Shrimp and Corn Pancakes with Tomato Salsa

I've made the shrimp and the pancakes separately two nights in a row and realized that together they would go wonderfully, almost like a different spin on the traditional Southern comfort food "Shrimp and Grits". This is also ideal for a week night dinner since the entire dinner takes about 30 minutes to make or less.

Roasted Shrimp

1 lb cleaned and deveined raw large shrimp

1 tbs fennel seed

1/2 tbs cracked black pepper

1/2 tbs smoked paprika

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp garlic powder

1-2 tbs olive oil

Heat the oven to 450F. In a pan heated at medium-high, toast the fennel seed and cracked black pepper for about 2-3 minutes until the seeds are golden brown and release the aroma. Transfer the seeds and black pepper to a mortar and pestle and grind until the seeds are cracked and somewhat powdered. Add the salt, garlic powder and paprika and mix.

Pour the olive oil into a pyrax dish or a cookie sheet. Dump the shrimp in and sprinkle with fennel seasoning from above. Massage the shrimp around to coat evenly (oil will get mixed in too) and put in the oven for about 5-6 minutes. Do not over cook or your shrimp will be gummy.

Note: I used only 2-3 turns of a black pepper since I wanted my kid to eat this too (and he loved it!)

Corn Pancakes

3/4 cup self-rising flour

3/4 cup corn meal or polenta

1 cup milk

about 10 oz of corn

olive oil or oil spray for frying

Mix all of the ingredients above and cook up pancakes as you typically would. I used a frying pan since I don't have a griddle and did it over medium heat with canola oil spray. For me it was about 2-3 minutes per side of the pancake to get the nice golden brown color.

Note: I used a following recipe to make the self-rising flour: 1 cup flour + 1/4 tsp baking powder + 1/4 tsp salt. I am not sure it's the best one but I'll have to experiment with this a bit more. Other recipes suggest more baking powder and salt per cup of flour.

Tomato Salsa

2 large ripe tomatoes (diced)

1 small cucumber (diced)

1 half bell pepper of any color (diced)

a handful of basil leaves (diced)

2 cloves garlic (minced)

salt

~1 tbs olive oil

~1 tbs red wine vinegar

optional: 1/2 cup edamame

Combine all ingredients and put salsa in the fridge to cool until you are ready to serve dinner.