Aguacates Rellenos

(AVOCADOS STUFFED WITH SHRIMP OR CHICKEN SALAD)

This is a full-meal salad, with two different options for protein.

Shrimp Salad

6 cups boiled small or medium shrimp, peeled and chilled

1 cup mayonnaise

½ cup chopped celery

3 tablespoons sliced black olives

Salt and black pepper, to taste

Chicken Salad

6 poached chicken breasts, skinned, boned, and shredded

1 cup mayonnaise

½ cup chopped celery

½ cup diced pimiento

Salt and black pepper, to taste

6 avocados, preferably Haas

Romaine or iceberg lettuce leaves

Carrot curls or other fresh vegetables, optional

Serves 6

1. Mix together the ingredients for the shrimp salad or the chicken salad in a medium-sized bowl. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to a day.

2. Halve the avocados, remove the pits, and peel. On dinner plates, arrange 2 avocado halves on lettuce leaves. Spoon equal portions of the chilled salad onto each plate, attractively mounding the salad over the avocados.

3. Garnish, if you wish, with carrots or other vegetables. Serve.

As difficult as it was to procure some foodstuffs in the Chimayó area, shrimp have been available since colonial times. According to Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert, in her charming New Mexico memoir The Good Life, dried crustaceans were brought to the area by traders plying the Camino Real from central Mexico.