Chile and Garlic Oil Shrimp with Garlic Chips

I love my roommate Lish very much. I love that we have similar taste in clothes, television shows, music and lifestyle. We are ideal roommates and I am going to be super bummed when she leaves me to live with her fiancés.

I would be devastated, except they have a pretty guest room for me to stay in when I visit.

There is only one problem with having Lish as my roommate. No, she doesn’t smell (most of the time). She is allergic to shrimp.

Heartbreaking.

So when she isn’t around for NFT, I almost always cook something with shrimp. This week was no exception.

This quick appetizer was also a wonderful little bite to hold us over while some of Albert’s roommates ran to the store for flour, paper towels and BEEEEEEEERRRRR!

I realize that when you hear infused oil, it makes you a little weary. Maybe you get a little eye tick at the idea of something so challenging.

Well let me break it down for you. Can you chop ingredients or peal something? Can you heat oil on the stove? Can you previous ingredients to the oil? Do you have opposable thumbs?

Sweet! You can totally make this. In about twenty minutes actually.

You will need…

For the shrimp:

24 large shrimp, shelled and deveined
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

For the Chile Garlic Oil:

6 garlic cloves chopped
2 tablespoons red pepper flakes
1 cup olive oil
Pinch of salt
3 sprigs of thyme chopped (I used marjoram which was a great substitute. Thanks produce guy at Whole Foods)


For the Garlic Chips:
8 garlic cloves thinly sliced
1 cup olive oil
Pinch of salt

1 baguette of crusty bread but into 1/2 inch thick pieces for serving


Preheat your oven to 500 degrees F.

Start by taking all of the tails off the shrimp. You will be really happy you did this when it’s time to eat and you just want to inhale your food. If you pinch the tail where it meets the flesh of the shrimp, you should be able to just slide it off.

Place your tailless shrimps in an oven proof casserole dish. Season the shrimp lightly with salt and pepper and set them aside.


Over medium heat, heat 1 cup of olive oil. Add in the garlic, pepper flakes, thyme and salt and let the oil bubble for about 10 minutes. Make sure to not burn the garlic.


After 10 minutes, pour the oil and its contents over the shrimp.


Put the shrimp in the oven for 5-7 minutes or until the shrimp are nice and pink. You want them to be very pink, but not chewy.

While the shrimp are in the oven, heat your remaining oil over medium high heat until it is very hot. Add in the garlic and salt and fry them until they start to brown and curl.


Remove them from the oil and set them on a paper towel to dry.


Or in my case a cutting board because 22 year old dudes don’t believe in paper towels. Or dish towels.

We were lucky they had toilet paper.

To serve, place on shrimp on a slice of bread, drizzle with oil from the pan and top with garlic chips.


I highly suggest putting a couple aside for yourself before you serve. Otherwise you probably aren’t getting one.

Love and Beer Floats
Angela

P.S. In case you forgot, I love garlic. Yay garlic!