In the particular religion of making grits, eating anything instant or "easy" is just plain bad karma. Any grit-loving individual would obviously choose coarse stone ground grits instead. The difference is in the taste and texture!
Starting off as a simple breakfast food, grits are now on many menus, and have been fancied up and are served for brunch, lunch and dinner (all of the above three work for me). What I found about shrimp and grits recipes, were that you can really add any ingredients you want to them. The variations are endless- spicy, buttery, sausage.. all ways delicious!
Here's what I did...
Grits: The directions on the package are usually accurate and very easy - I just followed them to make the grits but I'll re-post them here as well.
-1 cup coarse stone ground grits
-4 cups of water
-2 pats of butter
-1 tsp of salt
-1 tsp of pepper
If you're a bit of a health buff like I am, you can use low fat or light butter- or even butter substitutes.. that's what I did, and you end up at the same delicious conclusion.
When all ingredients are in the pot, bring the water to a full boil. Once at a boil, bring it to a simmer, and let the grits sit and get delicious for about 25 - 30 minutes...
Shrimp:
-1/2 lb or (depending on how many people you're serving) less of shrimp.
-EVOO
-Garlic
-Cayenne pepper / red pepper flakes (optional)
-Cajun seasoning (also optional- depending on how spicy you want your shrimp)
-Salt & pepper
Cooking the shrimp was really easy. You'll want to wait about 15-20 minutes into cooking the grits before starting the shrimp because they cook faster than the grits, and you don't want to be putting cold shrimp on top of your grits.
First thing to do is to heat up some extra virgin olive oil- I used about 3-4 tbs. Just enough to cover the pan. After it's heated up, you'll want to get about 2 cloves of garlic, and make sure they're minced very well; once minced and the olive oil is heated, you saute the garlic until it gets lightly browned, be careful not to let the garlic burn!
Next you add in the shrimp. When I purchased my shrimp, they were already cleaned- if they're not cleaned, you'll want to do that BEFORE adding it into the olive oil.
Shrimp only take a few minutes to cook- and if over cooked, they become tough and rubbery. That would be dreadful, because there is nothing better than biting into a delicious crunchy shrimp. Medium shrimp (2-3 inches long) only take about 2-3 minutes, however larger shrimp- take about 3-5 minutes.
Once shrimp is in the pot, you'll want to add your spices. I used all of the above, if you're not big on spicy things then you can skip the parts where it adds in Cajun seasoning along with the red pepper flakes and cayenne pepper. I, on the other hand, LOVE spicy food. So as you can imagine, I loaded up.
After all is said and done, you'll want to put your grits in a bowl, scoop some shrimp and just add them to the top- maybe sprinkle some red pepper flakes and add a sprig of parsley for decorations and enjoy!
With Crumbs,
/K
