Potted Shrimps

Name: Potted Shrimps
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon anchovy essence or paste; pinch of cayenne pepper; small bay leaf; good pinch of ground mace or freshly grated nutmeg; juice of ½ lemon; 180 g unsalted butter; good-quality brown bread; 2 lemons, halved; salt and freshly ground white pepper; 200 g peeled brown shrimps

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

British Regional Food

By Mark Hix

Published 2006

About

This is a classic potted shrimp recipe as was once used to preserve the catch and enable us to savour the sweet flavour of the delicate and labour-intensive peeled shrimps, but now has now become a pricey starter in many restaurants.

Ingredients

180 g unsalted butter
juice of ½ lemon
good

Europe
United Kingdom
Fish course
Starter
Pescatarian

Method

Melt the butter in a pan, add the lemon juice, mace, cayenne pepper, bay leaf and anchovy essence, and simmer on a low heat for 2 minutes to infuse the spices. Remove the pan from the heat and leave it to cool until just warm.

Add the shrimps and stir well, then season with salt and white pepper. Put the mixture into the fridge and stir every so often. When the butter starts to set, fil