Cooking: Shrimp and Grits

During my stint at Arrowmont in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, I ate shrimp and grits for the first time.  I love Southern food and remember my first time eating an oyster po'boy, but that'll be for another post.  And so I found Bobby Flay's recipe.  It's awfully rich.  The key to cooking for me is the mise en place, and so I prepped all the ingredients beforehand:  peeled and de-veined shrimp, minced garlic and chopped scallions and bacon, grated cheddar cheese, butter and stone ground grits or polenta.  I forgot to have the 4 teaspoons of lemon juice ready, and such unctuousness really needs that hit of acid.

First, I sauteed the chopped bacon until crisp and drained off the fat except for a tablespoon.

Next I boiled 4 cups of water, poured in the grits, and kept whisking until the water was absorbed about 20 to 25 minutes.

Next I added the butter and grated cheddar cheese, still whisking furiously.

Once the butter and cheese are incorporated into the grits, I set it aside.

In the reserved bacon grease, I added the garlic and shrimp and cook for 3 minutes.  Not only did I forget to have lemon juice ready, I should have also added the white parts of the scallions at this stage too.

I had poured the cooked grits into a casserole dish already and then topped it with the cooked shrimp, which I probably should have cooked for a minute less longer because the shrimp continues to cook in the residual heat of the pan and the grits.

I then topped the shrimp and grits with the crisped bacon and chopped scallions.  We squeezed lemon on the prepared dish, and next time I'll cook the whites of the scallion with the shrimp as well as the forgotten lemon juice and reserve the chopped green tops for the final dish to serve with additional lemon.  I'll make it again for sure, but shrimp and grits is one of those dishes I think we'll only eat once or twice a year because it's so decadent.  However, I'm now a fan of polenta and want to try it with braised short ribs in wine.