SHRIMP COCKTAIL

THE REFINED AND SLIGHTLY RETRO APPETIZER BASED ON PINK SAUCE TODAY IS YOUNGER THAN EVER AND NEVER CEASES TO AMAZE WITH THE PRAWNS.

It was the legendary 80s. Michael Jackson led wild armies of fans at the pace of the moonwalk, the national team raised its third World Cup to the sky, "The name of the rose" depopulated on the screens and under the umbrellas and there was no aperitif, lunch or dinner that did not see him as the protagonist: the shrimp cocktail. His presence was enough to turn a meeting between friends into a very elegant party. Appearing in the United Kingdom at the end of the 60s, the shrimp cocktail soon made its way through dizzying miniskirts and double-decker buses, until it landed on the Italian buffets, from which it proudly showed its splendor in pink hues.

Today tastes have changed and with them the aesthetic sense, but the idea of serving an appetizer in a glass, still looks good. Seeing is believing. Vintage is fashionable, it is useless to hide it. And to keep up with the times we just have to dig into the past going down to the cellar where, among the junk hidden in some box, Martini glasses will certainly come out. Fill them with pink sauce, lettuce and shrimp and you're done!

A legendary condiment of our youth, this colorful sauce made with ketchup and mayonnaise is today as irresistible as then. It is so good that on the shelves of supermarkets it happens more and more often to find chips that have the flavor. Of course on the market there is already the nice and ready made sauce, packaged in tubes ready to be squeezed.  Unless you hurry to whip egg yolks with whips. Preparing it is very easy as well as fun. It requires a little attention and very few minutes. Follow the recipe and it will be child's play. 

Modifying an already perfect recipe may seem like a sacrilege. In its original version, the shrimp are boiled or at most steamed. However, this appetizer is so delicious that it does not care about modifications and experiments. Today we present a variant that, by cooking grilled prawns, will give your cocktail smoky nuances that combined with pink sauce will be addictive. Here are the ingredients:

For the cocktail sauce:

2 egg yolks

250 ml olive oil

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

100 g ketchup

20 g Worchestershire sauce

1 tablespoon cognac

salt and pepper to taste

For the shrimp:

500 g shrimp

30 ml olive oil

salt to taste

white pepper to taste

8 lettuce leaves

LET'S COOK!

Let's start with the pink sauce. Put the egg yolks, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a bowl. Beat with a whisk, pouring the olive oil flush, until the mixture is creamy and homogeneous. In other words, mayonnaise. At this point, add the ketchup and incorporate it gently, stirring with a spoon from bottom to top so as not to disassemble the sauce. Finally, add the Worchestershire sauce and cognac, stirring constantly to incorporate air into the mixture. Once finished, cover the cocktail sauce and let it rest in the fridge for 1 hour. It's time for the shrimps. First peel them and remove the entrails. Then rinse them with fresh water and dry them well. Then put them in a bowl and season with olive oil and white pepper. Turn on the barbeque and get ready to smoke. To do this, a double-intensity fire will be needed: on the one hand very hot and on the other at medium temperature. Place the shrimp on the warm side of the grill and, when you see the smoke rising, close the lid if possible. Let it smoke for about 3 minutes, then move the shrimp to the side at medium temperature to finish cooking with the lid raised. After about 4 minutes the shrimp will appear golden. It is a sign that they are ready. Remove them from the grill, salt them and place them on a plate until they cool. We compose the cocktail. Arrange 4 Martini glasses on a top (if you do not have them glass cups will be fine) and fill them with shrimp up to half. Garnish with two lettuce leaves on one side and drown with the cocktail sauce.

Enjoy!