G

Shrimp and Grits (with extra Garlic)

We were low on inspiration this past week, so we only had a single G-inspired dish.  But what a dish it was.

My extended family comes from South Carolina, a place I shun for almost everything except its beaches and cuisine.  Grits is definitely a southern dish, and shrimp and grits even moreso.  I know someone is bound to say, "North Carolina is still The South."  That's all well and good, but I first encountered this dish in SC, and I think it's more highly celebrated down there.  A lot of places can claim ownership of barbeque, for instance.  But I think SC can claim shrimp and grits.

Also, we got the recipe from a small book entitled "A Taste of the South Carolina Coast : Restaurant Recipes."  By Phyllis C. Myers.  This was salvaged from some family member's house, and its cover was completely missing.  There's nothing quite like an arcane concoction from a musty tome.

Now, you can use any old grits and be satisfied, but we were lucky enough to have some from a mountain backwoods mill.  I believe it made the dish heartier than the bleached white grits you get at the grocery store these days.

Here's the recipe:
11th St. Dockside Restaurant
1699 11th Street West
Port Royal

Cook two servings of grits according to box directions, let stand until thick and set aside.  Peel and clean 12 large shrimp, wash in cold water and dry on a paper towel.  Heat 4 tbsp of butter in a large skillet.  Sautee1/2 tsp. fresh garlic, 2 oz. chopped green onions, 2 oz. chopped Tasso ham and 2 oz. of fresh tomatoes.  Add a pinch of chopped fresh basil and 1 tbsp. of chopped parsley.  Add shrimp and cook until pink, then add 2 oz. flour and stir for 1 minute.  Slowly stir in 1 cup milk using a wisk to blend.  Cook slowly on low heat for 2 minutes.  Serve over grits.  Makes two servings.

We made a couple of adjustments.  First, I'm lactose intolerant, so the butter was replaced with ghee.  Second, we didn't have any Tasso ham (which does not come from the ham portion of a pig, by the way), so we used some andouille sausage.  Third, we used more garlic than was orignally called for.  And fourth, the shrimp was anything but fresh - we used frozen shrimp.  De-tailed and de-veined already.

But the end result was awesome.  Shrimp and grits is a great comfort food, and we made it on Saturday after a brief snowfall the night before.  The perfect meal for a cold day.  We complimented it with a cheap white wine.  Let me explain.  There is more than one recipe for shrimp and grits in the little cookbook we used, and Mary had gotten some cheap white wine as an ingredient for one of them.  Who wants to use expensive wine for cooking?  But it was the wrong recipe.  We had already uncorked the wine before we started cooking, so there was really only one option - to drink it.

As an epilogue to this tale, we ate the leftovers the next morning for breakfast.  Yum!