Shrimp & Grits

Low Country cuisine is something of an anomaly. Not quite Southern or Soul Food, and not quite Cajun or Creole -- it's somewhere in between. I've been thinking about Shrimp & Grits for a week or so now and finally got an opportunity to cook some last night.

If you're asking yourself "Shrimp & Grits, what the hell?" Don't feel bad. Many people asked me the same questions as I was eating the leftovers for lunch at the office. It used to be a breakfast thing, in the shrimping towns of the Carolinas. As with all things comfort food, we've turned it into dinner. And a delicious dinner it is.

Shrimp -n- Grits
1lb raw shrimp -- peeled (I used 26-30s, cause they look nice on the plate)
6oz breakfast sausage, or bacon, or chorizo [for that Mexican flair]
1 Can Rotel
1 Can Chicken Broth
1 Cup Grits (yellow, white, quick -- doesn't matter)
1 Cup shredded cheese
1 Onion, diced and divided
1/2 Cup water +-
1 .5 tsp Thyme, divided
1/2 tsp Turmeric
1/4 tsp Cayenne
2 Lemons
Chicken/Shrimp stock – maybe a cup or so
S&P to taste
Flour

Take 3/4 of your diced onion and add it to a two quart sauce pan over medium-high. Sauté the onion till it’s translucent and beginning to caramelize. While this is going down, start browning your breakfast sausage/bacon/whathaveyou in a large skillet. As the onion becomes golden, add the turmeric, 1 tsp of the thyme, the can of Rotel -- with juice, the can of chicken broth and the water. Bring this to a boil.

By this point, your sausage/bacon should be browned. Remove it from the pan, and sauté the rest of the onion in whatever leftover grease you have. When your stock/Rotel/onion mixture comes to a boil, add your grits and cook as the directions on the package dictate.

I used quick grits, so there wasn't really a whole lot of waiting for me. Basically you want your shrimp gravy to be done at the same time as your grits. If the grits are done first, that's ok -- they'll stay warm. As the grits finish, stir in the 1 cup of shredded cheese.

So, now that you've got some onion browned in bacon grease in the skillet, add some flour (roughly the same amount as fat you estimate to be left in the pan) and make a roux. Cook the roux for a couple of minutes to get the raw taste out of the flour. Then, add a few cubes of the frozen shrimp/chicken stock I'm sure you have at your disposal, Loyal BeefRobot Reader. Your goal is to make enough gravy to poach all the shrimp. As this thickens, add the cayenne and the sausage back in and your raw shrimp. I poached the shrimp in the gravy for 3 minutes or so -- just till they've turned pink and are opaque in the center. Add the last 1/2 tsp of thyme and turn off the heat.

Spoon your grits into the bowl, top with a few shrimp and some of the gravy, and enjoy. A toasty piece of crusty French bread might be nice, for a starch on starch component, but, I served mine with roasted broccoli.

--BeefRobot