Monday, February 13, 2012

Shrimp Cocktail

Wikipedia says that Prawn cocktail is a seafood dish consisting of "shelled prawns in mayonnaise and tomato dressing, served in a glass". It was the most popular hors d'œuvre in Great Britain from the 1960s to the late 1980s.

I think of it as Shrimp Cocktail, the ultimate hors d'œuvre from the 50’s through the 80’s in “regular” (non-ethnic) restaurants. It was always a thrill for me to get large, sweet shrimp in fancy containers with tangy horseradish/catsup type of sauce. I knew we could make it at home but we seem to never do that.

It has all but disappeared from most menus as a sign of the changing times. And when it is there, I tend not to order as I think, I can do that. And, of course, I don’t.

Last night before dinner, a special dinner from the mid-century menu as well, Steak Diane, we had Shrimp Cocktail.

Put together beautifully by my wife with sweet, succulent shrimp, wonderful tangy homemade seafood sauce and small, tender romaine leaves and a special cracker, a sort of olive oil based Pita Chip and a lemon slice! This was heaven!

The Steak Diane usually was made at the table in days gone by and flamed. We did flame it and ran around trying to figure how to stop the fire! (It had a pizza pan finish, as the pizza pan was dropped on the flaming pot to extinguish the fire. The steaks were fantastic, of course.

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