Creamy cornmeal scented with unrefined coconut oil, topped with shrimp in a sour orange, tomato and papaya sauce.
-Full Post-
Add the polenta, hot water (tap temperature is fine), salt, and shredded coconut to a large saucepan and stir well. If you have any time at all, save yourself some stirring and let the polenta swell up on its own for up to half a day. When you and your cornmeal have had enough, bring to a simmer over medium high heat, stirring very frequently with a wooden spoon. Lower the heat, keep some hot water handy, and keep stirring every few minutes, scraping the bottom clean each time. You'll need to keep this up for a good half hour, but allow yourself an hour before you really need it. Add water as needed to keep a loose mashed-potato consistency, and keep lowering the heat, keeping the pot mostly covered.
Peel the shrimp. Slice the papaya in half, cube the flesh, and remove and reserve 2 T of the seeds. In a mortar or spice grinder, coarsely grind the seeds (they have a mild, pepper-like pungency) and reserve. Juice the sour oranges, discarding the seeds - you should have about 1/3 cup. In a large frying pan or shallow casserole, melt the butter and olive oil together and sauté the onions and pepper over medium heat until softened but not browned. Add the ground papaya seeds and achiote powder and cook a few more minutes, to deepen the color and raise the aroma. Add the sour orange juice, salt, brown sugar, canned tomatoes, tomato paste and about half of the cubed papaya. Cook for about 15 minutes to soften the tomatoes, then mash to the lumpy side of smooth. Reserve and keep warm while the polenta cooks - or make up to a day ahead and refrigerate until needed.
When the polenta is at least pleasantly grainy if not smooth, bring the sauce to a simmer and add the reserved papaya chunks and shrimp. Cook for a few minutes until the shrimp is just done. Meanwhile, stir the polenta well with the unrefined coconut oil and butter, if using. Swirl your golden, aromatic mush into ridges on plates, spoon out the shrimp, and garnish with additional shredded coconut, cilantro or parsley.
In a world full of crappy masochistic advice, trying to make polenta by drizzling it into boiling water while stirring frantically with a wooden spoon is right up there with peeling mushroom caps. You can let the stuff soak overnight in the fridge, according to no less a grits master than Sean Brock. And having now spouted off, I'm sure there is an Italian nonna somewhere that has mastered the drizzle move, and will tell me where to put that long, splintery wooden spoon.
Seriously, it takes a while to get polenta wisdom. Plus, the stuff varies. I look for coarse, very uniformly grained Italian brands that come in a bricklike package. Bob and his Red Mill do only an OK job in this instance. If you want the very best American version, you want the insanely traditionalist Anson Mills grits, which are expensive, flowery, and sweet, and perfect with shrimp.
Don't throw out papaya seeds. Look up Hawaiian salad dressings, and make one of those instead. They do ask for a lot of sugar. I just inspired myself to make up a buttermilk ranch papaya seed dressing for summer salads, unless you beat me to it.
Servings 0