Charmingly Retro Shrimp Cocktail

This blast from the past tastes wonderful and is a real treat. My Mom told me the recipe - she never wrote it down. It’s shrimp cocktail as it was served in the 1950’s - cold shrimp a sharp contrast to the bright spicy sauce they were topped with, laying on a super crisp bed of shredded iceberg lettuce. Not that I was born in the 1950’s - my experience of that decade is all from stories I was told and things I have read - but I do love the sound of them!

In England, shrimp are called ‘prawns’ and they are usually served with a Marie Rose dressing - a blend of ketchup or tomato sauce and mayonnaise, or sometimes even with thousand island dressing. Prawn cocktail was the fashionable starter of the 1980‘s here. By the end of that decade most folks were fed up with it and it experienced a huge fall from grace, along with that staple 1980’s dessert Black Forest Gateau. It’s certainly more fashionable now, but I think if folks could taste this sauce instead of the traditional mild Marie Rose version, even more people would be embracing this charming retro dish.

This makes a wonderful starter, or a real treat for lunch - if you are making lunch for one you can keep any extra sauce in the fridge for a couple of days. Thawing a handful of frozen shrimp or treating yourself to some fresh cooked shrimp from the grocery store can take an ordinary lunch and elevate it to the extraordinary.

The sauce also makes a great dip, and I have been known to serve a plate of large shrimp round a dish of it at parties. It always generates ‘ooh’s’ and ‘aah’s’ and it is usually empty in minutes.

Shrimp Cocktail

1 handful of shredded iceberg lettuce per person

1 handful of small frozen shrimp per person, thawed

For each serving, place the shredded lettuce in a pretty dish or on a nice plate. Top with the shrimp.

To make the sauce:

½ cup ketchup

1 to 2 tablespoons mild creamy horseradish (You may need a bit less than this depending on how hot your horseradish is.)

½ teaspoon lemon juice (fresh if possible)

Place the ketchup in a bowl and add about 1 tablespoon of the horseradish along with the lemon juice. Stir to mix. Taste, adding a bit more horseradish if you feel the mixture needs it.

Top the shrimp with the sauce and serve very cold.

The 21st Century Housewife’s© Cod with White Wine and Shrimp Sauce

The beauty of this dish is that it uses frozen white fish fillets and frozen cooked shrimp, so you may already have the ingredients on hand. The cod loins I buy can be cooked from frozen so that makes it even easier, but do thaw your fish first if the package recommends it. Of course, fresh fish fillets work fine too. They just won’t need to be cooked for quite as long. I like to serve this dish on a bed of roasted vegetable rice, but it would be equally nice served on a bed of couscous or with a side of potatoes. If you want to make it really special, use sparkling wine or champagne in the sauce instead of white wine.

To serve four people you need:-

4 fillets of white fish (cod loin works well), thawed if necessary
about 12 to 16 large frozen cooked shrimp, thawed
4 teaspoons plus 2 tablespoons butter
2 generous tablespoons flour
½ cup white wine
about 1 to 1½ cups of milk
½ teaspoon dried tarragon
1 teaspoon lemon juice

enough rice to serve four
plus roasted vegetables to mix in with it if you like or just add some cooked frozen peas to the rice for color.

Place each piece of fish in a large square of aluminum foil and top with 1 teaspoon butter. Seal the foil into packages and place on a baking sheet. Bake at about 375℉ for about fifteen to twenty minutes until the fish is done and flakes easily with a fork. (Thawed or fresh fish will take less time than fish cooked from frozen.)

Meanwhile, melt the 2 tablespoons butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook for a minute or two. Gradually add the white wine, whisking as you add it. Gradually add the milk, a bit at at time, whisking after each addition until you get a nice consistency and medium thickness.

Pop the shrimp in the sauce and heat through, adding a bit more milk if you need to in order to keep a nice consistency. Add the tarragon and lemon juice and stir through. Taste, and add a bit of salt and pepper if necessary.

Remove the white fish from the aluminum foil parcel and place each piece on a plate on a bed of rice and vegetables. Serve the white wine and shrimp sauce on top, making sure each person gets about three or four of the large shrimp.