Shrimp Cocktail with Green Cocktail Sauce
Happy Belated New Year's Eve!
I put together a cozy, slightly complicated dinner menu to share with a friend for New Year's Eve this year, and started things off with some lovely appetizers, including this new-to-me shrimp poaching method from Serious Eats, and this green cocktail sauce from last month's Food & Wine magazine.
When I say, it was both fun, and to die for, you'd better believe that I'm not kidding.
Planning!
I knew the cocktail sauce would keep in the fridge for a couple of days, and it's always nice to be able to cook ahead a bit for a holiday meal, so I did an early shop for the tomatillos et al, and whizzed up the sauce the day before NYE.
I did decide to do the shrimp the morning of NYE. I wanted them to have time to chill properly, but I didn't want them to get mushy in the fridge, considering the amount of work I was about to do. It had to be worth it!
Also, for our main course last night, I made a seafood risotto, which called for clam juice in the recipe; however, my friend is allergic to mollusks but not crustaceans, so I wanted to sub out the clam juice for shrimp stock. The shrimp recipe calls for a court bouillon from the shrimp shells, so I prepped that as directed but with far more water than called for, and then let it go on for about two hours after pulling out the court bouillon for the shrimp, to make a nice sturdy stock for the risotto.
Cooking!
The sauce came together like a breeze in the food processor! It immediately smelled strongly of horseradish, which totally messed with my head because it looks so much like a salsa. But of course it is a cocktail sauce! And it is not super horseradish forward to eat; it's a beautifully balanced sauce.
Meanwhile, the shrimp were super fun and anytime that I have the time, I will always always always use this poaching method in the future, because they turned out insanely plump, juicy, and perfectly cooked.
While the shrimp were chilling with the salt and baking soda in the fridge, I started the stock. When the shrimp were ready to poach, about 30 minutes into the stock process, I ladled about 5 cups of liquid from the stock pot into a smaller pot, popped my thermometer in there, dropped in the shrimp and brought them up to temperature.
It was magic. They were ready the moment the thermometer hit 170F.
I quickly filled three sandwich bags with single layers of the shrimp, then used my ice water bath to do a rough vacuum seal by submerging each bag in the water up to the zipper line, then quickly sealing the zipper; the water creates enough pressure to push all the air out! No expensive equipment necessary!
Because the shrimp were in single layers, they cooled down in the ice water bath very quickly. Then into the fridge until it was time for appetizers!
This was a heavenly pairing, and such a treat. We agreed it was worth it to go all out for the full pound of shrimp between the two of us. There were no shrimp left to tell the tale!
There is cocktail sauce left, which I've put in the freezer for now until I find a nice second use for it. No food left behind!
