SHRIMP AND GRITS (POLENTA)

We were watching tv yesterday and stumbled upon Anthony Bourdain's new show, you know the one titled "Layover". I love to watch all of his shows, he is just the right amount of funny and smarty mouth for my enjoyment. He was in New Orleans!I love that he shared some of the touristy places to go but also where the locals hang out.
Can we talk about the food for a minute, everything looked so good and it really did make us want to book a trip there for a couple of days, just to go on a food crawl. That sounds heavenly! Flashing in front of our eyes were pictures of scrumptious food and yes you guessed it! Shrimp and grits! We both said it right then, let's have that for dinner. I have never made this dish before but I thought to myself that it couldn't be that hard. I knew what I wanted it to taste like and I went from there. So just to inform you that it is not a recipe from the bayou of New Orleans just one from my little kitchen. By the way it is so easy and quick to make and beyond delicious. Make a lot because leftover tastes even better. Let's get started!

Ingredients:

1 cup of quick cooking Polenta ( it takes 3 minutes)

4 cups of chicken broth

1 green bell pepper

1 leek 

1/2 red onion

2 cloves of garlic

1 medium size tomato 

1 tablespoon of spicy smoked paprika ( use the sweet paprika if you don't want spicy)

1 lbs of shrimp (cleaned and deveined)

2 slices of bacon

1 sprig of green onion

2 tablespoons of butter

1 cup of extra sharp cheddar cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

Direction:

Diced all the vegetables and the bacon. Season the shrimp with salt and pepper. 

In a pot, bring the chicken broth, add some salt to it and taste it to see if you need to add more or not. Then bring it to a boil and lower the heat to simmer. With a whisk in hand, start whisking while adding the polenta. You will see the polenta starting to thicken to a porridge consistency. Turn the heat off, Add the butter and cheese and give it a good stir until it's all melted. It should look like the picture below when it's all done.

In a sauté pan, cook the sliced bacon until brown, remove it from the pan. Add all the veggies , add salt and pepper. Let it cook until the veggies are soft. Add the shrimp and the paprika, let it cook until the shrimp turn a beautiful pink. Top it with the bacon, don't forget that!

Now all you have to do is assemble everything and top it with some sliced green onion.