Garlic Shrimp — North Shore

Ingredients

• 1 kg shrimp, shell-on, head-on
• 225 g unsalted butter
• 1 whole head garlic, cloves peeled and thinly sliced
• 400 g short-grain white rice, cooked, to serve

Method

1. 1
   Cook the rice by your preferred method and keep it warm. It exists solely to receive the garlic butter.
2. 2
   Melt the butter in a wide, heavy pan over moderate heat. Add all the sliced garlic at once. Cook, stirring occasionally, until every slice turns uniformly golden — not pale, not dark brown. The butter will foam, then settle to a clear, gold-tinted pool. The kitchen will smell overwhelmingly of garlic and butter; that is correct.
3. 3
   Add the shrimp in a single layer, shell-on and head-on. Sauté, turning once, until the shells flush fully pink and the flesh is just firm to a gentle press. Do not crowd the pan; work in two batches if necessary, returning all shrimp to the pan at the finish.
4. 4
   Transfer shrimp and the entire contents of the pan — every drop of garlic butter, every golden garlic slice — over the rice. The pool of garlic butter should be deep enough to mop with the rice. Serve immediately, with no utensils beyond what the diner wishes to use; the dish is eaten with the hands.