Welcome to guess my meal: Brunch Edition
Yup yup....scrimps and grits.
I must say that I have never made grits in my life. I don't even like grits. But I must say that I was inpired by the shrimp and grits that you can get from Creme, which was voted the best brunch in Washington DC. And I have never even eaten there.
I went to the website and saw their menu and seriously thought, "I can make every item on that menu......except the chicken and waffles."
I don't have a waffle iron.
The only thing that seemed out of my lane was the shrimp and grits. And that is only because of the grits. Because the rest of the recipe is a lot like a jambalaya.
When I went grocery shopping I wanted to get the biggest, most succulent scrimps I could find. And because I was shopping at sorry ass giant, this is what I came up with. The only peeled, and deveined scrimps they had looked like scraps. So I got the bigger with the shells. Which was a decent price, but deveining shrimp is probably the grossest thing I've ever done when it comes to preparing food.
I was seriously considering saving the shells to make a nice fish stock with but I decided against it....this time.
So grits.....yeah, I admittedly have no idea what I'm doing. I did a quick google search on grits and everything said stone ground. So I'm standing in front of the grits section of giant and didn't see anything that said stone ground.......so they must all be stone ground right....? I pick up a package and I'm on my way.
So I google again and it says I have to take about an hour and a half to prepare stone ground grits. I take some skim milk, heavy cream, water, white pepper and bring it to a gentle boil. I pour in some grits and start whisking away. Now, what I saw online does not correlate to the back of the package. Eventually I realize that stone ground and what I have are completely different.
Great.
So my timetable has been expediated. But the grits are starting to take shape and look very creamy. But instead of slow cooking my quick cook grits I now have to work on the jambalaya portion of it now instead of later. Onions, celery, and green pepper go in the pan with oodles of butter. Nice auromatics. Add the andoulle, chicken stock and finally the scrimps.
When the scrimp go in is when I add the cheddar to the grits.
Everything was completely around the same time. It's probably the best I've ever done with timing even though it was an accident. The end result.....
I topped it with scallions. In my head, conceptually, I expected it to be prettier for some reason. But I gotta say this is one of the top things I've ever made. The grits were so creamy. Not too cheesy. It was a great texture in contrast with the sausage and vegetables. And the shrimp were just good and cooked perfectly. I must say everything came out perfect overall and I will be making this again.
Even though I don't even like grits.