Shrimp and Grits

According to all the history I can find, shrimp and grits was a breakfast meal in the low country.  It was as simple as its name.  While the grits were cooking, someone would head to the docks to buy freshly caught shrimp.  The shrimp would be boiled or cooked in bacon grease and then be served with the grits.  A great combination to get you through the day until supper.


As time went on, people started adding things to improve the flavor.  Eventually, restaurants got into the shrimp and grits game and most every chef will have their own take on the dish.  Today, shrimp and grits is a lunch or supper meal instead of a breakfast meal.  Just like chefs playing with the dish, most people have their own take on it though most are fairly similar.


A word on grits, use real grits for this dish.  The boy called a couple of weeks ago to relay something he'd found in a cook book.  He has inherited from both the good wife and me a love of good cooking and acquiring cook books.  He was looking for a recipe for shrimp and grits and found one in a Southern Living cook book that called for instant grits.  He knew that the proper thing in the grit eating world was regular stone ground grits that take 25 - 30 minutes to cook properly.  Instant and quick grits just don't have the proper flavor, texture, or consistency.


I've seen a few recipes for shrimp and grits that use sausage of some sort but most call for bacon.  Personally, I like using bacon for my shrimp and grits.  I made some Andouille sausage a week ago so I may use some of it for shrimp and grits just to experiment a bit.




Shrimp and Grits


1 lb peeled deveined shrimp, 25 - 30 count
6 slices thick cut bacon
1/2 medium onion, diced small
1/2 bell pepper, diced small
2 - 4 cloves garlic, minced
salt
pepper
cumin
cayenne
2 cups stone ground grits
2 cups water
2 cups whole milk
4 oz sharp cheddar cheese, grated
butter
white wine


For the grits, in a large pot combine the water, milk, and about a tablespoon of salt.  Turn heat to medium to medium-high and bring to a boil.  Slowly add the grits stirring constantly to avoid clumps.  Once the grits are fully stirred in bring the pot down to a simmer and put the lid on.  Stir every 3 - 5 minutes until the grits are tender and most of the liquid has been absorbed.  This can take from 20 - 30 minutes.  Once the grits are done, stir in the grated cheddar cheese a bit at a time for easier melting.


The shrimp can be done either with the tails or without.  Season them with salt, pepper, cumin, and cayenne according to your taste and let them sit while the bacon is cooking.  I go a bit light on the cumin and cayenne since I just want a hint of the flavors for the sauce.


In a large skillet, brown the bacon without getting it crispy.  Remove it from the skillet and let cool.  Once cool, chop it into small pieces.  Using the grease rendered from the bacon cook the onions, pepper, and garlic until they are soft and the onion is translucent.  Add the shrimp to the onion and pepper mixture, make sure they are in a single layer to cook uniformly.  Turn the shrimp when they are halfway done and add the bacon back to the skillet.  Add 2 - 3 Tbs of butter to the skillet and let melt then toss or stir to mix the butter in well.  Add about a 1/2 cup of white wine, I use the two glug method, and stir in.  Let the whole mixture simmer until it reduces to a nice sauce.  The sauce won't be thick but it will coat the back of a spoon good.  This should happen about the time the shrimp are done.


Spoon grits into a bowl.  Spoon some of the shrimp onto the grits and then add some of the sauce.  This should serve 4 people.  You can either pile the shrimp in the middle of the grits or line the edge of the bowl with them.  It just depends on the type of presentation you prefer.

A tasty bowl of shrimp and grits

Now, let me tell you how I don't follow my recipe.  I generally slice my bacon before I cook it.  I pull the slices from the package in a solid piece then slice it about 1/4 inch wide sections.  I put the sections in the skillet cut side down.  Once the bacon has been cooking for a bit, I mash the sections with my tongs and the individual pieces separate nicely.  I find I can get a more even color and doneness than doing whole slices.  I also use a bit of shrimp broth to cook my grits.  Whenever we have shrimp, the shell and tails get put in a bag in the freezer.  When I want shrimp and grits or gumbo, I dump the shrimp parts in the pressure cooker, cover them with water, and 30 minutes later I have some wonderfully shrimp broth.  For shrimp and grits, I substitute 1 cup of shrimp broth for 1 cup water.  I just want the hint of shrimp in the grits.  Another thing you can do, especially if you want a bit more bite to your grits is use some buttermilk in place of whole milk.  I tend to reserve this for when I'm short on sharp cheddar and don't want to run to the store to get more.  I also generally use 2 or 3 of the small sweet peppers that come in a mixed bag of yellow, orange, and red.  I have these on hand most times and I like the color variation.  I'll also pull some onions from the garden and use both the white and green part.


A variation I have used is to use some of my Sriracha bacon.  Since the Sriracha flavor is not really pronounced in my bacon I added a squirt of Sriracha to the skillet while I was building the sauce.  It turned out really nice and flavorful.


This is a rather simple recipe and a dish that lends itself to experimentation.  The only hard part is finding the patience to make a good pot of grits.  An old school Southerner won't consider it difficult to properly cook grits because that's what we grew up with.  If you want to know how seriously the South takes their grits, review the movie My Cousin Vinny.  Here's a quote from the movie, "No self-respectin' Southerner uses instant grits. I take pride in my grits."


So, give this recipe a try and let me know how you like shrimp and grits.


Uncle T

Pork Belly Soup

Is there anything so glorious as the pig?  OK, maybe not so glorious while they are running around as a pig can be quite contrary.  However, once they are converted into pork, they are indeed glorious.  The old saying that the only thing you can't use on a pig is the oink is very true.


Most people now days are only familiar with pork chops, ham, bacon, and maybe pork shoulder for pulled pork.  While fresh pork belly is gaining popularity with chefs most people are still not using it.  There is always a fair bit left after I square up the belly to cure for bacon.  That trim gets used to make some very flavorful meals. 


Yesterday was a dreary drookit day and the good wife was in a mood for soup to drive out the chill.  She'd had the fire going most of the day and even I was wishing I'd brought a heavier jacket when I left work.  Of course, good soup takes time and we had errands to run before it could be started but the pressure cooker made up for the late start.


I used pork broth from the freezer for this soup but I've never seen pork broth available commercially.  I think beef or chicken broth would work just fine with beef being slightly more preferred.  My broths are cooked down to be fairly strong so as to save freezer space since you can always add water.  I used about 3 cups worth of frozen pork broth and added 4 cups of water and still had a rich flavorful broth as the soup base.


One other item you won't have on hand is Uncle T's Pork and Poultry Seasoning.  A good substitute would be to make up some quatre épices to season the pork belly.

A good bowl of Pork Belly Soup

Pork Belly Soup


1 lb pork belly
6 - 8 cups broth
3 medium potatoes, 1/2 inch dice
1 1/2 cups carrots, chopped 1/2 inch
1 cup barley
1 - 2 Tbs salt
2 tsp pepper
1.5 tsp roasted ground cumin
1.5 Tbs Uncle T's Pork and Poultry Seasoning
3 bay leaves


Cut the pork belly into small bite size pieces and season with Uncle T's Pork and Poultry Seasoning, or with salt and quatre épices.  Brown the pork belly either in the pressure cooker or a skillet.  Put the broth, potatoes, and carrots in the pressure cooker.  Taste the broth and season to taste with salt, pepper, and roasted cumin.  Remember the potatoes will need a bit of seasoning.  Add the barley and browned pork belly to the pressure cooker and stir to thoroughly mix.  Drop in the bay leaves.  Put the lid on the pressure cooker and set the pressure cook timer for 15 minutes.  After the timer goes off, let it sit for 10 minutes before venting the pressure according to your cookers instructions.  It won't hurt to let the pressure to go down naturally.  Serve and enjoy.


I think this would have been even better with some fresh crusty bread but I didn't have time since we had those errands to run.  As it was, it was rich warm and definitely drove the chill away.


Give this recipe a try and let me know what you think.


Uncle T

Pepper Garlic Broccoli, Pork Chops, and Parmesan Smashed Potatoes

I've been making this for several years now.  It is a good way to put lots of flavor in your cooked broccoli without having to resort to some sort of cheese sauce.  It has the added benefit of the broccoli still having some body to it rather than being all limp from boiling or steaming.  Plus, it is quick to make with cutting the broccoli being the most time consuming part.




This broccoli dish goes well with just about everything I'd say.  We've not come across anything that it didn't pair well with.  We've had it with pork, venison, chicken, and salmon and it has been good with all of them.

Pepper Garlic Broccoli for two

Last night I took advantage of cutting up a boneless pork loin and decided to cook pork chops with it.  Parmesan smashed potatoes rounded out the meal.




Pepper Garlic Broccoli




3 cups broccoli florets
3 - 6 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbs olive oil
Red pepper flakes, to taste
1/2 oz lemon juice
1.5 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese




Put the olive oil in a skillet and turn on medium heat.  Once the oil is hot, add the garlic.  Cook the garlic until it is starting to get tender, don't let it get brown.  Add the broccoli florets to the skillet and stir to mix.  Make sure the oil and garlic coat each floret.  Add the salt and red pepper flakes and stir to mix.  Add the lemon juice and shake the skillet to evenly distribute.  Let the broccoli finish cooking to your desired level of doneness.  For us it is about 5 minutes start to finish.  You can either add the grated Parmesan cheese in the skillet and toss it or plate the broccoli and sprinkle the cheese on top.  Last night I put the cheese on top after plating.


Parmesan Smashed Potatoes


2 lbs new red potatoes
olive oil
salt
pepper
Italian seasoning
grated Parmesan cheese


Boil the potatoes until they are almost done and drain.  After they have cooled a bit, dump them on a baking sheet.  Start smashing them one at a time and lining them up across the baking sheet.  Once they are all smashed, drizzle with olive oil.  Add salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning to your taste.  Sprinkle a liberal coating of grated Parmesan cheese over the potatoes.  Bake in a 400F oven for 20 - 25 minutes.




The pork chops that accompanied the broccoli were fried in butter in the cast iron skillet.  They were allowed to come to room temperature before cooking.  While they were waiting, they got seasoned with salt, pepper, and a good splash of TN whiskey.  The cast iron skillet had about 2 Tbs of butter melted in it and the pork chops put in.  They were turned when the color was changed about halfway up the side.  This makes a nice browned surface for the pork chop.  They were cooked on the other side till they were the same.  I'll not give times since those depend on the thickness of the pork chop.

Pork, Broccoli, and Potatoes.  It's what's for supper.

Most times when I do steaks or pork chops this way I'll make a quick pan sauce to pour over but I didn't last night.  This is just a quick easy sauce that ups the flavor of the meat.  Leave the melted butter and juices from the meat in the skillet with the heat on.  Pour in an ounce or two of whiskey or brandy.  Let the alcohol cook off or your can get adventurous and burn it off.  Just be careful if you burn it off.  Once it is burned off, add a tablespoon of whole peppercorns and let them heat up while the remaining liquid reduces.  Once it is reduced by about half it'll be a tasty slightly thickened sauce ready to spoon over your meat.




Give this broccoli a try the next time you fix pork chops.  I think you'll like it.  If you do fix it, let me know what you think.


Uncle T

Gochujang Pork Belly

How many of you eat pork belly on a regular basis?  I'm not talking about bacon but fresh pork belly.  To my mind it is one of the best things around and can be used in many ways.

Gochujang rubbed pork belly ready for smoke

As you may have noticed, I like Korean food and Korean flavors.  This pork belly is skin on and was given a thick coating of Gochujang, fermented pepper paste.  I don't think the Gochujang penetrates like a marinade but it makes me feel good to see it on the counter.

Ready to come off the smoke

Pork belly comes eight with the skin on or skin off.  Personally, I like getting skin on.  There are a couple of reasons for this.  In applications like this, you get small bits of cooked skin to give a crispy chewy bit of texture to the pork belly slices.  The other reason is pork rinds.  When I make bacon I skin the belly.  The skin then gets converted to pork rinds.  Homemade pork rinds means you can season however you wish and they are so much better.

Beautiful sliced pork belly

I took this pork belly to an internal temp of about 165F since I wanted nice slices.  If I'd wanted it more fall/pull apart I'd let it go to around 205F.  It is still plenty tender at 165F and slices without tearing.

Gochujang Pork Belly

1 2-3 lb pork belly

Gochujang

If pork belly has the skin on, score skin and fat in diamond pattern.  Rub Gochujang heavily over the entire surface of the pork belly.  Get smoker going, or set up grill for indirect heat.  When temp is up to 225-250 put the pork belly on, skin side up, and insert temperature probe if you have one.  Close lid and relax until the internal temperature hits 150F.  If the skin side is not crispy then move the pork belly closer to the heat to finish the skin side.  Once the skin is dark and crispy remove the pork belly from the heat.  Let rest 10 - 20 minutes then slice in 1/4 inch slices.  Enjoy

A filling flavorful meat featuring pork belly

Since I was wanting the flavor of Korea we had rice and kimchi with the pork belly.  I think it would pair well with most anything.

Get some Gochujang for your pantry and see how it can boost the flavor of pork, seafood, and soups.  Let me know what you think.

Uncle T