Howdy neighbors! How do? Why’nt you sit down right chere and listen up. I’m fixin’ ta make some viddles that will knock you cattywampus. It’ll plumb knock yer britches off!

It’ll shore nuff do you citified folks proper, I aim to tell ya.

Jesus Christ.

You think like that long enough and the next thing you know you’ll be buying an F-250 with a confederate flag and a Trump sticker on it.

Enough of that shit. Fuck man, I just freaked my own damn self out. I promise to do the rest of this in a more genteel manner with the usual obscenities sprinkled in for good measure.

Welcome back to Sunday Gravy! We have officially reached the point in the proceedings where I’m breaking out the brand new shit. Yep. New to you AND new to me. Today we’re making shrimp and grits and I’ve never even attempted this recipe before. Shit, man. I’ve never even made a pot of grits before. I shit you negative! I’ve had this dish before and just fucking loved it and I’ve eaten my share of grits throughout life but never really felt overly compelled to make them at home.

We’re going in full throttle and we’re going to learn this shit together.

Origin and reflection time!

Remember back in the early days of this site, our home, I did a travelogue on a trip I took to Memphis? One morning we had breakfast at the Peabody Hotel, yes the hotel with the ducks, and as a group we all split an order of shrimp and grits. I was fucking floored by it. I’ve been aware of this odd Southern food staple for awhile but that was the first time sampling it. It’s an amazing balance of flavors and textures and I will get more into the food porn descriptions later. Suffice to say, if it’s on a menu now? I’m going to order it. The Peabody also made a wicked batch of pimento cheese, another fine Southern staple.

For some odd reason I never considered making this dish at home and I was completely incorrect thinking it would be a challenging dish. It is not. This would go into the “Easy as fuck” category of Sunday Gravy recipes.

A quick suggestion? If you ever visit New Orleans look for this dish there. I know it’s more of a Georgia, Carolinas, Low Country dish but seeing as how New Orleans has the best goddamn shrimp on the planet (no fucking lie) it might be worth seeking out down in the Big Easy.

As someone who is truly Southern at heart, I’m a big fan of Southern cooking as you regular readers will already know. I don’t dabble in it too often and the only times I do now are strictly for Sunday Gravy reasons.

You may look at the name and think “Shrimp and grits? You know? That could be a light, healthy dinner to put together.”

You would be so fucking wrong!

This is a Southern dish remember?

In the South, this…

is a blood type.

Relax. It’s totally fine to make this. Just don’t have it on a weekly basis, that’s all.

As mentioned before this stuff is entry level easy to put together but you do need to be a bit discerning about your choice of ingredients. There are just a handful of ingredients in this dish so let’s break down the main players and do this shit proper.

Grits.

Must be stone ground and not that instant shit. I ordered mine through Amazon Prime and they shipped them to me from North Carolina. The cheese in the picture is a nice aged English cheddar and a Marco Polo cheese. That is a soft cheese with cracked pepper corns. No, this cheese didn’t make it in the recipe. It made it in mah belly!

Honestly, I didn’t even check my local grocery store to see if they had stone ground grits since there just isn’t that high of a demand in L.A. for stone ground grits. Plus Amazon Prime motherfuckers!

Shrimp.

Extra large raw shrimp. I guess you could use precooked but the name of this dish is Shrimp and Grits. Don’t you think we should treat the two prime ingredients with the reverence they deserve?

Goddamn right.

Peel and devein the shrimp. Yes, that means removing the poop canal that runs along the spine of the shrimp. You don’t know what that shrimp has eaten! Not to mention you probably don’t want to know. Fun story! On one of my trips to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina one of our waiters told us that the year after Katrina saw one of the largest shrimp crops ever. Makes you feel good inside knowing what these little fuckers were chompin’ down on doesn’t it? Wasn’t it just a moment ago when I told you that New Orleans has the best shrimp anywhere? It’s possible I was snacking on some partial remnants of someone’s Aunt Bessie.

Fuck it. They were delicious.

Shrimp and Grits!

1 pound of extra large raw shrimp. Peeled and deveined.

1 cup of stone ground grits.

2 cups of chicken stock.

2 cups of water.

8 ounces of sharp cheddar cheese shredded.

3 tablespoons of butter.

6 slices of bacon. Use a good quality bacon here.

Juice of 1/2 fresh lemon.

2 tablespoons of chopped parsley.

1 cup of scallions, white and green parts.

2 cloves of garlic minced.

1 teaspoon of essence.

1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce.

Let’s go ahead and get started on making the grits. Using a pot, you don’t want non-stick here because we will be doing some whisking, add in the chicken stock and water and get to a boil. Add in the cup of grits and bring to a medium-low boil. Important tip #1. Just as you add the grits into the boiling water/stock get a whisk and whisk the everloving shit out of them. I was told that the first few moments of cooking are when lumps can form and if they form they don’t “un-lump” later. Whisk the grits smooth right at the start and you should be good for the duration.

Additional note: you could use all water here but remember the old rule of adding flavor along the way? That’s why the 50/50 water to stock ratio here. Every few minutes or so give these things a whisk and we will cook them for about 20-25 minutes ON A LOW SIMMER until the liquid is absorbed and the grits reach a nice smooth, creamy texture. Mine cooked about 25 minutes. Turn off heat and remove the pot from the stove.

Next add in the butter and the cheese.

Now whisk everything together. See? I told you this was easy. I didn’t mention the coronary bypass afterwards though.

There you go. Cheesy grits!

On to the other portion of our meal.

The shrimp stuff:

Let’s get that bacon and get it on the sizzle.

This was some fine ass bacon. I used thick cut apple wood smoked bacon. It was lean and delicious and of course I ate a piece just to make sure it was cooked properly. Cook until crispy.

Now let’s go ahead and get the rest of our ingredients prepped and ready.

There’s the cooked bacon, the chopped garlic, parsley and scallions and the seasonings about ready to jump in the pool. First though? We have to cook the cleaned shrimp.

Guess what?

They’re going directly into the bacon grease.

Shit howdy!

Season with the essence and cook until the shrimp are cooked through and pink. You’ll need to turn once. Notice how the shrimp kind of makes it’s own stock? That’s fucking cool as shit.

Then we are going to add in the scallions, (if you haven’t noticed by now, green onion works fine too) the parsley, the garlic, the crushed or chopped bacon, the Worcestershire and the lemon juice. Go ahead and juice the lemon prior so you aren’t tempted to squeeze the lemon over the pan and the seeds would all go shooting in.

Give everything a stir and cook for just a minute or two until everything has been mixed together.

The way this breaks down is this; spoon some of the grits on to your serving plate or bowl. Next spoon on the shrimp/bacon concoction and just ladle it right on top of the grits. Reserve some of the bacon bits and some parsley and use them to garnish over the top of the dish.

Yes, we are using bacon as a garnish. AGAIN!

Let’s look at that picture again.

I’m almost at a loss to describe this dish. The best that I can come up with is this dish is a fucking symphony of flavors and everything works in perfect balance. It’s rich and creamy and salty and crunchy and there’s a bit of a brininess from the shrimp, a little heat from the essence, that oniony bite from the scallions works, the garlic fits right in. It hits every flavor note and not a single note is in discord.

I think I’m most proud of the fact that I nailed this fucker on my very first try including the consistency of the grits. When you’re cooking something that is “new to you” as it all starts to come together you will often think “There’s no fucking way that this can be bad.”

This was not bad.

This was goddamn magical.

I’ve given out several dishes in the last few weeks and this may be the new leader in the clubhouse.

Make this shit.

Consume this dish.

Repeat.

Much love to y’all.

Peace!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmoXCTPdBEE