re: Want to whip up a shrimp dip help

Sorry, I didn't see this over the holiday. This recipe is an artifact of the mid 20th century: it uses gelatin and canned soup (tomato). This dish is the sort of thing long served at bridal and baby showers (it's pink, for goodness sakes), or at the casual, backyard/church hall weddings middle class people used to have before reality TV and the wedding-industrial complex made everyone lose their damn minds and think that monogrammed napkins somehow are related to their future happiness.

Where I'm from (DTB, and the B is Lafourche), you can judge the "bougie-ness" of the host by the shape of the mold. A bundt pan or simple tupperware round is typical and ordinary: but some avid 60s-70s hostesses w the mostess had elaborate shrimp or fish shaped copper molds, the kind you can hang on the wall as a decoration when not in use. Lazy hosts (and men) just put it in a plastic wrap lined bowl and dumped it out, LOL.

I prefer a shrimp mold to have a very finely chopped texture: break out the food processor.

Here's the basic outline:
--one block of cream cheese
--can of campbell's tomato soup
--1-2 cloves garlic, to taste (run through a press)
--1 envelope gelatin
--small onion, coarsely chopped (red is nice, actual brown skinned shallots are even nicer)
--2-3 ribs of celery, coarsely chopped
--3 lbs shrimp, boiled in well seasoned water (they're going into the food processor, so don't use big/pretty, pieces are fine) ETA: if your shrimp are insufficiently seasoned, your resulting mold will be insipid
--1 cup of mayo (Hellman's is what I like)
--1 bunch green onions, finely chopped (or chives, if you've got some growing)
--Crystal hot sauce (6-8 good shakes)

Put the cream cheese, soup, garlic in a pot w/ the gelatin. Cook over low heat until melted; stirring often to mix. Set aside. In a food processor w/a chopping blade, add the onion and celery; pulse a few times, then add the shrimp. Pulse to chop the shrimp coarsely: you don't want a paste, but you want a chopped texture. In a big bowl, combine the chopped shrimp/veg mix w the mayo, green onions, and hot sauce, then stir in the cream cheese/soup mix. Pour into a greased mold. Put into the fridge until it sets firm. Unmold onto a plate or cake stand, if so inclined.

This is the basic recipe: some like bigger shrimp unchopped, others prefer more garlic, less onion, add parsley, sautee the onion because they can't eat it raw, blah blah. Do what you want with it: if you're horrified by the canned tomato soup, use tomato passata or pureed canned plum tomatoes (you'll need to add salt).

Push it into a new direction by adding a 1/2 tsp smoked paprika & lots more garlic plus fresh parsley, and put some thinly sliced lemons on the bottom of your mold.

Jump it right up to the present w/a few shakes of fish sauce added with the mayo, some lime juice, and cilantro.

It's tasty stuff on a hot afternoon, esp if you're stuck wearing party clothes and talking to tous les Vieux Tantes about the weather on their respective wedding days...or being forced to listen to baby-delivery horror stories, etc etc.

It's still good the next day, when all of the cousins now hanging around, handicapping just how long the marriage will last, or are counting the days to figure out just when Cousin LeeLee got knocked up. LOL.

Makes a good take-along dish if you're gonna "rodee" all afternoon visiting various relations, or to "faire la veille" (which is sort of like Netflix & chill, to hang out at somebody's house into the wee hours).

Many thanks. We always used the Campbell's tomato soup. I have some memory of a little bell pepper. Maybe both green and red. I know I've used bells before.

A friend of mine has a set of mini metal fish molds about 5 inches long. She made some individual molds at Christmas. I'm looking for some of those. They sound awfully fun.