minutes at 200Β°C. You can use a toaster oven or your fish grill, too! If you use the fish grill, make sure be a bit more careful since it involves and open flam. Keep an eye on it!
Aaaaand, VOILA! Serve the cheesy goodness with the cruditΓ©s and some crackers (you can use any kind you like)! I hope you enjoy making and eating this dish as much as I did!
Cheesy Shrimp Dip
Servings: 6Β Β Β Prep. Time: 15ο½20 mins Β Β Cook Time: 10 mins
Ingredients
For the shrimp:Β
10-15 shell-on, fresh shrimp
4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 green onion, chopped
2 small, red chilis (dried or fresh), chopped
4 tbsp of cajun spice
4 tbsp of garlic powder
4 tbsp of onion powder
2 tbsp of dried dill
1 tbsp of olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste
Β
For the cheese base:
1 block of cream cheese (ο½226g), softened
1 small container of plain, unsweetened yogurt
1 cup of shredded cheese
4 tbsp of mayonnaise
Salt & pepper to taste
Method
1. Peel and devein the shrimp then, give it a little rinse and pat dry.
2.Β Marinate the shrimp in a bowl with the minced garlic, half of each of the spices, salt and pepper and a bit of olive oil (I like the flavour but you can use whatever you like).
3.Β While the shrimp marinates, make the cheesy base mixture by combining the cream cheese (softened by leaving it out at room temp. for a few minutes), half of the shredded cheese, the yogurt, the mayo, the other half of the spices, salt and pepper and the green onions. Mix everything together well! If you find that it’s too dry, add more yogurt, mayo or even a splash of milk.
4.Β Warm up a pan on medium heat, then pan fry the marinated shrimp for one and a half minutes on each side. Add a bit more oil if you think it needs more. Shrimp cooks super fast! When it turns pink outside and opaque in the middle, it’s ready!
5.Β Let the shrimp cool down a bit, then chop it coarsely and add it to the cheese mixture. Mix until there are no big white chunks of cream cheese~ make sure the spice confetti is coating, EVERYTHING.
6.Β Put the mixture into an oven safe container/ramekin & top with the rest of the shredded cheese. You can use one large container or split the mix up into 2~3 smaller ones.
7.Β Broil in your fish grill, toaster oven, air fryer or oven for about 5 minutes at 200Β°C or until the cheese is ooey gooey and slightly golden.
8.Β Sprinkle on some chopped green onions before serving if you’re feeling fancy and serve the dip warm with your favourite dippers!
Enjoy!
Tips π
β¨ My preferred dippers:
πCruditΓ©s (carrots, cucumber, celery, broccoli π₯¦, etc.)
πCrackers (Ritz match SUPER well)
πToasted french bread, 1/2 inch slices
πPlain salted potato chips (Original Pringles!)
β¨ For extra spice, add a few splashes of your favourite hot sauce to the mix. You can also add more chilis!
β¨ Top it with some fresh dill and a squeeze of lemon for a more lively bite!
β¨ You can use any kind of cheese you like in this recipe. Soft cheeses such as brie and mozzarella might work well!
β οΈI’m not too sure how a strong tasting cheese would work here though, a blue cheese for example, might be a bit too intense.
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