Monday, May 28, 2012

a southern classic

Yankees quite often associate grits with the poor quality, flavorless, pasty-white glue served in second-rate diners. That pile of goo is not what grits are all about. Those are likely instant grits, which are to real grits what instant oatmeal is to Irish steel cut oats. In both cases, the real deal takes some time and care to prepare, but the difference is clear to even a mildly discerning palate. Jim thought he didn't like grits, so I had never tried to prepare them for him. Then he went to a wedding on St. Simons Island in Georgia, and had the Crabdaddy's version of shrimp and grits. He came back a convert. So I went to their website and read the description of the dish to try and recreate it. Their version differs a bit from a typical Low Country SC shrimp and grits in that they toss everything in a parmesan cream sauce and serve it over two sauteed grit cakes. I thought I'd give it a whirl.

The first issue at hand was choosing the cornmeal for the grits. I looked at several different brands, and immediately eliminated both instant and quick cooking grits. I wanted some texture. Finally, I settled on Red Mill whole stone-ground cornmeal, medium grind.
 to make grits, you don't have to buy something labeled "grits"--
just get the best quality corn meal you can find

Since the cornmeal was medium grind, it was going to take awhile to cook. I started with a cup of cream and a 26 ounce carton of chicken broth. I really like Swanson's new unsalted cooking stock. It leaves me in control of the salt content. I stirred in a cup of grits, and whisked to get rid of lumps. I left the mixture over medium low heat for about an hour, stirring every few minutes, adding water as needed to keep it from getting too thick. I wish in hindsight that I had covered the pot. As the grits thicken, they shoot off occasional little molten droplets of cornmeal, which aren't fun to clean up. Better yet, next time I'll just toss everything into a slow cooker, and let them cook on their own for several hours. After the grits are soft, add in anything you want for flavor. Cheeses are great, as are herbs and spices. Taste for salt and pepper and serve as creamy grits, or pour in a pan and refrigerate to slice and saute as grit patties later.
here I used pecorino romano cheese, chives, a dollop of butter,
and a grating of fresh nutmeg

First lesson in grit patties--make the grits a little stiffer than you would if you were serving straight from the pan. Mine were too loose, and never set up very well, so the patties were difficult to fry.
these were a bit too soft, and difficult to brown, but they 
tasted good

The "shrimp" part of the equation was easy. I just gently sauteed the shrimp and set them aside, crisped up some spicy kielbasa sausage, and made a Parmesan cream sauce, which was just Parmesan and cream with a little salt and pepper. The Crabdaddy menu describes the dish as having mushrooms and tomato, so I added a bit of diced fresh tomato and a cup or so of sauteed sliced mushrooms. Though the menu description didn't include onion, I pulled one up from the garden, minced it and sauteed it along with the mushrooms, and chopped the greens for garnish.
it isn't traditional to use a cream sauce for shrimp and grits,
but a little bit of heresy never hurt the Southern sensibility  

 My second mistake with this dish was to not thicken the cream sauce by making a roux at the beginning. When making something like this for a pasta, it's desirable to keep the sauce on the lighter side (yes, I know this is not "light" from a caloric standpoint--I am referring to the body of the sauce), tossing in the slightly undercooked pasta and letting it finish in the sauce, and absorb and thicken the sauce. That isn't how it works with polenta (grits and polenta are literally the same thing, despite what confusion you run into out there on the web.Corn meal mush is the same thing, too.) The sauce was a bit runny.
 first try at this amped version of shrimp and grits was
tasty, but if I go round two, I'll tweak a few things


Perhaps next time around, I'll make the more traditional sauce, which is broth-based. I'll definitely make the grits again. The crispy little cakes are delicious.

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