Herbed Shrimp Butter Bowls

I turn 31 today.  To say it's been a strange time is an understatement, but the years tick on and all that.  

I honestly hardly remember what I did when I turned 30 besides pump and nurse and try to keep poop out from under my fingernails.  Does anyone have a clue what I did last year for my birthday?  I was slightly distracted.  

But!  This year I'm...more aware of my distractions?  Houses and dogs and toddlers and jobs, most days it is wonderful but also kind of relentless, right?  It all changes very quickly but then is monotonous, not that that's a bad thing.  

I spent Saturday with my family celebrating my and 3 other birthdays, and we had a blast messing with Beck and eating and drinking and just being together.  A Tuesday birthday is maybe the most anticlimactic kind, so I'm making up for it with happy hour tonight with friends, and these butter bowls for you.  

Butter bowl.  

You're either fully repulsed or grateful that I said it first - sometimes we just want to eat all the butter, right?  I'm with you.  This is an imitation of an appetizer at one of my favorite local restaurants - a butter-based broth with huge flavor, lovely shrimp, and bread for dunking.  I went garlic/wine/lemon for my flavors and threw some local microgreens on top for health + crunch.  Balance, people, balance.  

What I really love about this is how quickly it comes together.  There isn't much you can do to make this in advance, but if you do the chopping earlier in the day the bowl can be ready to eat in way less than 30 minutes.  It's just shrimp, butter, lemon juice, white wine, garlic, salt, fresh oregano and parsley, and microgreens.  I do sliced bread and tomatoes for serving and building little crostini and call it a day.  

First, with a dab of the butter, heat a skillet over medium-high heat.  When the skillet is very hot, add the shrimp in one layer, and sprinkle them with salt.  

Let the shrimp cook for about 90 seconds, then flip them, scoot them to the edge of the skillet, and add the garlic.  

Now, at this point I let the shrimp finish cooking through while the garlic starts to soften, which is mayyyybe 30 seconds longer depending on how large your shrimp are.  Err on the side of undercooked shrimp, overcooked is just awful.  When the shrimp are cooked, move them to the bowl you'll use for serving to hang while you make the rest of the sauce.  Pour the wine into the skillet, and stir it into the garlic mixture to deglaze the pan.  The wine should immediately bubble. 

Let the wine reduce by half for about 2 minutes, stirring as you go, then add in the herbs, butter, and lemon juice.  Turn the heat off the skillet.  Now, stir the butter mixture together until the butter is juuuuust melted.  Taste the sauce and add salt to your preference.  I used salted butter so I didn't need to add any.  Pour the butter mixture over the shrimp.  

Top with the microgreens.  

Serve!  The bread is for dunking, building little sandwiches or crostini, whatever you want to do.  

Some teeny tongs or forks for managing the shrimp and greens would be a nice touch, but we just went at it with our hands.  This took approximately 8 seconds for us to devour.  

The really fresh herbs + lemon juice + greens with the sweet shrimp and rich butter here just make the perfect little bites, and I intentionally kept the portions small here because if the recipe was larger you'd still eat it all with one other person, so you're welcome for that.  Butter bowls: broth bowls' sexier, cooler older cousin.  

Enjoy!