Shrimp cocktail with homemade cocktail sauce
Sweet, snappy shrimp poached in lemony water and served ice-cold with a zippy horseradish sauce you stir together in a minute.
- 40 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- A little more hands-on
- Serves 10
- About $2.34 a serving
- 110 calories
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Most of the time here is hands-off, so you can sit down while it cooks.
Ingredients
For 10 servings.
- 2 lb raw shrimp, large, peeled and deveined, tails on
- 1 cup ketchup
- 3 tbsp prepared horseradish
- ½ tsp hot sauce
- 2 lemons, 1 halved, 1 cut into wedges
From your pantry
- 12 cups water
- 2 tbsp salt
- 2 bay leaves
Each serving has about 110 calories, 19 g protein, 9 g carbs and 1 g fat, and costs about $2.34 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No raw shrimp? Frozen raw shrimp works.
- No hot sauce? Sriracha works.
- No lemons? Limes work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the ketchup, horseradish, hot sauce and the juice of half a lemon together, then cover and chill.
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
Dolly’s tip: Taste it. More horseradish makes it sharper, and more ketchup makes it milder.If the shrimp are frozen, thaw them in a colander under cold running water for about 5 minutes, then let them .
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Food safety: Wash your hands, the board and the knife with hot soapy water after touching raw meat, and don’t rinse raw chicken in the sink.
Fill a large bowl with ice and cold water and set it next to the stove.
Put the water, salt and bay leaves in a large pot, squeeze in the other lemon half and drop it in, and over high heat.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
Add the shrimp, turn the heat to medium, and 2 to 3 minutes, until pink, opaque and curled into a loose C.
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Medium heatTimer: 2 min 30 sec
Dolly’s tip: Pull one out and cut it in half. If the middle is opaque, they’re all done.Food safety: Shrimp are done when they turn pink and opaque all the way through and curl into a loose C. A tight O means overcooked, not unsafe.
Scoop the shrimp straight into the ice water with a slotted spoon and leave them 5 minutes, until cold.
Timer: 5 min
Dolly’s tip: The ice bath stops the cooking, so they stay tender instead of rubbery.the shrimp well and them dry with paper towels.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Pat dry. Patting dry means pressing paper towels onto food to soak up the moisture on its surface. Wet food steams instead of browning, so this is how you get a good sear and crisp skin.
How you’ll know: The surface feels tacky, not wet, and the last paper towel comes away barely damp.
Dolly’s tip: Chill them in a covered container for up to a day.Serve the shrimp on a platter of ice with the bowl of sauce in the middle and the lemon wedges around it.
Dolly’s tip: Keep the platter on ice and add more as it melts. Without ice, shrimp can sit out up to 2 hours.Food safety: Food with mayonnaise, dairy, eggs, cooked meat or cream, like dips, salads and cream desserts, can sit out for 2 hours at most, or 1 hour above 90°F. Keep cold food in the fridge or on ice until serving, and hot food at 140°F or hotter.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
When you host a dinner, Dollop builds the menu around your guests’ allergies, works out a cooking timeline back from when everyone sits down, and puts it all on one grocery list.
