Heidi's Black Pepper Georgia Shrimp

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I certainly did...I spent it with my bff (ask your tween what it means if you aren't sure!), Heidi. I didn't have time to post this weekend, but trust me, I was seriously "researching" (or eating). Not only did Heidi come for a visit, but she also brought wonderful shrimp from Georgia's coast. Teaching me her simple but delectable recipe, she used common ingredients to concoct an uncommonly good seafood dish. I think this recipe is based on one of Paula Deen's but Heidi's version adds more flavor and definitely gets the Southern Dish seal of approval. Do you have a favorite seafood recipe to share? Send an email to thesoutherndish@gmail.com!

Black Pepper Georgia Shrimp
2-3 lbs fresh shrimp, heads removed and ready to cook, or frozen shrimp thawed
1 stick butter
one head (yes, the entire head) of fresh garlic, separated into cloves, peeled and minced
Old Bay Seasoning
ground black pepper, 4 -5 T. or to taste
1 loaf of good crusty bread
extra butter for bread

Preheat oven to 450. Place butter in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Put in oven to melt. Add minced garlic to melted butter in pan and put back in the oven for a minute or so to release flavor. Do not let the garlic brown. Browned garlic is burnt garlic. After a minute or so, remove from oven and add shrimp to pan. Stir to coat well in garlic butter. Sprinkle buttered shrimp liberally with black pepper -- a few tablespoons or to taste, and lightly sprinkle with Old Bay seasoning. Return to oven and bake just until shrimp turn pink. Do not over cook.

Prepare bread by cutting the loaf almost into slices, leaving the bottom crust intact. Place pats of butter between slices in the cuts you make in the loaf. Bake in oven until butter is melted between the slices and the top crust is golden brown.

Serve shrimp with the buttered, toasted crusty bread. The true way to eat this dish is to leave the shrimp unpeeled and slurp the butter out and then peel the shrimp and eat them. Personally, Heidi and I like to peel our serving of shrimp into a bowl, drizzle the peeled shrimp with the seasoned garlic butter, and eat with a big chunk of crusty bread for dipping. However you eat it, you will love it!