Fresh creek shrimp folded into rice that has steamed in shrimp stock and bacon drippings — the coastal cousin of chicken perloo, born where the rice fields met the tidewater shrimp.
On the Gullah Geechee coast, Black shrimpers worked the creeks and sounds, and shrimp perloo turned a day's catch into a pot that fed the whole house. It is salt-marsh food: the rice from the old fields, the shrimp from the tide.
Shrimp deliver lean, high-quality protein with selenium, iodine, and B12 at very few calories, plus a modest dose of marine omega-3s — a heart- and thyroid-supportive protein that costs little fat. The dish's weakness is the white-rice base and the bacon fat: push parboiled or red rice, render only a little smoked-pork fat or use smoked turkey for flavor, and control the rice portion. Cook-and-cool the rice for resistant starch if blood sugar is a concern. Shellfish carry dietary cholesterol but have little saturated fat, so for most people the limiting factor is the rice and the salt, not the shrimp.
Make a quick stock from the shrimp shells. Render a little bacon or smoked-pork fat, build the trinity, add rice and the shrimp stock, steam until nearly dry, then fold in raw peeled shrimp in the last 4-5 minutes so they poach gently in the steam and stay tender. Overcooked shrimp turn rubbery — pull the pot the moment they curl and turn opaque.
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