Prawn Cocktail

I thought today I do something nice and easy, something that fits well for a Sunday or a dinner party, a Prawn Cocktail. Ahhhh, this is so 70 ties....yes it is but it is an absolute all time favorite. When I was working on the ships I was amazed how many of them we sold every single night during the cruise. It must have been hundreds every single day, so yes you might say that it is old fashioned, but it is a classic.

Now what can we do with a classic? We could go the El Bulli way and do little Spheres and powders and you would not recognize what you eat, or we can just play around with the plating of the cocktail.

That is exactly what I did. So we still have the prawns, I took king prawns, we still have the Thousand Island Dressing and we still have the lettuce. I just like to take nice little fancy lettuces and then plate them nicely like a little mixed green salad, then poach the peeled prawns carefully, cook them down and then add the thousand island dressing. For the salad I usually make a little bit of a honey dressing which really goes well with the Thousand Island Dressing

So, here is the recipe

1 Kg Prawns
150 G Onions
100 G Leeks
100 Ml White wine
15 G Salt
5 G Pepper corns

400 G Mayonnaise
200 G Cream cheese
200 Ml French Dressing
75 Ml Chili Sauce
50 Ml Tomato Sauce
100 G Gherkins
100 G Red Peppers
10 G Garlic
50 G Chives
Tabasco
Salt, Pepper

40 G Lollo Rosso
40 G Baby Spinach
40 G Endive
40 G Frisee
40 G Radicchio

100 G Honey
250 Ml Cider Vinegar
650 Ml Olive oil
10 G Salt
5 G Pepper
10 G Thyme leaves

Method

Prawns
Boil water up with all the ingredient for the Court Bouillon
Peel the prawns the poach in the stock till just cooked
Take the prawns out and cool everything down
Add the prawns back in the stock and let them marinate over night

Thousand Island
Cut the gherkins, garlic and peppers in brunoise
Cut the chives in very fine slices
Mix together mayonnaise, cream cheese french dressing, chili sauce and tomato sauce
Add the brunoise
Season well , it should be a spicy sauce

Salad
Clean all the lettuces

Honey Dressing
Blend all ingredients well together
Season to taste

Plating
Mix the lettuce with a little honey vinaigrette
Plate in the middle of the plate
Add the Prawns around drizzle the Thousand Island dressing on the prawns