Shrimp and Rice with Sour Cherry Glaze

About This Recipe

This dish leans on Midwestern sour cherry season, especially the Montmorency cherries grown around Michigan, which are traditionally cooked down into a tart-sweet sauce for pork and duck. Applying that same sauce logic to seared shrimp is a modern home-cooking pairing rather than a historic dish, and the tartness of the cherries is what keeps it from tasting like dessert on a plate. Shrimp are seared quickly in a hot pan to build a browned crust, then set aside while the same pan is deglazed with a little vinegar and reduced with sour cherries, butter and a touch of sugar into a glossy pan sauce. Building the sauce in the same pan the shrimp cooked in picks up all the browned bits left behind, adding savory depth to balance the fruit's acidity. Served over a simple herbed rice, this makes a bright, slightly unexpected dinner that's ready in well under an hour.

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 600 glarge shrimp(peeled and deveined)
• 2 tbspolive oil
• 1 tspfine sea salt
• 0.5 tspblack pepper
• 1.5 cupsjasmine or long-grain rice
• 2.75 cupschicken stock
• 2 tbspfresh parsley(chopped, for rice)
• 1 cuppitted sour cherries(fresh or frozen and thawed)
• 2 tbspred wine vinegar
• 2 tbspbrown sugar
• 2 tbspunsalted butter
• 1 clovegarlic(minced)
• 0.25 cupchicken stock(for the sauce)

Instructions

1. 1

   Cook the rice

   Bring rice and stock to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer 15-18 minutes until tender. Fluff with a fork and stir in parsley.

2. 2

   Sear the shrimp

   Pat shrimp dry and season with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a skillet over high heat and sear shrimp 1.5-2 minutes per side until pink and just cooked through. Remove and set aside.

3. 3

   Build the cherry sauce

   In the same pan, add garlic and cook 20 seconds, then add red wine vinegar to deglaze, scraping up the browned bits.

4. 4

   Reduce with cherries

   Add sour cherries, brown sugar and stock. Simmer 5-6 minutes, mashing a few cherries against the pan, until the sauce thickens slightly and turns deep red.

5. 5

   Finish with butter

   Remove from heat and swirl in butter until glossy.

   Add the butter off the heat and swirl rather than stir, so the sauce stays emulsified instead of separating.

6. 6

   Combine and serve

   Return the shrimp to the pan and toss briefly in the sauce to reheat. Serve over the herbed rice.

Variations

• •

  Use boneless chicken thighs instead of shrimp for a heartier version of the same sauce pairing.

• •

  Add a splash of bourbon to the sauce while it reduces for a deeper, slightly boozy note.

• •

  Swap the herbed rice for wild rice for a nuttier, more textured base.

Storage

Refrigerate shrimp, sauce and rice separately for up to 2 days. Reheat the sauce gently on the stovetop, then toss in the shrimp just until warmed to avoid overcooking.

Frequently Asked Questions