In the American South, there’s an old saying: “We go together like shrimp and grits.”
Shrimp and grits is a classic Southern dish now found on many menus across the U.S. Its origins are rooted in the Gullah Geechee culture of the coastal Carolinas. The Gullah are descendants of enslaved Africans. Shrimp and grits was a humble dish made with readily available ingredients. Grits, a creamy porridge made from ground corn or broken rice middlins, and shrimp, which could be caught for free from a muddy creek with a net, were often breakfast for those with little money.
A recipe for “Breakfast Shrimp” appeared in the cookbook Charleston Receipts, published in 1950 by the Junior League of Charleston. Still in print today, Charleston Receipts hasn’t altered its original text, an artifact of the Jim Crow era in which Gullah verses are transcribed by white authors. The recipe’s headnote began: “The very small shrimp caught in the creeks and inlets abounding the Carolina Low-Country are most delicious. They cannot be purchased from the markets but from the negro hucksters who cry their wares through the old city’s streets: Lady, git yo’ dishpan – Yuh come de swimp-man! Swimpee! Swimpee! Raw, raw swi-i-mp!”
“Breakfast Shrimp” evolved from a basic sustenance meal into a Low Country brunch dish that families cooked to make use of what was most abundant. It wasn’t something you might expect to find at a fancy restaurant until 1982, when “Shrimp and Grits” appeared on the menu of Crook’s Corner in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a James Beard Foundation award-winning restaurant. Crook’s Corner is often cited as the birthplace of shrimp and grits. In 1985, Craig Claiborne, the food editor at The New York Times, visited Crook’s Corner. After sampling the restaurant’s shrimp and grits, Claiborne wrote a praise-filled article that included the recipe, making it one of the most iconic dishes in Southern cooking.
Over the years, regional variants have appeared, representing each region’s cuisine. In the Low Country, the grits might have cheese, and the shrimp topping might have tomatoes and bacon. Appalachian versions might include ramps and morels. In New Orleans, you might find andouille and okra.
The most delicious shrimp and grits begin with true stone-ground white corn grits, such as Anson Mills Coarse White, Pencil Cob Grits or Bob’s Red Mill Southern-style White corn grits. Properly cooked grits, like so many “simple” things, require a bit of practice to master. According to renowned Southern chef Sean Brock, “Making grits in the South for your family is a rite of passage. When you visit someone’s house and they didn’t cook their grits properly, you probably shouldn’t marry into the family.” The traditional stovetop method requires you to carefully watch over the pot as the grits cook.
I love shrimp and grits, and when I see the dish on a menu, I usually order it and am inevitably disappointed. At the heart of the dish is its simplicity. As the great French chef Joel Robuchon once said, “The simpler the food, the harder it is to prepare well.” The simplest – and in my opinion – the best recipes call for little more than sautéing shrimp in bacon fat until pink with some diced country ham, mushrooms, scallions, with a little stock made from the shrimp shells, then serving the whole affair over a pool of properly cooked stone-ground grits. The most complex – and by my estimation, the worst – recipes try to “fancy-up” this simple dish with extraneous flavorings. When I encounter such adulterations, another old Southern expression comes to mind: “You can kiss my grits!”
Traditional shrimp and grits
Use the best quality grits you can find. The following instructions apply if you’re using stone-ground grits. If you are using commercial grits, such as Quaker Old-Fashioned Grits, follow the cooking instructions on the package.
Yields: 4 servings
Ingredients
For the grits:
1 cup grits, preferably stone-ground (do not use instant quick-cooking grits)
4 ½ cups water
1 fresh bay leaf
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small cubes, divided
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, divided
Hot sauce, to taste
For the shrimp:
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus more for seasoning
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning
1 teaspoon canola, grapeseed or avocado oil
2 ounces country ham, diced into ¼-inch cubes
1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
4 ounces button or cremini mushrooms, quartered
¼ cup thinly sliced scallions, plus more of the green parts for garnish
½ cup vegetable stock, heated with the shrimp shells and strained
Preparation
Make the grits: Combine grits and water in a container. Cover and refrigerate for at least eight hours, preferably overnight.
Skim any hulls or chaff from the water’s surface using a fine-mesh sieve and transfer the grits and their soaking water to a large saucepan.
Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom of the pan with a silicone spatula. Continue to boil and stir until the grits thicken (1-2 minutes).
Remove from the stove, cover and let stand for 10 minutes.
Uncover, add the bay leaf, and cook over low heat for about one hour, stirring often, until the grits are very soft and tender.
Turn off the heat, remove the bay leaf, stir in two tablespoons of butter, and season to taste with the salt, pepper, and hot sauce. Keep warm while you prepare the shrimp.
Make the shrimp: Combine the flour, salt and pepper in a shallow bowl.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the diced ham and cook, stirring frequently, until crisp and the fat has been rendered.
Lightly coat the shrimp in the seasoned flour mixture and shake to remove any excess. Push the ham to the edges of the skillet, place the shrimp in the center, and cook the shrimp until the first side starts to turn pink.
Turn the shrimp over, and add the mushrooms and scallions to the skillet. Cook until the shrimp are pink on the second side and the vegetables start to soften.
Add the stock and bring to a simmer. Cook until the liquid has reduced and the shrimp are cooked through.
Stir in two tablespoons of butter and one tablespoon of lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Stir the warm grits and spoon them into warmed bowls. Top with the shrimp mixture. Spoon the broth over the shrimp and around the grits. Garnish with the reserved sliced green onion tops and serve immediately.
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