Potted shrimps on toast

Serves 4

Keith chose this as the starter for his last lunch and it's a favourite of mine, too. You can buy brown shrimps from good fishmongers.

180g unsalted butter
Juice of a lemon
A good pinch of ground mace or nutmeg
Pinch of cayenne pepper
1 small bay leaf
1tsp anchovy essence or paste
210g peeled brown shrimps
Salt and freshly ground white pepper

Melt the butter in a pan, add the lemon juice, mace, cayenne pepper, bay leaf and anchovy essence and simmer on a low heat for 2 minutes to infuse the spices. Remove from the heat and cool the mixture until it is just warm.

Add the shrimps and stir well, then season with salt and freshly ground white pepper. Put the mixture into the fridge and stir every so often. When the butter starts to set, fill 4 ramekins with the mixture or spoon it on to plates. If you aren't serving them that day, return the ramekins to the fridge and cover with clingfilm. Don't serve the shrimps straight from the fridge, as the butter will be too hard to spread nicely on to the toast, and won't taste as good. Serve with hot buttered toast and lemon halves.