Marinated Shrimp With Champagne Beurre Blanc

Annacia's Note:

The classic — and amazingly easy — French sauce made with butter and wine gets a glamorous makeover with Champagne. Feel free to use less-expensive sparkling wine for cooking, but keep the blanc de blancs flowing as an accompaniment.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 4 mins
• Prep Time: 1 hrs
• Cook Time: 4 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

Sauce Base

• 2 cups champagne or 2 cups other dry sparkling wine
• 1/3 cup finely chopped shallot
• 2 tablespoons champagne vinegar or 2 tablespoons other white wine vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon whole black peppercorn

Shrimp

• 1 cup champagne or 1 cup other dry sparkling wine
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons minced shallots
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 24 uncooked jumbo shrimp, peeled with tail left intact, deveined (about 2 pounds)
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh chives
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh tarragon
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
• vegetable oil cooking spray
• 1 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces

Directions:

1. For Sauce Base:
2. Combine Champagne, shallots, vinegar, and peppercorns in heavy medium saucepan.
3. Boil until reduced to 1/4 cup liquid, about 20 minutes.
4. (Can be made 4 hours ahead. Cover and let stand at room temperature.)
5. For Shrimp:
6. Combine Champagne, olive oil, shallots, and ground pepper in resealable plastic bag.
7. Add shrimp to bag and seal; shake bag to coat shrimp evenly.
8. Marinate shrimp at room temperature at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour, turning bag occasionally.
9. Mix chives, tarragon, and parsley in small bowl.
10. Preheat broiler.
11. Spray broiler pan with nonstick vegetable oil spray. Drain shrimp; discard plastic bag with marinade.
12. Arrange shrimp on prepared pan in single layer.
13. Broil shrimp until just opaque in center, about 2 minutes per side.
14. Stand 3 shrimp, tails upright, in center of each plate.
15. Rewarm sauce base over medium-low heat. Whisk in butter 1 piece at a time, just allowing each to melt before adding next (do not boil or sauce will separate).
16. Season beurre blanc to taste with salt and pepper.
17. Spoon warm sauce around shrimp.
18. Sprinkle with fresh herbs and serve.
19. Market tip: Champagne and sparkling wines labeled extra dry are actually slightly sweeter than those labeled brut. The latter works best for this dish.

Reviews

[WiGal]

Divinely delicious! Fine dining at its best! I made ours (half recipe) with a New Mexico Brut from Gruet winery-marvelous and bought here in remote northern Wisconsin. I appreciated being able to make the sauce base and marinate the shrimp ahead of time, and that the two of us could enjoy a glass of sparkling wine with our meal-oh la la. I was unable to buy shallots so subbed a yellow onion for the shallot ---a bit over half of the recommended amount of shallot. I also did not have parsley so omitted it. Tarragon is wonderful and in this dish it is perfect match for it. My sauce did separate b/c I had the heat too high-I was getting excited to eat what I knew was going to be outstanding. I served with carrots and rice, and drizzled the wonderful sauce over them with a salad and Carameled Peach Cheesecake. Thank you Annacia for sharing a recipe that will be made for guests. Made for Seafood Challenge.