A Christmas Starter With Passion Fruit in the Sauce

I will tell you a secret about prawn cocktail. The first time I was served one, at an English Christmas table, I did not know whether to laugh or to ask for the recipe. A glass. Lettuce at the bottom. Pink prawns. A pink sauce. Everybody at the table smiled at it like an old friend, and I understood straight away that this was not just a starter. It was a memory for them.

Back home in Guadeloupe, Christmas starts weeks before the day. In December the families gather in the evenings for Chanté Nwèl, singing the old carols in Creole with drums and the ti-bwa, the little wooden sticks that keep the rhythm. There is always food. There is always somebody’s aunt with a pot. And when I was a boy, the treat that made Christmas feel like Christmas was the ouassou, our river crayfish, cooked with lime and garlic and eaten with the fingers while the singing went on.

So when I tasted that English prawn cocktail, sweet shellfish, cold and creamy, I thought of the ouassous. Different island, same idea: something from the water, something special, at the start of the most generous meal of the year.

Of course, I could not leave it alone. I am a cook. I make my sauce with a spoon of Exotic Caribbean Sauce, so there is passion fruit in it, and a gentle warmth from the chilli. I poach my own king prawns. I add avocado and lime. It is still the prawn cocktail you love. It just took a little holiday.

Let me show you how I make it.

Recipe at a glance

• Cuisine: Caribbean fusion (British classic, Guadeloupe accent)
• Prep: 20 minutes • Cook: 5 minutes • Total: 25 minutes
• Serves: 4 as a starter
• Featured sauce: Exotic Caribbean Sauce
• Heat level: 3/10, fruity and warm, nothing that frightens your grandmother
• Diet: Pescatarian, gluten free, dairy free

What you’ll need

Good prawn cocktail is about three things: sweet prawns, crisp cold leaves, and a sauce with personality. I use two kinds of prawn. Raw king prawns that I poach myself, for the big juicy bite, and a handful of small cooked cold-water prawns, for that classic sweetness. If you only want one kind, use all king prawns.

For the prawns

• 250g raw peeled king prawns, deveined
• 150g cooked peeled cold-water prawns
• 1 litre water
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ lime
• 1 bay leaf

For the sauce

• 5 tbsp good mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp tomato ketchup
• 2 tbsp Exotic Caribbean Sauce, plus a little extra to finish
• Juice of ½ lime
• A pinch of sweet paprika, plus extra to finish
• A pinch of salt, if needed

To build the glasses

• 2 Little Gem lettuces, finely shredded
• ¼ cucumber, seeds scraped out, finely diced
• 1 ripe avocado, diced
• 1 spring onion, very finely sliced
• A small handful of fresh coriander, chopped
• 1 lime, cut into wedges

How I make it

1. Make the sauce first. In a bowl, mix the mayonnaise, ketchup, Exotic Caribbean Sauce, lime juice and a pinch of paprika. Taste it. You want it creamy, a little sweet, a little sharp, with the passion fruit coming through at the end. Add a pinch of salt only if it needs it. Cover and put it in the fridge. Fifteen minutes in the cold and the flavours settle down together.

2. Get the poaching water going. Put the litre of water in a saucepan with the salt, the half lime (squeeze it in, then drop it in) and the bay leaf. Bring it to a gentle simmer. Not a rolling boil. Prawns are delicate, they don’t like to be shouted at.

3. Fill a bowl with iced water. Do this now, before the prawns go in. You will need it fast.

4. Poach the king prawns. Slide the raw prawns into the simmering water. Two minutes, maybe three for big ones. Watch them. They go from grey and glassy to pink and white, and they curl into a loose “C”. When they are opaque all the way through, they are done. A tight “O” means you went too far.

5. Cool them straight away. Lift the prawns out with a slotted spoon and drop them into the iced water. This stops the cooking and keeps them tender. Two minutes, then drain.

6. Dry every prawn. This is the step people skip. Lay the king prawns and the cooked cold-water prawns on kitchen paper and pat them dry. Wet prawns make a watery sauce, and a watery sauce is a sad sauce. Keep four king prawns whole for the top. Cut the rest in half if they are large.

7. Prepare the salad. Shred the lettuce very fine. Dice the cucumber and the avocado, and squeeze a little lime over the avocado so it stays green.

8. Dress the prawns. In a bowl, fold the prawns and the spring onion through about two thirds of the sauce. Gently. You are coating them, not mashing them.

9. Build the glasses. In four glasses or small bowls: a bed of lettuce, then cucumber and avocado, then the dressed prawns piled on top. Spoon over the rest of the sauce.

10. Finish like you mean it. A whole king prawn hooked over the rim of each glass. A few drops of Exotic Caribbean Sauce on the pink. A pinch of paprika, some coriander, a lime wedge. Serve cold, straight away.

The role of Exotic Caribbean Sauce in this dish

The classic pink sauce is mayonnaise and ketchup, and it is lovely, but it is soft. It needs something to wake it up. Exotic Caribbean Sauce is onion and passion fruit with a gentle chilli, and that is exactly what a prawn wants. The passion fruit brings a bright, tropical sharpness that sits beautifully against the sweet shellfish. The onion gives the sauce body and a savoury depth, so it tastes finished, not just mixed. And the chilli is a small warmth on the back of the tongue, not a fire. You notice it on the second mouthful, and by the third you are looking for the bottom of the glass.

The drops on top are not only for the picture. They give you little bursts of the sauce on its own, fruity and bright, between the creamy spoonfuls.

Marie Rose sauce, the island way

In Britain the pink sauce has a name: Marie Rose sauce. The prawn cocktail was the starter of the 1960s and 1970s here, on every restaurant menu and every dinner party table, and people still make it every Christmas. I love that. A dish that a whole country remembers is a dish worth respecting.

So I don’t change the base. Mayonnaise and ketchup stay. What goes in prawn cocktail sauce at my house is simply one more thing: the Exotic. If you prefer your sauce lighter, you can swap half the mayonnaise for thick yoghurt, but then the dish is no longer dairy free, so keep that in mind if you are feeding someone who needs it.

Tips from my kitchen

• Buy the prawns raw if you can. Ready-cooked king prawns are often overcooked and a little rubbery. A prawn cocktail with raw prawns that you poach yourself is sweeter and juicier, and it only takes three minutes.
• Everything cold. Chill the glasses for ten minutes before you build. Cold glass, cold prawns, cold sauce. That freshness is half the pleasure of this dish.
• Shred the lettuce like you are angry. Fine, fine shreds. Big leaves fall out of the glass and fight the spoon.
• Avocado last minute. Cut it just before you build, and give it the lime. Brown avocado on a Christmas table, my mother would never forgive me.
• Make it a sharing bowl. For a party, pile everything in one wide dish and put Little Gem leaves on the side so people can scoop. If you like party food with prawns, my spicy prawn skewers sit very happily next to it.

What to serve it with

The British way is brown bread and butter on the side, cut into triangles, and I would never argue with that (use gluten free bread and a dairy free spread if you need the whole plate to stay that way). A cold glass of something sparkling is good too.

If this is the start of your Christmas, think about what comes after. My Caribbean glazed ham uses the same Exotic Caribbean Sauce in the glaze, so the whole meal speaks the same language. For the main event, my jerk turkey brings the island heat the starter only hints at.

And if your guests love prawns as much as mine do, cook my garlic prawns on another night: hot from the pan, garlic hissing, bread to mop the oil. The warm cousin of this cold starter.

To read more about how we celebrate the season back home, there is my piece on Christmas in the Caribbean.

FAQ

Can you make prawn cocktail in advance?

Yes, in parts. The sauce keeps in the fridge, covered, for up to two days, and it is even better the next day. You can poach and dry the prawns the day before and keep them cold and covered. But build the glasses no more than an hour before you eat, and cut the avocado at the very last minute. Lettuce goes limp and avocado goes brown if they sit in the sauce too long.

What goes in prawn cocktail sauce?

The classic Marie Rose sauce is mayonnaise and tomato ketchup, with a little lemon or lime and a pinch of paprika or cayenne. Mine adds Exotic Caribbean Sauce for passion fruit and a gentle chilli warmth. That is all you need.

Can you use cooked prawns for prawn cocktail?

Of course. Use 400g cooked peeled prawns, skip the poaching, and just make sure you dry them very well on kitchen paper. If you use raw prawns, cook them until they are pink and opaque all the way through, then cool them in iced water.

How long can prawn cocktail sit out?

Not long. This is cold shellfish with mayonnaise, so keep it in the fridge until you serve, and do not leave it on the table for more than two hours. In a warm room, less. Leftovers go back in the fridge and should be eaten the next day.

Is this prawn cocktail recipe gluten free?

Yes, as written, the dish is gluten free and dairy free, as long as your mayonnaise and ketchup are gluten free (most are, but check the label). Only the bread on the side needs a gluten free swap. Please note the allergens: crustaceans (the prawns), egg in the mayonnaise, and many mayonnaises also contain mustard.

Final word from me

Christmas is a meal of memories, and a prawn cocktail carries a lot of them in one small glass. I am not asking you to forget the one you grew up with. I am asking you to give it a little sunshine this year. Poach your prawns, make your pink sauce, put a spoon of passion fruit in it, and watch the faces around the table. Then tell me what they said.

JP