What did the fashionable Prawn Cocktail do to you? What are your memories of this dish from yesteryears? Are you a fan of the elaborate classic version of the dish or are you okay with the modern, rejigged forms that have appeared over the years?
At Chapter 2, Kolkata’s retro-chic restaurant off Southern Avenue, it’s an ongoing celebration of the 60s stunners that were the rage on Park Street. So, this post is about Prawn Cocktail, the classic, for which an online search would throw up anything upwards of 2,00,000 results.
Throwback
According to DrinksFeed, From the 1960s to the 1980s there was only one starter to serve at your dinner party: the shrimp cocktail. Served in a wine glass, this gloopy mix of defrosted prawns and sweet pink sauce balanced on a nest of iceberg lettuce was the sophisticated way to begin a night among friends.(Prawn Cocktail Origin)
The original Prawn Cocktail can be traced back to California, USA, though the retro classic became so fashionable and entrenched in Great Britain that it is often assumed that it was created there. The dish became a fixture in the culinary landscape of the country, and even went on to inspire writers, Simon Hopkinson and Lindsey Bareham dedicate an entire book to such foods titled, The Prawn Cocktail Years.
Thus, this dish made of sweet, nutty prawns bathed in a piquant sauce served on a layer of crisp lettuce came to occupy prime spot in the menu.
A Slice of History
Some restaurants went on to perfect the dish and turn it into a legendary must-have. One such place was the Golden Gate Hotel in Las Vegas. In the 1950s, the prawn cocktail found pride of place here. In 1959, it was the first casino to offer a 50- cent shrimp cocktail to its gamblers. Served in a beautiful clear tulip glass, there was no lettuce padding, just the combination of shrimps and sauce. Later, it went on to claim an iconic place in diners’ hearts as the 99-cent shrimp cocktail.
TasteAtlas.com has an entire dedicated section of the best places to eat shrimp cocktails worldwide ranging from Beverly Hills to Edinburgh. (Where to Eat the Best Shrimp Cocktails in the World)
It’s Posh
70s and 80s kids associate Prawn Cocktail with their growing-up years when eating the dish out of fancy cocktail serving glasses or cocktail bowls was an experience by itself. The crockery was crafted from extra-thick transparent glass, had a distinct flared low stem base usually with a line of dainty embossed design, a wavy bowl edge, with a finish of smooth polish.
The shelled and cooked prawns were sunk in a pinkish creamy Marie Rose or Cocktail Sauce. The service came complete with a prawn or two stuck enticingly on the glass with a slice of fresh lemon.
Other dishes from across the world may have climbed up popularity charts but the Prawn Cocktails remains one of the poshest dishes around for aficionados, solidly standing the test of time.
Taking it Apart
Prawn (Shrimp) Cocktails are hors d’oeuvres served as starters or appetizers. A Prawn Cocktail platter is always a welcome addition to any buffet because of its taste, texture, and appearance. Use your cutlery to eat if you are at a social gathering or a fancy restaurant. The oyster fork is the traditional cutlery for this. If you are at home or in a gathering of friends or close relatives, just take it easy and use your hands. The shrimp or shrimps are served peeled and are usually eaten in small bites. If you want to pack in more flavour, cut the shrimps, dip them generously in the sauce and gulp them down. Heavenly!
Prawn Cocktail at Chapter 2
Though it comes in the form of the classic variety, you can just feel free to enjoy the dish as you prefer. Done with the best and freshest of ingredients, let it take you down a sweet nostalgic trip to the 70s and 80s when it was a pretty, crowd-pleasing starter at a party.
Our Prawn Cocktail Recipe
You need cooked, peeled cold water prawns as well as cooked and peeled king prawns, chopped chives, iceberg lettuce, a large ripe avocado, lemon cut into 5 wedges and half a cucumber, deseeded and diced.
For the Marie Rose sauce, you require mayonnaise, tomato ketchup, tabasco sauce, half a lemon, juiced and half a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce and voila, it’s done!
