Roasted Shrimp from A Clue in the Crumbs @LucyBurdette

Breaking news!!! LUCY BURDETTE'S A CLUE IN THE CRUMBS hit the USA Today Bestseller list at #54! Never ever in my wildest dreams did I imagine this. Thanks to every single one of you!! 

And now we return to our regularly scheduled program....

LUCY BURDETTE:  When I was studying clinical psychology in graduate school, sometimes my friends and I would cook delicious meals to celebrate our work and blow off steam. This baked shrimp dish is one we loved. When I was thinking about what my food critic character Hayley Snow might serve to to beloved Scottish sisters Violet and Bettina in A CLUE IN THE CRUMBS, this dish came to mind. Hayley always considers the tastes of her guests and likes to connect recipes to her beloved Key West island. Here she is mulling things over:

I’d considered a million recipes preparing for their visit. Key West pink shrimp was a no-brainer, but in what form? Miss Gloria nixed a few ideas as too spicy and possibly foreign sounding, particularly the shrimp in purgatory recipe that I favored.

“I don’t remember eating anything spicy in Scotland,” she’d said. “Certainly not something that’s traveled that close to hell.” We both giggled.

In the end, we’d agreed on garlicky, buttery, Worcestershire-laced baked shrimp with lots of good bread from Old Town Bakery to sop up the sauce. I’d made it for friends and served with the shells on for a more rustic, hands-on experience, but for our special and jet-lagged guests, I’d decided to peel.

Ingredients

1 teaspoon paprika

2 pounds extra large or jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined, thawed if frozen

8 tablespoons unsalted butter

1-3 large cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Hot sauce or hot peppers, to taste

1 lemon, sliced

1 bay leaf

Fresh rosemary, leaves snipped off stems

Good bread for serving

Mix all the ingredients together except shrimp and lemon in a 9 x 13 pan. Heat in 400 degree oven until melted.

Remove from the oven, stir, add the shrimp and lemon in a single layer. Roast for about 15 minutes until butter is bubbly and shrimp are pink. Serve with good bread for soaking up the sauce.You’ll probably want a nice green salad to balance the richness of the shrimp!

Violet and Bettina Booth loved this shrimp, but what would you serve for important guests?

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

LUCY BURDETTE: Does it seem to you that big dinner parties prepared by one hostess have gone the way of the dinosaurs? I know I used to make more elaborate meals for bigger crowds, but life's gotten so busy...

Some five or six years ago, a group of friends decided to launch a supper club. Six couples meet six times a year for a big dinner. The hosts make the main dish and tell the others what to make. We're all competent cooks (a key I think) but only one of us, Tim, is a true gourmet. He's been known to cook with Jacques Pepin, and his son Adam is a professional chef (and a character in TOPPED CHEF!) 

While the rest of us might assign the others to bring a generic salad or vegetable, Tim's been known to hand out a particular recipe. None of us will forget the time he asked Cathy to bring green beans--not just any green beans, but Thomas Keller's green beans. Err, I should say Haricots verts, tomato tartare and chive oil salad. Among other steps it involved blanching, peeling, and roasting the tomatoes for several hours. We can't remember what the main dish was that night, but we all remember Cathy's stacked beans.  


This time, Cathy had the appetizer assignment, which we all agree is not that easy. These shrimp were wonderful--tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper, and roasted at 400 degrees for ten minutes, rather than boiled. (I'm sure I had three, maybe four...)

 




Here's the rest of our dinner--Scott made the pork roast, Sue the rice, Tim and Stacie the roasted veggies, me the pomegranate salad (recipe for the salad is posted at Mystery Lovers Kitchen), and Barbara, the pies. 

This makes the whole idea of entertaining so much more reasonable. And with our busy lives, it's great to know we'll be seeing our pals at least every other month--and eating well. 

There's only one downside to being the host and hostess...but we can handle the mess once a year!

How about you Reds, do you still throw dinner parties?  What should we bring??