Garlic Butter Shrimp

Making Garlic Butter Shrimp Ahead

Best immediately. Refrigerated for 2 days; eat cold rather than reheating, which toughens them.

Making Garlic Butter Shrimp

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1. Pat the prawns thoroughly dry with kitchen paper and toss with the salt, pepper and paprika.

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2. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over high heat until it just begins to smoke.

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3. Add the prawns in a single layer, without crowding — two batches if your pan is small — and sear 90 seconds without moving them.

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4. Turn and sear 60 seconds more, until pink and opaque with browned edges. Tip them onto a plate.

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5. Take the pan off the heat and let it cool for 20 seconds, then add the butter, garlic and chilli flakes and swirl.

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6. Return to a low heat and cook 60 to 90 seconds, swirling constantly, until the garlic is pale gold and the butter smells nutty. Watch it — this is the only step that can go wrong.

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7. Off the heat, stir in the lemon juice, then return the prawns and any juices and toss for 20 seconds to coat.

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8. Fold through the lemon zest and parsley and serve at once with wedges of lemon.

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Worth Knowing

• Dry the prawns. Every complaint about pale, rubbery garlic prawns starts here.
• Garlic goes in off the heat. Burnt garlic is bitter and there is no rescuing the pan.
• Have everything chopped before you start. The whole cook is under four minutes.

Why the Method Is What It Is

Garlic burns in about forty seconds at the temperature prawns need to sear, so the two cannot share the pan at full heat — the garlic goes in after the pan comes down, into butter that is cooling it further. Butter also browns rather than burns, and those browned milk solids are most of the flavour here. Drying the prawns is the other half: surface water has to boil off before anything can brown, and wet prawns will have overcooked by the time it does.

Good Alongside

Crusty bread for the butter · Linguine · A cold Albariño

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Creamy Coleslaw, Boston Baked Beans, Air Fryer Mushrooms.

If You're Missing Something

• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

The Numbers per Serving

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. Garnishes, greasing and other items with no amount are not counted. How the figures are worked out.

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