Ingredients

   
450g shrimp, cooked and peeled (see steps)
240g caldo de camarón, chilled
240g Clamato (or tomato juice + 30g clam juice)
120g ketchup
60g lime juice, fresh
15g Worcestershire sauce
10g Salsa Huichol or Valentina
4g Diamond Crystal kosher salt

Folded In

   
90g white onion, minced fine
150g cucumber, peeled, seeded, small-diced
100g roma tomato, seeded, small-diced
20g cilantro, chopped
1 serrano chile, minced (optional)

To Serve

   
1 avocado, cut into wedges
1 lime, cut into wedges
  Saladitas or tostadas

Steps

  1. Poach the shrimp shell on and peel them, following Shrimp Cocktail steps 1 through 7. Reserve the poaching liquid and the shells.

  2. Strain the poaching liquid. Return it to the pot with the shells and simmer 15 minutes. Strain again through a fine-mesh sieve and chill. This is the caldo.

  3. Whisk the caldo, Clamato, ketchup, lime juice, Worcestershire, hot sauce, and salt. Chill 30 minutes.

  4. Taste and adjust — more lime for sharpness, more hot sauce for heat, more salt for depth. It should taste bracing on its own.

  5. Cut the shrimp in half crosswise if they’re 21 count or larger. Leave smaller ones whole.

  6. Fold in the shrimp, onion, cucumber, tomato, cilantro, and serrano. Chill at least 1 hour, up to 4.

  7. Spoon into tall goblets. Lay avocado wedges on top. Serve with lime wedges and saltines or tostadas.

Notes

  • The caldo is what separates this from ketchup and water. Buying pre-peeled shrimp skips it, and there is no substitute — bottled clam juice alone tastes of clam, not shrimp.
  • It should be soupy enough to eat with a spoon. Thin with more caldo if it tightens up in the fridge.
  • No horseradish and no Old Bay. The lime and the Huichol do that job.
  • Better made 2 hours ahead. Past 4 the cucumber starts to weep and the onion loses its edge.
  • Clamato is standard in Sinaloa. Tomato juice plus a splash of clam juice is close; V8 is too vegetal.
  • Add the avocado at the table, not into the mix — folded in, it breaks down and clouds the liquid.
  • Scale the base by the caldo. If you only get 180g of it, cut everything else by a quarter rather than padding with more Clamato.
  • Keeps 2 days refrigerated, though the vegetables soften. Don’t freeze.
  • Aguachile is a different dish — raw shrimp cured in lime with chile, no tomato. Don’t use this base for it.