James Beard's New Fish Cookery - James Beard [152]
SCALLOP SALAD
Poach the scallops in white wine with the bouquet garni (see recipe above). Drain and let them cool. Pour over them a sauce vinaigrette and let them stand for 2 hours. Arrange Boston lettuce and romaine in a bowl, add thinly sliced onion rings and quartered tomatoes and hard-cooked eggs. Put the scallops in the center. Decorate with capers and sliced cucumbers and serve with additional vinaigrette sauce (page 36).
Shrimp
More shrimp, either fresh or canned, are sold in this country than any other type of shellfish. The fresh shrimp in our markets range in size from 6 to 8 to the pound, 12 to 16 to the pound, or 18 to 25 to the pound, down to the tiny Maine and Pacific shrimp which are extremely small. As for the tiny shrimp, I think they are much underrated in this country. They are remarkably good in salads and are excellent in many cooked dishes. A huge bowl of tiny shrimp, shelled, makes a perfect snack with cocktails.
You can now buy quick-frozen shrimp in nearly all parts of the country. They are obtainable both cooked and raw. In the raw state, they may be a greenish-gray color, pale pink, or brown.
Cooked shrimp are sold in shells, shelled, and sometimes both shelled and deveined. In my opinion, shrimp that have been shelled and deveined before cooking are more delicate in flavor and less apt to be gritty. Shelling is a simple job — just push the shell with your thumb and forefinger and it comes off easily. You should leave the tails on for certain types of cookery, especially in preparing barbecued or grilled shrimp. While it is not necessary to devein shrimp, most people prefer to serve them that way. Use a sharp-pointed knife to cut along the curve in the body, removing the black vein. If you are making “butterfly” shrimp, by all means devein before cooking to enhance the appearance of the dish. Cut well through each shrimp so that the two halves nearly divide.
The unpardonable fault in preparing shrimp is overcooking. They should be cooked just long enough to give them color and firmness — about 3 to 5 minutes, certainly no longer. If you are adding shrimp to a sauce, don’t cook them before adding them or they will be overcooked. If a recipe calls for bouillon from the shrimp, cook the shells and a couple of fish heads to get the required amount of broth. For shrimp to be served as hors d’oeuvre or in salads, poach them in a strong court bouillon.
Practically all shrimp sold in the markets have been decapitated, but in certain localities in the South and the West, you may find small sweet shrimp that are sold with their heads on. These are what the French call bouquet and are excellent served in shell as hors d’oeuvres — without sauce. The flavor is very delicate, and overwhelming them with sauces is unthinkable.
It is very difficult to tell you how many shrimp to buy per person. Sometimes I can eat a half pound as a first course at dinner, and for a main course I would want the same amount. So, if the appetites are very good, you might gauge about 1 pound of shrimp for two persons. If you are mixing the shrimp with a great deal of sauce, you may be able to make a pound stretch for 4 servings.
Shrimp as a First Course–Cold
In addition to the small shrimp, poached and served without sauce, there are almost endless ways in which shrimp may be used as appetizers. Large shrimp, cooked in court bouillon (page 18) and cooled, may be served either shelled or unshelled. Arrange them on plates of greens and pass:
1. Sauce rémoulade (page 35)
2. Sauce vinaigrette (page 36)
3. Sauce mayonnaise (page 34)
4. Sauce verte (page 34)
5. Mustard sauce (page 23)
You may use a cocktail sauce if you wish; personally I like to get as far away as possible from the bottled tomato sauce that is served so much as cocktail sauce. It smothers the flavor of the shrimp. So I give it a little dressing up (see page 38).
TOMATO