Cranberry Shrimp Cocktail Sauce

Thank you to my brother, Geoff T, for thinking beyond the traditional ketchup-based cocktail sauce when he served shrimp cocktail for Thanksgiving this year. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good horseradish-forward sauce (see Zesty Cocktail Sauce) but always welcome a creative change.

This sauce gets its color from cranberries and not tomatoes (ketchup). It has a fresh fruity flavor from the cranberries and a bit of spice from horseradish. Be sure to use Horseradish (made with vinegar and salt) rather than Horseradish Sauce (made with mayonnaise) for this recipe. Please don’t skip the maple syrup or sugar as you need some sweetness otherwise it will be too tart. Cranberries on their own are way too bitter.

It’s important that you start with frozen cranberries. You can likely purchase cranberries that are already frozen at your grocery store. Or, look for fresh ones and put them in your freezer. I love cranberries (as evidenced by the number of cranberry recipes I post at this time of year!) and always have some in my freezer. 

Why frozen cranberries and not fresh? The recipe’s author, Genevieve Ko, explains that “there’s a molecular change that occurs when the berries are frozen that makes them softer and easier to blend.” Add to that fresh cranberries were “too dry to break down completely and ended up imparting an astringent bitterness.”

Assuming you have frozen cranberries, this sauce comes together in a few minutes but it’s best if it sits for a few hours so that the flavors can meld. It can be made up to a week in advance.

If you’re like me, all ingredients in this recipe are always in my pantry. Except for the shrimp. This recipe makes enough sauce for two pounds of shrimp which I prefer to purchase already poached/cooked from our local fish store.

Thank you to Geoff for this collaborative post – he made the sauce and shared the recipe. 

Source:  Variation on recipe from New York Times Cooking