Shrimps with Cocktail Sauce in Pipette

These tasty shrimps are served with a pipette filled with cocktail sauce as a skewer. The idea is to place the shrimp in the mouth and pull it off the pipette as you squeeze the pipette bulb to release the cocktail sauce in your mouth. It may sound too gimmicky (and it probably is) but it is also fun and diners love it. Molecular gastronomy chef Jose Andres serves this dish at The Bazaar restaurant in Los Angeles and he calls it Just Shrimp Cocktail “Yeah Right”.

Ingredients

- Cooked shrimps

- Plastic pipettes (4.5 ml)

- Cocktail sauce

- Edible flowers

- Garlic cloves

- Lemon juice

- Olive oil

Of course you need to start with high quality shrimps that are cooked to perfection. The pipette is not going to make them taste better so get the best you can. Buy shrimps that have the right size to be eaten in one bite.

The best pipettes for this dish are those that have a narrow and long stem so you can use them as a skewer. You can purchase the pipettes from our store.

Preparation

1- Pass the cocktail sauce through a fine sieve to remove any large particles that may clog the pipette stem.

2- Most of the cocktail sauces are a little too thick and you may have to add a little bit of water to make it more liquid. First try filling one pipette with the cocktail sauce as-is. If it takes more than 5 seconds to fill it, try adding some water. Don’t add too much water or the sauce will become too bland. The cocktail sauce should still be dense like a sauce and not like juice.

3- Fill the pipettes with the adjusted cocktail sauce.

4- Insert a skewer (a real wood or metal skewer, not the pipette yet) through the shrimp starting from the tail end. Then remove it and insert the pipette stem through the same holes, starting from the tail end. You can try skipping the skewer step and puncture the shrimp with the pipette but it may be harder and may break the shrimp.

5- Slide the shrimp close to the pipette bulb so the stem doesn’t bend too much with the weight of the shrimp when you lift the pipette grabbing it from the bulb.

6- Depending on the length of the pipette stem, you may have to cut it. Leave about 2 cm (3/4 in) of stem free of shrimp. The pipette tip will usually have some pieces of shrimp that got stuck as it went through the shrimp but cutting the stem will leave you with a clean tip.

7- Mix some lemon juice with a few drops of olive oil and minced garlic. Lightly brush the shrimps with this mix. The shrimps will be tasted by your diners as soon as they place it in their mouth and before they squeeze any cocktail sauce so I like adding a little condiment to the shrimp to improve this first experience.

8- Cut some edible flowers in small pieces and sprinkle them over the shrimps. This will add a floral fragrance to the shrimp and will make the presentation even more interesting.