Marie-Grace's Shrimp and Grits

We've found a tasty new way to change up fish night!

As I've mentioned many a time before, I am definitely north of the Mason-Dixon line. I hesitate to self identify as a yankee because I root for their arch rivals, but let's be honest, it's true. Because of that and the fact that before starting this blog, I wasn't a very adventurous eater, I haven't had a ton of exposure to southern food and somehow, I've lived my entire life without ever seeing grits in person, let alone actually trying them.

I know, I know. Crazy, right?

But Marie-Grace and Cécile have been helping me overcome my fear of preparing French food and expand my relatively limited knowledge of southern food. Since you can't get much more southern than grits, I figured this was a pretty good place to dive right in.

Grits are boiled ground corn, and while I'm sure most people's first thought when they're mentioned is someone like Paula Deen, your first association should be with Native Americans, because they were the first people to introduce the stone ground corn porridge to European settlers. One of the first references to what would come to be known as grits comes from Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584, and there is further evidence that members of the Powhatan confederacy taught the settlers at Jamestown how to make the dish they called rockahomine, which the colonists shortened to hominy.

Last time I was at the Jamestown Settlement (which is not the national historic site with the actual remains of the fort), my mom and I actually got to chat with one of the Powhatan reenactors while he was cooking some hominy in the traditional way. It was really interesting, and I'm sorry I didn't pick his brain more while we were there, I'd love to try and find a way to recreate what he was making!

It's since gained a huge amount of popularity with southern Americans regardless of ethnic background as a side dish and breakfast food.

Now as you guys know, sometimes finding certain ingredients can be a bit of a pain and unfortunately, grits aren't really a popular food where we're from. Obviously, or I probably would have eaten before it my lifetime. There was a moment where we thought we'd have to resort to using instant grits! But fortunately, my mom and I were able to find some of the good stuff at one of the local grocery stores.

 

Thank goodness!

We're using another Food Network recipe today, and it sounded relatively easy to do. Grits take about twenty minutes to cook, which makes them easily the longest part of the whole process, and as I'd never eaten or cooked them before, I'll admit I kind of had no idea what I was doing.

Specifically, I knew it was supposed to get thick, but how thick? It got thick pretty quickly, and I didn't want it to turn into an unmovable block. And was it supposed to be bubbling like an active volcano? Would I need to worry about it bubbling so much we had grits on the ceiling? How was I supposed to know when it finished cooking?

I kept bugging my mom to see if it was finished or not, but otherwise, I'm pretty sure I was over thinking it. It cooked pretty much without issue, and dumping in the cheese and butter once it was done was super easy. You're left with a thick, gooey, cheesy porridge that would probably be totally tasty just by itself if you're not interested in cooking up the shrimp.

I've already discussed at length my abhorrence for cleaning shrimp, but my mom did me a huge favor today by getting them cleaned up for me before I got started on cooking them. This part was definitely sort of a pain in that you had to get a lot of bowls and pans and utensils dirty to get it done right, but the results were tasty enough that I didn't mind.

I'd also definitely like to figure out a better way to time this so the grits and the shrimp are done around the same time, because we did have to reheat the grits before serving to make sure everything was nice and warm on the plate.

My one last comment about this part of the dish in general is that the lemon juice combines with the bacon drippings to make a really nice sauce? But for someone who waffles on whether or not she wants to be health conscious or eat an entire bag of Tostitos without shame, I have to admit, I'd like to find a way to keep the flavor of the sauce that's created without feeling like I'm just drinking bacon fat.

Put some grits down on the plate, place the shrimp mixture on top, and there you go!

Everyone will want to try some. And I mean everyone.

So, what did I think of my first ever experience with grits?

I really liked them! This dish was super flavorful and - while not very Cajun or Creole, obviously - still had a lot going for it, and you can easily add or tweak spices and aromatics as you see fit. I have to admit, next time I'd definitely be interested to see what adding some spice to it would do to the dish. That said, I'd also definitely make this exactly the same way again. My family tries to have fish at least once a week, and this is a fun way to change things up a little from our traditional baked fish and rice pilaf when that gets boring. Not that there's anything wrong with that, either! It's just nice to have some variety.

It's also something you can easily make a healthier spin on - less bacon, less dripping sauce, using low or nonfat cheese in the grits - so it's something you can treat yourself with even if you're being more careful about calorie intake.

So overall, this was a really tasty dinner and I'm glad we decided to give it a shot. It's really not that difficult to prepare and tastes and looks like it was something you labored over for hours, so if you're looking for something to impress someone, definitely keep this recipe in mind. I don't think it will disappoint!

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to make sure my cats don't get the same idea as Argos.