Bahama Breeze Cubra Libre Shrimp Salad Recipe
This is the recipe for Bahama Breeze Cubra Libre Shrimp Salad. It is unfortunately no longer on the menu at the restaurant- but you can make it at home and no one will even know the difference- just play some tropical music in the background..lol
The marinade for the shrimp in this salad is so tasty. Who would have known that it was cola based. The salad is aerie, and the fresh fruit makes it so light. We didn't even get to the sugar cane vinaigrette that gets drizzled on top, and not to mention the sprinkle of candied almonds.... Yum.
You will want to make this salad a day ahead- because the shrimp needs to marinade in the succulent sauce for 1 day before cooking. It can seem a little time consuming- but honestly its not. The recipe ingredients are broken down to make it a little easier.
Ingredients
- List of Ingredients for the glaze:
- 3 limes juiced
- 2 cans (12 ounce) each coke
- 3/4 cup Dark Brown Sugar
- 1/4 cup Honey Dijon Mustard
- 1 Tablespoon Dry Powdered Mustard
- 2 Tablespoons Dark Rum (no Malibu rum here)
- Pinch salt
- 1 Lb Uncooked Shrimp
- List of Candied Almond Ingredients:
- 1 cup Slivered blanched almonds
- 6 Tablespoons Sugar
- List of Salad Ingredients
- 1 (10 ounce) Package Romaine salad mix
- 1 (10 ounce) Package baby spinach
- 1 Green apple diced
- 6 Strawberries diced
- 1 Fresh Pineapple chopped, no can here.
- List of Sugarcane Vinaigrette Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 2 Tablespoons Sugar
- 1/8 cup Creole Mustard
- 1 Cup Olive oil
- 1 Tablespoon Minced garlic
- 1/8 cup Steen’s cane syrup
- 1 Tablespoon Fresh Parsley chopped
- Garnish Pineapple and Homemade tortilla chips
Directions
- Clean and de-vein the shrimp if you purchased your shrimp in the shell. If you purchased shelled and de-veined shrimp than skip this step. Under cold running water remove the legs first, then peel the hard shell off the back. Take a knife and run along the back side of the shrimp to remove the dark vein and discard this. You don’t want any hard shell on the shrimp left. Place your clean shrimp in a bowl till you are done.
- Let’s start to make our rum cola marinade
- Pour your 2 cans of coke in a medium saucepan. We are going to simmer this cola on medium- low heat for about 1 hour and 5 minutes. This reduces to about a cup. You want to continuously check on this a stir occasionally. Make sure you don’t let this over reduce.
- After your cola has reduced- remove it from the burner and add your dark brown sugar; ¼ cup of your Dijon mustard; juice from 3 limes; dark rum; pinch of salt and stir in your dry mustard. You want to simmer all these ingredients till it is dissolved. Let your marinade cool
- Get out a big plastic Ziploc bag and place your peeled shrimp in there. Now add your rum cola marinade. Marinade overnight.
- While your shrimp is marinating- Let’s get everything prepped for serving, so you will be ready to go.
- Lets make our candied almonds.
- Do not skip this- these candied almonds are absolutely tasty. Get out a cookie sheet and line it with parchment paper and set aside. In a heavy nonstick skillet melt the sugar around the almonds; stirring constantly.
- Remove your almond sugar from the heat immediately and spread onto your parchment covered surface to cool. You might need to break apart some pieces that stick together after cooling. Once cooled you can place them in a zip lock bag till ready.
- Let’s make our dressing now
- In a Blender place your Creole mustard; Rice vinegar; 2 Tablespoons sugar; Steens cane syrup; garlic; olive oil; chopped parsley; and a pinch of salt and pepper. Blend ingredients till smooth. Place in a small bowl till ready to serve the salad.
- Let’s now get our salad together.
- Get out your Romaine salad mix and chop the salad. Place the chopped salad in a good size bowl. Next add your baby spinach to the bowl and mix well.
- Get out your green apple and dice it to small bites and place in a big separate bowl.
- Get out your strawberries and cut off the green top and chop the strawberries till small bites and place in that same bowl with the apple.
- Get out your fresh pineapple and cut the top off the pineapple and discard. Now take off the outer area of the pineapple and discard. The center of the pineapple is non edible- so you want to cut around the center of the pineapple. Take your pineapple and cut into bite size pieces and place this in the apple strawberry bowl.
- Its time to cook our shrimp
- Get out a big skillet and on medium heat cook your shrimp. Its ok if you have extra marinade in the pan while cooking. Cook your shrimp till done. When they are done take out the shrimp leaving the extra marinade in the pan if any and set aside in a bowl.
- Let’s assemble our salad now.
- Get out your plates that you are going to serve your salad on.
- In your salad mix bowl- start to drizzle you’re dressings over the salad mix and start to mix well. Use tongs to evenly distribute the dressing. ( If you placed your dressing in the fridge from making the night before- than you will need to just heat it up in the microwave for a few seconds till it is in liquid form). You want a light coating- you can always add more later. You don’t want to use all the dressing mix- since this comes made in a large quantity.
- Place your salad with the dressing on your serving plate. Now top that with your chopped pineapple; apples and strawberries. Now add your cooked shrimp. Lightly drizzle a little extra dressing if needed.
- Then add your cooked shrimp about 6 on each plate- along with a sprinkle of the candied almonds on top. Serve with large tortilla chips and a big fork because you are going to dive in..
Cutting your pineapple
How to Devein shrimp
Enjoy your Bahama Breeze Cubra Libre Shrimp Salad Recipe. It is absolutely so delicious. When you make this you have extra dressing and candied almonds for later or for another salad. Enjoy!
