Stir-Fried Shrimp with Olive-Pepper Cream and Almond Polenta

Servings: 2 Prep: 7 mins Cook: 8 min Total: 15 mins

In the South East United States, there’s a famous dish known as Shrimp n’ Grits. It’s a corn based dish and not really something I find myself eating, any longer. However, it was largely the inspiration behind this more Mediterranean approach to a similar dish.

It also employs a pure almond polenta, which is surprisingly adept at polenta’ing! It’s a bit sweeter in nature, but it’s quite good and goes REALLY well with this dish. It’s also incredibly easy to whip up! Take a look at this recipe from Low Carb Yum to see a variation of my polenta ratio used in a casserole. Yep, it’s a versatile little recipe!

To steal a term from Sandra Lee, I MIGHT could maybe make the claim that this recipe is semi-homemade. As much as I love super fresh shrimp, I love not having to clean and peel them even more. I’ve peeled so many shrimp tails in my life, the number is best stated in scientific notation. I’m simply done with it. Now, it’s not uncommon for me to buy raw, peeled shrimp in big frozen bags. This recipe also uses roasted peppers from a jar. I’ve also roasted 34 x 10⁷ peppers in my life. The ones in jars and cans are pretty good, actually. Saves me time and grief, too!

(sometimes I feel a bit squingy when I let y’all peek behind the curtain)

I also use olives from a jar, but this is pretty common. Most people don’t brine their own olives. Even restaurants rarely do it.

All this adds up to a rationale that is very satisfying, semi-fresh, definitely quick and fully n’ totally nourishing!

Here’s a photo of the ingredients I used:

Here’s the amount of time it took. Yep! Even with 2 pans going, it still took me less than 9 minutes to get from the shoddy iPhone photo of the ingredients, to the lovely beauty shots at the top of this page.

LIGHTENING fast. BOOM!!!

Note: Photo doesn’t have salt, pepper or cooking fat, but… it’s there. Make sure you have it.

Stir-Fried Shrimp with Olive-Pepper Cream and Almond Polenta

5 from 3 votes

Print Rate

Prep Time: 7 minutes

Cook Time: 8 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Servings: 2 Servings

Author: DJ Foodie

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp butter divided
• 3 tbsp water
• 1/4 cup almond flour
• 12 oz cleaned shrimp tails (21/25)
• 1/4 lb fresh tomatoes
• 1 small roasted red bell pepper
• 1 each lemon
• 10 pitted black olives
• 1 sprig fresh thyme
• 1/2 cup cream heavy whipping
• 2 each garlic cloves minced
• salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste

Instructions

• Place 1 tbsp (15 mL) of the butter, water, almond flour and a little salt and pepper in a small soup pot over low heat. Allow to slowly come up to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Set the remaining butter aside.
• Place a large nonstick sauté pan on the stove over high heat, to preheat.
• If your shrimp are frozen, place in a bowl in the sink with a very slow stream of cold water rushing over them. This is to wash and soften them. They don’t need to be fully defrosted, but it’s ok if they are.
• Coarsely chop tomatoes. Set aside, but close.
• Coarsely chop roasted peppers, or cut them into strips. Set aside, but close.
• With a cheese grater, grate a small amount of the yellow zest off the outside of the lemon. You want about 1/2 tsp. Juice the lemon (you want about 1 tbsp [15 mL]). Set zest and juice aside.
• Coarsely chop the olives and set aside.
• Remove thyme leaves from stem. Coarsely chop the thyme and set aside.
• Make sure your shrimp is cleaned, dry and ready to go. Once it is, add the remaining butter to the hot sauté pan and swirl around.
• Before the butter burns, add the shrimp and chopped garlic to the pan with a bit of salt and pepper. Toss and stir-fry for about 1 minute.
• Add the tomatoes and continue to stir-fry for a further minute.
• Add the peppers, lemon zest, 1 tbsp (15 mL) lemon juice, olives, fresh thyme and a bit more salt and pepper. Cook for a further 2 minutes. The idea is to heat the ingredients, cook the shrimp and soften the tomatoes.
• Once the shrimp is almost cooked through, add the cream and swirl around. Taste and adjust seasoning. Allow to cook for a further minute or two, to thicken the sauce. If the shrimp start to overcook, just remove them and set aside for a moment.
• Taste the polenta. Season, if it needs it. Evenly divide the polenta between two bowls.
• Once the sauce is thick and clings to the ingredients, evenly divide the shrimp and pink sauce over the top of the two polenta bowls. Enjoy!

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