i am like a mad scientist these days with my meals. and why not? i've got nothing better to do and maybe i can learn a few things to impress my friends at a later date. tonight i decided - shrimp and cheesy grits sounded like a good thing to try. i found a kick ass recipe by my home girl paula deen and i went for it!
after work i stopped by klein's seafood and picked up some shrimp. since i was dining solo and didn't want to spend a lot of money on too much food that i couldn't eat i opted for 1/4 pound of shrimp. this is what that looks like:
ha! it's only 6 prawns. it was only like $2 though so that was sweet.
thankfully my ol' friend gin gave me some delicious carolina stone ground grits a while ago. i've only tried them two other times and i just made them like it says on the bag and added a lil' butter at the end. the cheesy, creamy grits i was going for were something brand new. woohoo! so exciting!
according to paula if i have everything chopped and ready to go it only takes about 15 minutes. look - it's just like a cooking show!
instead of just using water i boiled a cup of water and a cup of milk. once it was going i added the grits. paula says it should only take 10 to 15 minutes for all the water to be absorbed but other recipes i investigated said it could take up to an hour. i put 'em on low and let them do their thing. in the end it took about 30-40 minutes.
in the meantime i started frying some bacon and went to my trusty old better homes and gardens cookbook to review my old stuffed pepper recipe for the sunday cousin's dinner i'll be hosting. it was my first cookbook. it was just at the house and honestly i don't know where it came from. anyways, it's old. and used. well worn.
see - look how often i made stuffed peppers. and see those notes? i must've made those when i was about 16 or 17. memories.......
now - back to the grits. they were looking good and my bacon was nice and crispy. i took the grits off the heat and threw in some butter and a bunch of sharp cheddar cheese. i stirred it all up and put the lid on. i took the bacon out of the greasy pan and threw in the shrimp.
mmmmmm. anything tastes great cooked in bacon grease.
after about 2-3 minutes when the shrimp was pink i added some chopped green onions, garlic, and some fresh squeezed lemon juice. i turned off the heat and just stirred it around for another minute or two.
then i threw it all together. i decided to pair this lovely meal with a labatt blue since i picked up a 12-pack for only $8.99. score!
things i would do differently next time - less grits, more shrimp, and even though i love bacon grease i'd tone that down a bit too. not too bad on my first go round though. i just may serve a different version - perhaps this one - as the appetizer for the cousin's sunday dinner.
2 comments:
that's one big-ass bag o' grits. you'll be 83 before you finish it off.
yea, i had to give up. i made it less than a 1/4 of the way through it. i've brought it in my lunch every day since. lesson learned.
Post a Comment