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The Hirshon Shrimp Cocktail And Cocktail Sauce

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The Hirshon Shrimp Cocktail And Cocktail Sauce
Shrimp Cocktail Image Used Under Creative Commons License From pinterest.com

Citizens, I – the staunchly tyrannical TFD – believe that certain dishes should always remain in style. Shrimp cocktail is one of My all-time favorite appetizers, and to Me it will always be a comfort food par excellence.

Prawn cocktail, also known as shrimp cocktail, is a seafood dish consisting of shelled, cooked, prawns in a cocktail sauce, served in a glass. It was the most popular hors d’œuvre in Great Britain from the 1960s to the late 1980s, and was likewise ubiquitous in the United States around this time. According to the English food writer Nigel Slater, the prawn cocktail “has spent most of (its life) see-sawing from the height of fashion to the laughably passé” and is now often served with a degree of irony.

A dish of cooked seafood with a piquant sauce of some kind is of ancient origin and many varieties exist. Oyster or shrimp dishes of this kind were popular in the United States in the late nineteenth century and some sources link the serving of the dish in cocktail glasses to the ban on alcoholic drinks during the 1920s prohibition era in the United States.

In the United Kingdom, the invention of the Prawn Cocktail is often credited to British television chef Fanny Cradock in the 1960s; however, it is more likely that Cradock merely popularized her version of an established dish that was not well known until then in Britain. In their 1997 book The Prawn Cocktail Years, Simon Hopkinson and Lindsey Bareham note that the prawn cocktail has a “direct lineage to Escoffier”.

The sauce is usually referred to as cocktail sauce, and is essentially ketchup plus mayonnaise in commonwealth countries, or ketchup and horseradish in the United States.

Citizens, My version of this classic involves a gentle poaching in a beer-flavored court bouillon and My own very, very special cocktail sauce – I have every confidence you will LOVE this TFD take on the recipe! 🙂

Battle on – The Generalissimo

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The Hirshon Shrimp Cocktail And Cocktail Sauce

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Ingredients

Units Scale
  • The Hirshon Beer-Poached Shrimp Cocktail:
  • 2 pounds of the biggest Shrimp you can find
  • Kosher Salt
  • 1 1/2 cups beer – I prefer Kirin for this
  • 4 cups water
  • 2 small Onions, sliced
  • 2 cloves Garlic, sliced
  • 1” piece ginger, sliced
  • 3 sprigs fresh parsley
  • 2 sprigs fresh tarragon
  • 1 Bay Leaf
  • 8 whole Peppercorns
  • 2 Celery ribs with leaves, cut into pieces
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 1 tsp Old Bay Seasoning
  • 1/2 Lemon, quartered
  • ***
  • The Hirshon Cocktail Sauce:
  • 1/2 cup Heinz chili sauce
  • 1 1/2 cup Heinz ketchup
  • 3 limes, juiced
  • 3 tablespoons Gin – Hendricks or Plymouth preferred
  • 1 Tbs. Tabasco
  • 1 Tbs. Adobo sauce from can of Chipotle peppers in Adobo (preferred) or 1 Tbs. Tabasco Chipotle sauce
  • 3 Tbs. Walnut oil (preferred) – alternatively, try Hazelnut oil (for a milder flavor) or Sesame oil (Kadoya brand preferred) for an Asian flavor
  • 2 tablespoons, packed of prepared horseradish – the freshest and hottest you can find
  • 3 cloves roasted garlic, pureed
  • 1 tablespoon Mushroom Ketchup
  • 1/2 tablespoon Maggi Seasoning
  • 1 1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (Lea & Perrins)
  • 2 tablespoons Soy Sauce
  • 2 tbs. finely chopped parsley
  • 2 tbs. finely chopped sage
  • Dash or two of Lee Brothers Angostura Bitters (optional)

Instructions

  1. For the cocktail sauce: combine all, let sit for at least 4 hours or overnight.
  2. Prepare Shrimp: Remove shells from shrimp, leaving tails intact and devein. Set shells aside (do not discard!)
  3. Place shrimp in a large mixing bowl and add heavily-salted ice water, wait for 15 minutes and then drain.
  4. Fill a large bowl with ice water and set out two large Ziploc bags. Set aside.
  5. Pour water and beer in large pot and add shrimp shells, onion, garlic, tarragon, parsley, bay leaf, ginger, peppercorns, celery, Old Bay and salt. Bring almost to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes.
  6. Strain and discard solids. Immediately return broth back to pot and adjust heat to medium-low.
  7. Add the shrimp (do NOT rinse them before adding), and poach until shrimp are just cooked through, stirring occasionally. If necessary, add more water to cover the shrimp. Depending on size of shrimp, this will take 1-4 minutes.
  8. Use a slotted spoon to transfer shrimp to Ziploc bags, dividing them in between the two as to not overcrowd bags. Immediately seal bags, removing as much air as possible, and submerge bags in ice water.
  9. Transfer bowl to the refrigerator and allow to chill for at least several hours, the last 15 minutes before serving in the freezer.
  10. Arrange around a platter with tails up and your favorite dipping sauce in the middle. Place lemon wedges around sauce dish. Serve with the Hirshon Cocktail Sauce.

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