Shrimp and Grits

Shrimp and grits will follow you throughout your career much like most southern food. The recipe that follows is what I use when I need a quick shrimp and grit recipe. I may go as far to create my own dashi, use a roasted shrimp stock, or use a mushroom jus to deglaze. Sometimes you just want sausage, shrimp, and grits! For that, I’ve got a great recipe for you.

Recipe:

• 8 ounces smoked breakfast sausage
• 3 roasted roma tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic
• 1 teaspoon chopped shallot
• 5-7 large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1/3 cup cream
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• Kosher salt
• Fresh ground pepper

Instructions:

1. Preheat an oven to 400°F/204°C. Split roma tomatoes in half, toss in olive oil, salt, and pepper, then roast for 45 minutes.
2. Cook the sausage in a large skillet over medium-high heat, stirring frequently until browned and broken up into small pieces. Add the garlic and shallot and cook until fragrant.
3. Add the white wine and cook until reduced. Add the roma tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Add the cream and the shrimp and reduce until thick. Finish with lemon juice and herbs. Serve over grits.

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Shrimp and grits will follow you throughout your career much like most southern food. The recipe that follows is what I use when I need a quick shrimp and grit recipe. I may go as far to create my own dashi, use a roasted shrimp stock, or use a mushroom jus to deglaze. Sometimes you just want sausage, shrimp, and grits! For that, I’ve got a great recipe for you. If I am going to go above and beyond, my favorite preparation of shrimp and grit includes using an extraordinary amount of mushrooms and seafood stock in the form of shrimp stock or dashi. To me, those flavors really pull together the entire dish with their umami attributes.

Grits. If you’ll notice, I don’t include a grit recipe because there are a number of different factors that could affect the quality of the grits. In most cases, grit labels will come with recommended cooking instructions. I always say use about 1/4 cup less liquid than recommended and adjust from there. It’s easier to add more liquid than it is to take away. I live by a couple rules of grits in my kitchen.

• They need to be thick, but creamy.
• Stir stir stir stir.
• If you are going to use heirloom grits, the emphasis needs to be the flavor of corn, and not dairy.

The last point is really the only controversial part. There are many people who are familiar with instant grits that lack flavor. To supplement the lack of flavor, these grits are paired with cheese, cream, and butter. So much to the point that they’re closer to tasting like those ingredients than corn. I believe that if you’re going to use great grits, that they need to taste like corn. Using just enough cream and butter to pull texture and flavor, but not enough to mute it.

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