cook: shrimp and scallops grits

It's a new year, and so I'm trying to use up what's in my pantry and freezer as well as purge outdated foods. I felt a bit guilty anbout packages dated from 2 years ango. While  assessing what’s on shelves and in drawers, I found grits or polenta in my pulses and grain drawer and a bag of shrimp and package of bacon in the freezer. Shrimp 'n grits, which is probably why I bought the grits in the first place. I grated some Kerrygold cheddar cheese and started frying the bacon. The last time I remember cooking this dish, I used a whole pound of bacon and all the grease too for the dish. It was so very rich, but we devoured all in one pass.

 

I peeled the shrimp and used the shells to make a broth in which to cook the grits. Since I didn't have enough shrimp, I added some scallops to the seafood mix.

 

I wanted to add as much vegetable and citrus as possible to the dish, and so I chopped a lot of scallions and parsley and halved a lemon and then decided to also serve Swiss chard alongside the seafood and grits. I didn't anticipate the 20 to 25 minutes to cook the grits and was late at serving dinner, but added cheese and cream for some extra richness and to make up for not using all the bacon fat.

I sautéed the chard in a bit of bacon fat and garlic and decided to add red wine vinegar for a little tang and finally added the scallions and parsley to the grits rather than serve and scatter the herbs on top.

I then sautéed the shrimp and scallops in a little more bacon fat and squeezed half a lemon on to the seafood and let Patrick and myself spoon the grits in to our bowls and scoop seafood au jus and bacon bits on top.

I think I enjoyed the sautéed Swiss chard the most. There's about a cup of corn grits left in my pantry, but I don't know if I would ever want to cook this dish again. I might just toss and compost the grits, which is so awfully wasteful. Golly I wish I had hogs that I could feed the corn to. But wait. I just watched an episode of Ina Garten serving meatballs atop polenta, and so that's the plan of what to do with the last of the corn grits.