Shrimp Cocktail

Everyone loves Shrimp Cocktail.  I do not even like seafood and I like it.  But not that frozen ring of water logged small shrimp - the large shrimp purchased fresh from the fish market.

For a special occasion I like to serve this as an appetizer in martini glasses: a bed of Romaine lettuce in the bottom, a dollop of cocktail sauce, and a lemon all surrounded by 3-5 shrimp draped over the rim.  It is a beautiful presentation and easy to do.  They can be made several hours ahead and put out when your guests arrive.  It is a guaranteed winner.

There are two parts to the cocktail.  Great fresh shrimp and homemade cocktail sauce, not from a jar.  You should make the cocktail sauce the day before you are going to serve for best flavor but if you forget, it can be made on the spot.

Here's how to do it:

Ingredients:

1 cup ketchup
3 TBS prepared Horseradish
6-8 dashed hot sauce
1 TBS freshly squeezed lemon juice

Combine all of the ingredients into a small bowl. Mix to combine.

Tips:

If you want the sauce to be more or less spicy, simply adjust the hot sauce.  The horseradish adds heat but it is a different kind of heat than the hot sauce, so do use it.

Now for the shrimp.  I made three pounds of 15-20 shrimp per pound.  I was serving 20 people.  The recipe is the same no matter how much shrimp you use.

Ingredients:

fresh, clean, deveined shrimp
Pot of boiling water
Large bowl of ice water

Here's how to do it:

Boil the water in a large pot.

Once the water is boiling, add the shrimp and cook for 2 and a half minutes.  They will turn pink and curl up.  Do not cook longer than this. 

Cleaned and deveined shrimp

Into the water for 2 and half minutes

  Drain into a colander.

Shrimp all cooked, drained and ready to cool down

Place the shrimp into a bowl of ice water to cool them and to stop the cooking.

Sitting in a bowl of ice and water

Drain the shrimp again.  Place the shrimp in a bowl or on a plate with some paper towels to absorb the liquid and cool in the refrigerator for a few hours until cold.

Place in a beautiful tray, serve with cocktail sauce. 

All done and served with cocktail sauce

The shrimp should be cold and crisp. This beats that frozen shrimp ring any day.