The best advice for making prawn cocktail I ever learned came from the great chef and cookbook author James Beard.
He was adamantly against it.
Not the prawn, of course, which he adored, but rather the “overpowering red menace known as cocktail sauce”, as he wrote in his classic cookbook, The New James Beard.
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“If you value their sweet and delicate flavour,” he said, pair your prawns with lemon, mayonnaise or my personal favourite, a tangy remoulade sauce.
Beard’s classic French remoulade calls for a homemade mayonnaise spiked with loads of capers, lemon juice and parsley. I added horseradish and hot sauce for a kick, and just enough tomato sauce to tint the sauce pale pink without letting it cloy. The result is as creamy as it is bracing, an excellent foil to the prawn’s sweet salinity.
Ingredients for horseradish sauce for this take on a classic French remoulade, which takes the place of cocktail sauce in this prawn cocktail recipe. Food styled by Cyd Raftus McDowell. Credit: ARMANDO RAFAEL/NYT
Beard sorted out the sauce part for me, but to improve the prawns, I turned to another culinary great, Ina Garten.
The traditional method is to poach them in a pot of seasoned water, but Garten smartly roasts them instead. Roasting the crustaceans concentrates their flavour, keeping them plump and tender, with far less of a risk of overcooking.
Besides, roasting is a snap. Toss the peeled prawns on a baking tray with a drizzle of olive oil and pinch of salt, and then throw the pan in the oven at high heat. The shrimp will be done in 10 minutes or less, depending on their size.
Since you don’t need to plunge the prawns in an ice bath to stop the cooking, they won’t be overly chilled. Served warm or at room temperature, the prawns are at their succulent best.
Roasted prawn cocktail in New York, May 9, 2023. Do as Melissa Clark does, and roast, don’t poach, the prawns, then serve them with a creamy horseradish remoulade. Food styled by Cyd Raftus McDowell. (Armando Rafael/The New York Times) Credit: ARMANDO RAFAEL/NYT
If you don’t mind the expense, choose extra-large prawns (16-20 per 500g), which are attractive to serve and forgiving to cook. But smaller, more economical prawns also work perfectly, as long as you shave a minute or two from the roasting time and watch them carefully. The prawns are done when they turn from translucent grey to opaque pink, but they shouldn’t curl into rounds, which indicates overcooking. Think gently curving ears, not tightly coiled Os.
In many decades of existence, the prawn cocktail has fallen from the height of fashion to a kind of kitschy charm. But this one retains its lofty status by standing on the shoulders of more than one giant.
Recipe: Roasted prawn cocktail with horseradish sauce
Roasting prawns for prawn cocktail intensifies their sweet saline flavour and makes them exceptionally plump and tender, with less chance of overcooking than the traditional poaching. Then, instead of being paired with the usual bright red cocktail sauce, these prawns are served with a horseradish-forward take on a classic French remoulade, which is both bracing and creamy. It’s best to season the sauce to taste. Adding more tomato sauce makes it sweeter and pinker; more lemon juice makes it tangier; more horseradish makes it sharper.
Just enough tomato sauce adds a red tint without making it cloying. Food styled by Cyd Raftus McDowell. Credit: ARMANDO RAFAEL/NYT
Ingredients:
500g extra-large (16-20 count) prawns, shelled, deveined if you like
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp chopped spring onion
2 tbsp prepared white horseradish, plus more to taste
1 tbsp drained capers, finely chopped
1-2 tbsp lemon juice, to taste
1-2 tsp tomato sauce, to taste
¼ teaspoon sweet paprika
Preparation:
Step 1 Heat oven to 220C. Pat prawns dry. On a rimmed baking try, toss prawns with oil, a pinch of salt and several grinds of black pepper. Roast until the prawns turn pink and opaque, and are cooked through, 6-10 minutes. (They shouldn’t curl up, which indicates overcooking.) Remove from the hot tray and place on a plate or serving platter.
Step 2 Prepare the horseradish sauce: In a small bowl, whisk together all of the ingredients, adding a pinch of salt and pepper. Taste, adding more horseradish, lemon juice and tomato sauce if needed.
Step 3 Serve prawns with the sauce for dipping.
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