SHRIMP AND GRITS

What’s for dinner? No plan for tonight. While looking through a cookbook I really enjoy entitled THE 150 BEST AMERICAN RECIPES BY Fran McCullough & Molly Stevens, I found a recipe for SHRIMP AND GRITS. Looking over the list of ingredients, I saw I had on hand every ingredient needed for the recipe.

There are probably as many recipes for SHRIMP AND GRITS as there are small and large towns in the Deep South. Some add cheese to the grits, or cream, or milk. Others do not. The recipe came from the back of a bag of grits originally appearing in BILL NEAL’S SOUTHERN COOKING. The grits are good with the addition of cheddar cheese and parmesan, and a pat of butter. They were a bit stiff and I wished I had added a bit of milk or cream to them to loosen them up.

True, grits are an acquired taste. People either love them or won’t even try them. The texture doesn’t have the body of rice. They are heavier than a hot breakfast cereal.

I grilled some shrimp last night but had done too many, so they were in the fridge. The recipe called for lightly browning bacon, then removing it from the pan. In either a bit of peanut oil or if you chose, the bacon grease, mushrooms are sauteed along with crushed garlic, and sliced scallions. Lemon juice and parsley completed the mix, with the shrimp tossed in to heat at the end. The lemon juice added a light tone to the flavor and the parsley helped the color. You will notice, I did the saute mixture in the “everything pot”. The high sides keep the bit of fat from splashing out as it would in a shallower pan, like a frying pan, so the stove stays clean.

At the end, the mushroom and shrimp mixture gets put over the grits, with the bacon sprinkled on top. Overall, the flavors were good — a satisfying dinner that didn’t take long to make.

I have the cookbook from Magnolias Restaurant in Charleston. I checked their recipe for SHRIMP AND GRITS and found what was missing in the one I made: a sauce or gravy. MAGNOLIAS included Tasso Gravy. Tasso is a pork product with a rub on it that apparently is very flavorful and forms the background base for the gravy’s flavor.

Eating at Magnolias Restaurant in Charleston is a pleasant experience. When Patty and I ate there on one of our trips, I had SHRIMP AND GRITS. Not sure if Patty ordered the same or not. I believe that like the recipe in the book, they add sausage to their dish.

Richmond can hold its own with SHRIMP AND GRITS. Once, wanting to eat between films we chose to see at the French Film Festival, my friend and I took a break and went to a restaurant within walking distance of the Byrd Theatre. I believe it was The White Dog. Though the restaurant was in the lull between lunch and dinner, they allowed us to go in and eat because we were at the festival. The dish is exceptionally good. It had a sauce, 6 very large shrimp with tails on, and the grits were made with cream. A great rendering of SHRIMP AND GRITS.

When Patty and I were in Charleston on the trip that included Magnolias, we stepped into the Tourist Center gift shop where we struck up a conversation with a very nice woman working there. We asked her about SHRIMP AND GRITS, and she commented that her favorite sauce was a brown sauce, not a red sauce.

I made this dish before, but it was a long time ago. Next time, I’ll make a sauce to go with it.