Well, I had to write about the ubiquitous Prawn Cocktail sooner or later, didn't I? In America, this is called Shrimp Cocktail, and in any event, the American version seems to consist of prawns with a spicy, red coloured dipping sauce. In Britain, we bind the prawns in a bland pink mayonnaise, which is known as a Marie Rose sauce.
Actually, I'm rather fond of it, and the secret is to get the sauce as smooth as you possibly can. I made it yesterday, but substituted crayfish tails for the prawns. They were rather sweet, and delicious, and it worked out well.
Here's how I made the Marie Rose sauce: First, I put a dollop of French Dijon Mustard, a squeeze of lemon juice, and some salt into the Magimix. Next, I added two egg yolks, and whizzed the ingredients together. Then I poured in some grapeseed oil very slowly- in a thin stream- until the eggs and oil combined to form an emulsion.
If you use a blender or processor to make mayonnaise, you'll find that it can get too thick, so I'll let you into a trade secret. Add a tablespoon of boiling water. This has a miraculous effect. It lightens up the mayonnaise, making it whiter in colour, and smoother and lighter on the tongue.
Next, add several tablespoons of Heinz Tomato Ketchup, a splash of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce, a few drops of Tabasco, and a further squeeze of the old lemon juice. Hey Presto! You've now got a pink Marie Rose Sauce.
Bind the prawns (or shrimps, or crayfish tails) in the sauce, and serve in a glass with some lettuce, and a wedge of lemon.
Now for a bizarre twist on the classic Marie Rose Sauce. While trawling the internet, I found a recipe for something called "Sauce Liberal" from none other than our old mucker, The Duchess of Windsor (aka Mrs Wallis Simpson). You make the Marie Rose sauce in the usual way- but finish it off by mixing in "liberal" slugs of neat gin. I gather that this went down rather well at the Windsors' sybaritic villa off the Bois de Bologne.
This worried me. Okay, I didn't exactly have a sleepless night over it, but I reckoned that the bitter taste of the warm gin would ruin an otherwise excellent sauce. So, as an experiment, I boiled up some gin in a pan, until all the alcoholic vapours had burnt off, then added the reduced spirit to the sauce. It worked! The juniper flavours came through, and it gave the sauce a subtle twist.