North America · Volume 33, The Rice Coast, the Corridor and the Delta
Shrimp and grits
Lowcountry coast, South Carolina, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Illustration
- Time
- 30 minutes
- Researched
- Researched from 117 sources in the brief
As tradition built it
Serves 4. About 30 minutes.
Ingredients
- 200g stone-ground grits
- 800ml water or milk
- 100g sharp cheddar, grated
- 50g butter
- 500g shrimp, peeled
- 100g bacon, diced
- 2 spring onions, sliced
- to taste salt, pepper, hot sauce
Method
- Bring the liquid to a simmer, whisk in the grits, and cook low and slow, stirring often, until thick and creamy, roughly 20 minutes.
- Stir in the cheese and butter, season with salt and pepper, and keep warm.
- Render the bacon until crisp, remove, then cook the shrimp quickly in the bacon fat until just pink.
- Serve the shrimp over the grits, scattered with the crisp bacon, spring onion and a dash of hot sauce.
What a modern chef changes
Heirloom stone-ground grits, and shrimp cooked with real precision rather than by eye
Rung 6
Method
- Use a genuine coarse, stone-ground grits, such as those milled by Anson Mills or Marsh Hen Mill, or the nearest honest UK substitute (see Sourcing below), rather than fine, de-germed instant grits, for a texture the dish actually needs.
- Cook the shrimp to a precise, brief internal temperature rather than by colour alone, since shrimp overcook in seconds; a probe thermometer used deliberately here does more for the dish than any other single change.