One of the main advantages of seafood is that it hardly needs any accompaniment to be a delicious dish. Whether served on its own or as the star ingredient in a dish, it’s the perfect choice to make you the ideal host.
Prawns with chickpeas or, even better, grilled scallops. Any recipe is good if you add quality seafood and some delicious sauces.
Why Use Sauces with Seafood?
The sauces we use to accompany seafood offer a variety of flavors to enhance our dishes. They can be either hot or cold; the most important thing is that they allow us to enjoy our seafood without diminishing or masking its flavor.
That’s why it’s so important to buy quality seafood.
Classic Sauces to Accompany Prawns and Seafood: Below, we suggest two of the most popular sauces that are the perfect accompaniment to seafood. No matter how you cook it, with quality seafood and these sauces, delicious flavor is guaranteed.
Mayonnaise Sauce
It’s one of the most well-known sauces and forms the basis of many recipes; it can also be combined with a wide variety of foods. It’s ideal for serving with prawns or shrimp.
Ingredients
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Egg yolks | 2 |
| Olive or sunflower oil | 250 ml |
| Lemon juice | 1 splash |
| Salt | To taste |
| Pepper | To taste |
| Mustard (optional) | As desired |
Preparation
- Place the egg yolks in a bowl along with the salt and pepper and mix with a whisk.
- Slowly drizzle in the oil while continuing to whisk.
- Once all the ingredients are combined, whisk vigorously for 30 seconds until the mixture is thick and glossy.
- Serve and enjoy.
Pink Sauce
Another popular sauce for serving with seafood and shrimp. This sauce gets its name from being a mixture of mayonnaise and ketchup.
Ingredients
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Ketchup | As needed |
| Mayonnaise | As needed |
Preparation
- Mix the two sauces until you obtain a uniformly colored sauce.
- If you prefer the shrimp or seafood to have a touch of acidity, add a squeeze of lemon juice or a little Tabasco sauce.
Original Sauces for Your Seafood: If you’ve thought about giving your seafood dishes a different flavor and moving beyond the usual, here are two more ideas for sauces that are perfect for both prawns and scallops.
Avocado Sauce
It is ideal for cooked seafood.
Ingredients
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Avocado | 1 |
| Natural yogurt | 300g |
| Dill | 2 tablespoons |
| Lemon | 1 splash |
| Curry powder | 1 pinch |
| Salt | To taste |
| Pepper | To taste |
Preparation
- Mix all the sauce ingredients in a container.
- Blend and mix them with a blender for 30 seconds.
Tartar Sauce
One of the best sauces to accompany steamed or grilled seafood. It’s also very easy to make.
Ingredients
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Mayonnaise | As needed |
| Pickles | As needed |
| Hard-boiled egg | 1 |
| Spring onion | 1/2 |
| Capers | To taste |
| Parsley | As needed |
Preparation
- Mix all the ingredients in a bowl with the mayonnaise and whisk until smooth.
- If the sauce is too thick, you can thin it with lemon juice or a splash of milk.
Variations
- If you have fish stock, whether homemade or store-bought, and some prawn heads, you can sauté them, blend them with the stock, and then strain it.
- This will give it a great flavor and make use of that part of the prawn that we often throw away.
- If you like a spicy touch, you can add chili pepper.
- You can also use a dessert teaspoon of choricero pepper flesh to give it an extra burst of flavor.
Tips
- This sauce can be prepared in advance.
- You can keep it in the refrigerator for up to 3–4 days or freeze it and have it ready whenever you need it.
- It is recommended not to make the sauce too thick because it will thicken a bit more as it cools.
- You can always add a little stock or water to thin it out and make it perfect.