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Grilled Shrimp With Chive Polenta Cakes Recipe

Sunday Supper

Cooking projects for people who'd like nothing more than to spend a sunday afternoon surrounded by the wonderful aromas of the kitchen.

Sydney Oland
Grilled Shrimp With Chive Polenta Cakes Recipe

[Photograph: Sydney Oland]

This simple, light dinner is easy to prepare, and much of it can be made ahead of time—making this a perfect dinner to serve guests you actually want to spend the evening chatting with. Polenta chive cakes can be made the day before, and the shrimp can be marinated and placed on skewers at that time, too. So all you've got to do on a Sunday evening is make a quick green salad and open a bottle (or two) of wine.

  • Yield:4
  • Active time: 15 minutes
  • Total time:3 hours 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • Chive Polenta Cakes:
  • 2 cups milk
  • 1 cup yellow cornmeal
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing pyrex dish
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • small bunch of chives
  • Shrimp Skewers:
  • 1 1/2 pounds shrimp
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • kosher salt and cracked black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon fresh oregano, finely chopped
  • 1 tablespoon basil, finely chopped

Directions

  1. 1.

    Butter an 8x8 Pyrex dish. In a heavy bottomed saucepan, combine milk, cornmeal, and butter, and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly, over medium high heat. When mixture begins to simmer, add sugar, salt, and chives, and keep stirring until thick, about 15 minutes. Pour into prepared pan and allow to cool and thicken until thick enough to slice, about 3 hours.

  2. 2.

    Place shrimp, olive oil, big pinches of salt and pepper, oregano and basil in a large bowl and toss to combine. Thread onto skewers; place in the fridge until polenta has set.

  3. 3.

    When polenta has set carefully un-mold polenta onto cutting board, and cut into 4 even pieces. Preheat grill or grill pan to high heat.

  4. 4.

    Gently grill polenta slices until grill marks form, and polenta is heated though, about 8 minutes. Remove from grill and reserve. Grill shrimp skewers until shrimps are pink and beginning to char, about 3 minutes per side. Serve with a chilled rosé and some sliced scallions for garnish.

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Sydney Oland Product Developer/Food Writer

After finishing my degree from the University of Toronto in Studio Art and English I moved to Boston to complete my MA in the Gastronomy program at Boston University and a culinary diploma from The Cambridge Culinary School of Arts. My husband and I operate a drum and bass record store, and have two cats, Rita and Sheryl. You can find me posting weekly here on SE in my two columns, British Bites and Sunday Brunch, or every once in a while in the Boston Globe.

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