Christmas-eve shrimp cocktail

Magoo ‘members that Seinfeld episode where a coworker says to George “the ocean call, they are out of shrimp.” And George has no comeback but later flies across the country to say “the jerk
Store called and they are out of you”. It was haha funny.

With raw frozen shrimp on sale at most major markets this week, pick up a 2# bag (we like the 13/15 size with shells, but deveined). This is a simple recipe that always yields great results for us.

Let the frozen shrimp defrost in refrigerator overnight in their bag.

Next day, bring large pot of water up to a simmer, add a nice healthy splash of white wine if there’s a bottle open, a rough quartered onion, a few cut up celery stalks, a good dose of salt, some loose peppercorns and a bay leaf if one’s around. (Other herbs are fine too). You’re making a court bullion, which is a traditional poaching stock.

Peel those defrosted shrimp, saving the shells, then toss the shells into the simmering stock and let it go for about a half hour. (Shrimp shells have tons of flavor.) Put the raw shrimp in the fridge to keep them chilled.

Once the stock has simmered, either use a slotted spoon to remove most of the bigger items from your shrimp bullion, or just transfer the stock to another pot, pouring the liquid through a strainer. Return the strained bullion to the heat, just simmering to get it back to about 190 degrees.

Now turn off the heat, add raw shrimp and cover that pot. Let them just sit for about 5 or 6 minutes in the hot stock. Don’t overcook them or they get too tough.

Once time is up, they’re done. Now using that same slotted spoon, quickly remove them and put the shrimp directly into a large bowl filled with lots of ice and water. After 10 minutes or so, remove the shrimp from the ice bath, briefly let them drain on a cloth or paper towel and then transfer them to a covered bowl or a storage container and refrigerate.

You can now keep these in the refrigerator for up to a day. They’ll be crisp, still juicy and have a great “shrimp cocktail” flavor. (And if you cooked the whole bag, you’ll have around 30 yummy shrimp for your celebration.)

Traditional shrimp cocktail sauce starts with just ketchup and horseradish, but feel free to improvise other add-ins. We use a dash of Worcestershire sauce and fresh minced garlic add-ins. There are abundant recipes online.

Serve those delicious homemade shrimp cocktails with a bunch of cut up lemons.

Seafood's always good there, so I assume their shrimp would be as well.