Blackened Shrimp with Pomegranate-Orange Salsa

You can get a printable copy of this Cooking Light recipe here. 

I made this recipe last night for dinner. It was very simple, as you will see, but actually turned out to be incredibly painful for me as well. Yes, you read that right painful. 

Let me preface this by telling you I had never worked with jalapenos before last night. I've heard from a co-worker who makes pepper jelly that you must wear gloves when making the jelly--which is advice I failed to follow. In my defense I thought chopping and seeding just one little pepper wouldn't be a big deal and that gloves were probably only necessary when working for long periods of time or with mass quantities. It wasn't until about an hour later when my thumb began to burn--which eventually lead to me being up all night trying home remedies (rubbing alcohol, followed by an ice pack worked best)--that I realized I was SO wrong!! 

I still can not believe I did not wear gloves, um, hello Colleen?! Stupid, stupid, stupid. Anyway, please learn from my mistake and spare yourself the pain!

Ingredients

Salsa:

• 2  cups  pomegranate seeds (about 4 pomegranates)
• 1  cup  finely chopped orange sections (about 2 oranges)
• 1/3  cup  chopped green onions
• 2  tablespoons  minced seeded jalapeño pepper (dangerous little fella!)
• 2  tablespoons  chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/4  teaspoon  salt

 Shrimp:

• 1  tablespoon  paprika
• 2  teaspoons  ground cumin
• 1  teaspoon  garlic powder
• 1  teaspoon  dried oregano
• 3/4  teaspoon  dried thyme
• 3/4  teaspoon  ground red pepper
• 1/2  teaspoon  salt
• 1/2  teaspoon  ground allspice
• 36  large shrimp, peeled and deveined (about 1 1/2 pounds) (I made this just for the two of us, so I only used 20 shrimp, although we could have eaten more)
• 5  teaspoons  olive oil, divided

Now that you've got what you need, let's get started! 

Begin by preparing the first 6 ingredients; pomegranate seeds, orange sections, green onions, jalapeño pepper, fresh cilantro and salt. Combine these in a medium sized bowl.

Next, combine paprika and the next 7 ingredients (through allspice) in a large zip-top plastic bag. Like my cute snowman bags? I have a ton still, so expect to see them popping up well through the new year!

 Add shrimp to bag; seal and shake well to coat. Remove shrimp from bag.

Heat half the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add half of shrimp mixture; cook 2 minutes on each side or until done. Repeat with the remaining oil and shrimp. After removing the shrimp from the pan I sliced off all the tails.

I served the shrimp over a bead of basmati rice...

 and topped it all off with the beautiful salsa. Aren't the colors just beautiful?

I gave this recipe a bit of a bad wrap because of my troubles with the pepper, but it really was a wonderful recipe that we both enjoyed. The flavors were right on. I will make it again for sure, but next time I will wear gloves.