OK, so anything cooked in butter, olive oil, garlic and hot pepper is good. Shrimp, scallops, snails, very small rocks. Still, this is a delightful appetizer and the leftover liquid is perfect for soaking up with bread, if you’re into that kind of thing.

It’s also really, really, really easy to make.

Ingredients:

• 12 large shrimp (1 lb or so)
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Tbsp hot pepper flakes
• 4-8 cloves of garlic, chopped (depending on if you’re a garlic fan, or psycho fan like me)
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp coursely ground salt
• 2 ounces (4 Tbsp) lemon juice

Directions:

• Heat olive oil and melt butter in a heavy pan over medium heat(cast iron is great), or a heavy clay baking dish. Pan should be big enough to hold all the shrimp in one layer.
• When butter is melted and liquid is hot, add pepper and garlic, lightly brown garlic
• Add shrimp, cook for about a minute or 90 seconds on the first side
• Flip the shrimp, cook for another minute, shrimp should be pink and have curled up
• Turn off heat
• Add paprika and lemon juice, stir together with shrimp and butter/oil combo
• Sprinkle salt on top
• Serve in the pan you just cooked it in, or transfer to a heavy serving dish that can handle the heat