This classic and amazingly easy French sauce made with butter and wine gets even better when made with champagne. Use less-expensive dry sparkling wine for cooking, e.g. Korbel, but pour the real good stuff to accompany the shrimp. This is pretty rich to serve as a main course, but is perfect for a special occasion first course.
Shrimp Sauce
24 extra large uncooked shrimp 2 cups dry sparkling wine
1 cup dry sparkling wine 1/3 cup finely chopped shallots
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 2 T champagne vinegar
1/2 t fresh ground pepper 1/4 t whole black peppercorns
3 T minced shallots 1 c. chilled unsalted butter cut into 16 pieces
1 T fresh minced tarragon 1 T fresh minced chives
1 T fresh minced parsley
For the shrimp : Combine the champagne, olive oil, shallots and ground pepper into a re-sealable plastic bag. Add shrimp to bag and seal. Shake bag to coat shrimp evenly. Marinate at room temp for 30 minutes. Mix chives parsley and tarragon in a small bowl-set aside
For the sauce: Combine champagne,shallots, vinegar, and peppercorns in a heavy medium saucepan. Boil until reduced to 1/4 cup liquid- about 15 minutes. (Can be made 4 hours ahead -cover and keep at room temp)
Preheat broiler. Drain shrimp. Arrange single layer on a pan lightly oiled. Broil about 2 minutes per side. Keep warm while you finish the sauce.
Re-warm sauce base over med-low heat. Whisk in butter 1 piece at a time, just allowing to melt before adding the next. Do not boil or sauce will separate*. Season with salt and pepper.
Stand 3 shrimp - tails up in center of each plate and spoon warmed sauce around shrimp. Sprinkle with herbs and serve.
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*If you run into a problem with the sauce separating you can usually fix it by removing from the heat and add either a little more cold champagne or cold butter to bring it back together.
