A New Family Favorite

About a month before I started my blog, Mike and I made Shrimp and Grits for the first time. Since this was recipe that helped lead me to the idea of having a food blog, I decided to invite our parents over and blog about the recipe at long last.

I have never tried shrimp and grits anywhere else, but the following recipe would be hard to beat in my opinion. You have creamy, cheesy, slightly spicy grits topped with a sauce mixture of crispy bacon and tender shrimp—how could you possible improve perfection? Mike even commented after this time around that this is one of his favorite meals I make now.

We adjust 2 things: we double the amount of grits. The amount made here just doesn’t seem like enough for the amount of shrimp made. When doubling the grits, we used an 8-ounce block of cheese, which seemed about perfect to us.

Variation Two: we only use 2 jalapeños instead of 5. That leaves it plenty spicy for Mike and not so spicy it burns my mouth. When we doubled the shrimp recipe for company, I used 3 jalapeños instead of 4 because the ones I bought were so very large.

I found this recipe in Recipes Worth Sharing, but you can also find in it original book, Toast of the Coast from the Junior League of Jacksonville.

Mayport Shrimp and Grits

Grits1½ cups chicken stock

½ cup milk

½ cup stone-ground or quick-cooking grits

1 tablespoon butter

1 to 1½ cups (4 to 6 ounces) shredded extra-sharp Vermont white Cheddar cheese

1 to 2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Salt and black pepper to taste

Shrimp

6 to 8 slices bacon, chopped

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1 sweet onion, chopped

5 jalapeño chiles, seeded and chopped

½ cup dry white wine [we used Sutter Home pinot grigio]

3 tomatoes, chopped

1 teaspoon paprika

1 to 2 tablespoons Old Bay seasoning

Salt and pepper to taste

1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined

¼ cup finely chopped parsley

½ cup sliced scallions

For the grits, bring the stock and milk to a boil in a saucepan. Whisk in the grits and cook until thick, stirring frequently. Stir in the butter, cheese, cayenne pepper, and salt and black pepper.

For the shrimp, cook the bacon in a large skillet until crisp. Add the garlic, onion and jalapeños. Sauté over medium heat until the onion is golden brown. Add the wine, stirring to loosen any browned bits from the bottom of the skillet. Cook over medium-high heat for 3 to 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Stir in the tomatoes, paprika, Old Bay, salt and pepper. Add the shrimp. Cook for 5 minutes or until the shrimp turn pink. Remove from the heat. Stir in the parsley and scallions. Serve over the grits. [The original recipe also drains the shrimp mixture before serving it over the grits, but Mike and I like the sauce, so we don't drain anything]