Recipe Review: Grilled Polenta with Shrimp & Escarole

Grilled Po-What? with Shrimp and Esca-Who? This was an early experiment using eatingwell.com. I had never tasted Polenta or even heard of Escarole, but it looked interesting so I decided to try Grilled Polenta with Shrimp & Escarole. I figured that polenta would be kind of like grits, and I love shrimp and grits, but I was a little wary of the escarole. Well, my wariness would never really be put to rest. My grocery store doesn't carry escarole, so I substituted collard greens. Otherwise, I followed this recipe to a tee, except I halved it since it's just MSH & me.


Well, my daring cooking style paid off on this one. The dish is fabulous. The only thing I'd recommend is salting the polenta. Also, the polenta is a little difficult to grill, so I've also made it by browning the polenta in a skillet. I feel that it would be easier if I'd used the George Forman Grill to grill it. I've made it with and without the olives, and it's superb either way. Now, we always have frozen shrimp and canned diced tomatoes and garlic (even if it is sprouting), so the only things I had to get especially for the dish were the collards and polenta. The earthy greens and sweet shrimp, tart tomatoes and olives with the creamy, slightly charred polenta was perfect, especially for seafood loving southerners like us.

If you can get escarole and try this recipe, let me know what you think of it. Otherwise, the recipe says that you can use spinach and I say that you can use collard greens. This dish was pretty easy and quick and required very little preparation. If you like shrimp and southern food, this is a great recipe for you, too.

Well, I think that's all the blogging I'll be doing today. I feel better now that I've typed up the things I've been longing to share with you all since last weekend.