*Shrimp Cream Sauce

This sauce is essentially a Beurre blanc (French for "white butter') with cream. Beurre blanc is a rich butter sauce made with a reduction of vinegar and/or white wine (normally Muscadet) and grey shallots into which cold, whole butter is blended off the heat to prevent separation. When this sauce has a tablespoon of cream added as a "stabilizing agent," it is called "a la Nantaise" (from Nantes). This recipe, in contrast, contains two whole cups of cream, reduced.

Use for Crab Stuffed Flounder w/ Shrimp Sauce, Chicken Acapulco, or other fish dish that you would like to serve with a shrimp cream sauce.

Brian and I have also made this without the shrimp (just made a shrimp stock from some shrimp shells) and used it as a pasta sauce for Shrimp Kabobs (marinated in lemon juice, olive oil and finely chopped serrano chili) cooked out on the grill. Very good. We have altered the recipe below quite a bit - see notes in sqaure brackets - although making it as originally written probably makes an incredible sauce, given the amount butter. The original is actually what is called a Lemon Beurre Blanc.

3 shallots, diced
1 c white wine
1/2 c shrimp stock made from the shells
1 lb small salad shrimp
2 c whipping cream
3/4 lb butter (3 sticks) [we add just a couple of tablespoons mixed with an equal amount of flour for thickening]

Remove the shells from the shrimp and make the shrimp stock by placing the shells in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Cover with water, bring to a boil and simmer for about 1 hour. The water content will reduce by about two thirds.

[The recipe does not specify the amount of water. You should end up with 1/2 cup shrimp stock.]

In a saucepan over medium-high heat, combine shallots and wine. Cook until reduced by three-fourths - in other words, you should have 1/4 cup wine, plus the shallots, left.

Add the 1/2 cup stock/broth and shrimp and cook until reduced by half (until 3/8 cups liquid).

[We usually add the shrimp right at the end so they don't overcook.]

Add the cream and reduce again by half. You should have a little over 1 cup of sauce.

[We don't usually reduce the cream this much, just add an equal amount of flour to the butter in the next step to thicken it. ]

Over low heat whisk in the butter by tablespoons.

[We just add a couple of tablespoons of melted butter (to make it healthier - see note in last step) with an equal amount of flour mixed in and whisk until the sauce is thickenend].

Cook until butter melts and sauce is well-blended. Remove from heat and keep warm.

[Add shrimp at this point to cook as the sauce thickens. This keeps the shrimp from over-cooking.]