Shrimp cocktail. Two ingredients. Shrimp and cocktail sauce. To be more specific, succulent, perfectly-cooked and chilled tails-on shrimp served with a spicy ketchup and horseradish concoction for dipping. When it comes to shrimp for classically prepared shrimp cocktail, big is always better. That said, if you're looking for an impressive addition to your next appetizer buffet, put out a tray of mini shrimp-cocktail cups. Count the seconds until they disappear.
Extra-small shrimp, also known as "salad shrimp", are sweet, tender and adorable, so, when serving fingerfood, think small, because the extra flavor is important. Flash-frozen extra-small shrimp (a 90/200 count), are fully-cooked and ready to eat or use in recipes upon thawing, which is a relatively quick and easy ten-minute process.
One ounce of thawed salad shrimp contains approximately 8-10 salad shrimp, so, one 12-ounce bag is enough to make and serve one dozen two-three bite appetizers.
12 ounces salad shrimp, thawed as directed below
1/2 cup Heinz chili sauce
1/4 cup Heinz ketchup
2 tablespoons horseradish
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, or high-quality bottled lemon juice not from concentrate
1 teaspoon Worcestershire
1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce, more or less, to taste
mini-flatbread or crackers, for accompaniment & garnish
~ Step 1. To thaw the shrimp, place the frozen shrimp in a colander in the sink. Run cold water through them for 3-5 minutes. Set aside for 3-5 minutes, or, a minute or two longer if necessary. Transfer to a paper-towel lined plate and pat dry.
~Step 2. In a 1-cup measuring container, stir together the ingredients for the cocktail sauce: the chili sauce, ketchup, horseradish, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce and tobasco. Transfer the shrimp to a medium bowl. Using a rubber spatula, add and fold the cocktail sauce into the shrimp. Cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
Serve chilled garnished w/mini-flatbread or crackers:
Spicy Tiny Salad-Shrimp Mini Shrimp-Cocktail Cups: Recipe yields 1 dozen mini shrimp cocktails.
Special Equipment List: colander; 1-cup measuring container; spoon; rubber spatula
Cook's Note: How does shrimp sizing work? In a shrimp shell -- it doesn't. There is no industry standard for it. One vendor's medium, may be another vendor's extra-large and vice versa. This explains why many new-to-shrimp buying cooks are confused by these seven words: extra-small, small, medium, large, extra-large, jumbo, colossal. When purchasing shrimp, the most important words to know aren't words at all, they are numbers: ~ Purchase Shrimp by their Count, not by their Size ~.
"We are all in this food world together." ~ Melanie Preschutti
(Recipe, Commentary and Photos courtesy of Melanie's Kitchen/Copyright 2020)
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