Shrimp and Grits

When I came back from Augusta in April I brought back damn near every kind of grits I could get my hands on. I think all told I ended up with about six different kinds. While I haven't spent a ton of time down South, I have definitely gained a tremendous affinity for their food.

If you want to extend the life of grits, storing them in your freezer will keep them fresh for twice as long. Now I don't know how things are at your house, but in our's freezer space is at an absolute premium. Anytime I can pull out a package of short ribs, or a pint of ice cream I actually feel a sense of accomplishment. Grits on the other hand, don't really give you that same feeling. I typically only scoop out a half a cup at time for the two of us.

Shrimp and Grits

Love her or hate her, Paula Deen has a really good shrimp and grits recipe that's easy to make and came out perfectly for us. Link to recipe here. I've found that I prefer my grits to have a 4:1 liquid to grits ratio (which she calls for). Anson Mills calls for 3:1, but I just find them to be too gummy. I cut the recipe in half and it translated just fine. The good news is if you split this in half there's only 2 tablespoons of butter - the bad news is that there's an entire cup of grated extra sharp cheddar, or is that good news, too?.

At any rate, once you've taken care of the mise en place, this is about as self explanatory as it gets. It's simple. It's fast. And it's pretty damn good.

The Cage Free Tomato put up a post about his trip down to South Carolina. It's pretty cool. Check it out here.