7:30 Sharp · Dinner card

Shrimp Cocktail with Horseradish Sauce

7:30

Pink shrimp hooked on the rim of a wine glass over crushed ice, with a red sauce that clears your sinuses, is a steakhouse image — the thing that arrives before the steak at the place with the leather booths. The shrimp come cooked from the seafood case. The sauce is four things stirred in a bowl in sixty seconds. Nothing gets hot.

Cost for two

$24

Active

15 min

Hands off at

7:20

Allergens

Shellfish (shrimp)

Shopping list · aisle order

Produce

1 Lemon

Meat & Seafood

¾ lb Cooked, peeled, tail-on shrimp, large

Pantry & Canned

1 jar Prepared horseradish
1 bottle Ketchup
1 bottle Hot sauce

Pantry (you probably have these)

Salt, pepper

Gear

Two big wine glasses (or tumblers, or small bowls — anything clear), two shot glasses or egg cups for the sauce (fallback: put the sauce straight in the bottom of the glass, under the ice, and hand her a spoon), one small bowl, a spoon, paper towels, plastic wrap. No oven, no timer unless you have to boil raw shrimp.

The 7:30 Timeline

5:30	T-120	Unpack. Read this page. Frozen shrimp: into a bowl in the sink under a thin stream of cold water, 15 min. Fresh: fridge.
6:00	T-90	Sauce: ½ cup ketchup, 2 tablespoons horseradish, juice of half the lemon, 5 shakes of hot sauce, a pinch of salt, in the small bowl. Stir.
6:03	T-87	Taste a spoonful. It should make your nose tingle. No tingle? One more tablespoon of horseradish. Cover, fridge.
6:10	T-80	Shrimp: drain, then pat every one dry with paper towels — really dry. Check that the shells are off and the tails are on. Onto a plate, plastic wrap, fridge.
6:15	T-75	Other half of the lemon into 2 wedges. Onto the shrimp plate.
6:45	T-45	Dishes done, counters wiped. Bowl and board washed.
7:10	T-20	Shower.
7:15	T-15	Build: fill both wine glasses three-quarters with ice. Push a shot glass of sauce into the center of each. Hook 6 or 7 shrimp on the rim of each glass, tails out. Lemon wedge on the rim.
7:20	T-10	Hands off from here. Glasses onto a plate, into the fridge. Music on, lights down, table set.
7:25	T-5	Apron off, apartment check, spritz pitcher and glasses out. A small plate for the tails, two napkins.
7:30	T-0	She arrives. She arrives. Nothing on the stove needs you. Nothing has been on the stove all evening. Pour the spritz.
7:45	T+15	Glasses out of the fridge to the table. That is the service. It covers the room until the main.
8:10	T+40	Clear the glasses with the tail plate when the main comes out.

Shrimp Cocktail with Horseradish Sauce · Method

1If the shrimp are frozen, put them in a bowl in the sink and run a thin stream of cold tap water over them for 15 minutes, until none are stiff. Never thaw them in warm water and never on the counter.
2Put ½ cup ketchup, 2 tablespoons prepared horseradish, the juice of half the lemon, 5 shakes of hot sauce, and a pinch of salt in a small bowl.
3Stir until it is one even red. Taste a spoonful. The horseradish should reach your nose. If it does not, add another tablespoon and stir again. Cover and refrigerate.
4Drain the shrimp. Lay them on a double layer of paper towels and press another paper towel on top. Wet shrimp make watery sauce and slide off the glass; dry them like you mean it.
5Look each one over: the shell should be off, the tail should be on, and the flesh should be pink and white with a firm curl. Any that are grey, translucent, or smell of anything but the sea go in the trash (see Doneness).
6Put the shrimp on a plate, cover with plastic, and refrigerate. Cut the other half of the lemon into 2 wedges and add them to the plate.
7At 7:15, fill two wine glasses three-quarters full with ice. Crushed ice looks best; cubes are fine.
8Spoon the sauce into two shot glasses or egg cups and push one down into the center of the ice in each glass.
9Hook 6 or 7 shrimp over the rim of each glass, tails pointing out, evenly spaced, so they hang like a fringe.
10Hook a lemon wedge on the rim of each. Set both glasses on a plate and put the plate in the fridge.
11At 7:45, carry the glasses to the table with a small empty plate for the tails and two napkins.
12If the store only had raw shrimp: at 6:00, bring a pot of water to a boil with 1 tablespoon salt, drop the peeled raw shrimp in, and set a timer for 3 minutes. Pull one and cut it in half: opaque white all the way through means done. Drain, then dump them into a bowl of ice water for 5 minutes to chill. Continue from step 4. Raw shrimp add 10 minutes and one pot, and the dish is the same.

Is it done? No experience needed

Bought cooked: a cooked shrimp is pink and white, opaque all the way through, curled into a loose C, and firm when you press it. A raw one is grey, glassy, and soft, and straightens out. Any raw-looking shrimp gets boiled (see above) or thrown away; there is no in-between. Boiling raw yourself: 3 minutes in boiling water, then cut the biggest one in half. Opaque white to the center, no translucent grey. Shrimp do not need an internal temperature that a thermometer can usefully take; the cut is the check. Smell: shrimp should smell like clean seawater. Anything sharp, sour, or like ammonia means the whole batch goes in the trash, and you serve the board from the-board instead. This is not a judgment call; it is a rule.

The #1 way to screw it up

You grabbed the bag that says "raw" at the seafood counter, got home, and have a pound of grey, translucent shrimp at 6:00. Raw shrimp cannot be served cold and cannot be fixed with sauce.

Recovery

Boil them, as in the note above. Salted water, 3 minutes, until every one is pink and curled and opaque white inside, then straight into ice water. Ten minutes, one pot, and you are back on the timeline at 6:15. Never serve a shrimp with any grey, glassy patch left in it.

Plating

Fill two clear wine glasses three-quarters with ice and push a shot glass of the red sauce down into the center of each so its rim sits just above the ice. Hook six or seven shrimp over the rim of the glass, tails pointing outward and evenly spaced, so they hang like a fringe around the sauce. Hook one lemon wedge on the rim last, set each glass on a small plate with a napkin, and put a separate small plate between you for the tails.

Vegetarian swap

Honestly: there is no vegetable that is shrimp cocktail. The good version of this glass without shrimp is chilled roasted asparagus — a bunch tossed with oil and salt, roasted on a foil tray at 400°F for 10 minutes at 6:00, cooled, chilled, and stood up in the same glass of ice with the same sauce. Horseradish sauce and cold asparagus is a real combination and it looks sharp in the glass. It is a different starter that fits the same timeline; it is not a substitute pretending to be the same dish.

What to pour

Wine. a crisp, cold white — Chateau Ste. Michelle Sauvignon Blanc, about $10; or the Prosecco you bought for the board.

Beer. Modelo Especial with a lime.

No alcohol. Topo Chico with a wedge of lemon and two shakes of the hot sauce, over ice — it tastes like the sauce and it looks like a cocktail.

The practice run. Cook this once on a weeknight for yourself before the real night. Twenty dollars of groceries buys you the one thing the card can't: having done it before. 730sharp.com