Shrimp & Grits, Y'all

Hello again, everybody, and welcome back to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog.  Perhaps I should say it is our food and wine blog, since Mary’s articles about cuisine create more excitement among readers.  We believe food and wine is a package deal, that each is enhanced by the other and that both of them together add richness and enjoyment to life.  Sharing the experience with others, especially around our dinner table, but also here on the blog, adds to the fun.  Thanks for reading us.

Our post today is about a recipe we tried recently, a variation of a time-honored traditional Southern cuisine specialty, shrimp and grits.  It is especially popular here in the Gulf South, where fresh Gulf shrimp is plentiful.  To give credit where credit is due, this particular version is from a restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina called Husk.  The chef is Sean Brock.  The dish is enhanced by fennel and sausage.  There are a few things we will probably change next time, but it was delicious and well worth sharing here on the blog.  Here’s Mary to talk about ingredients and preparation.

The dish is prepared in four major steps: roasting the tomatoes, preparing the fennel, cooking the grits, and the shrimp and sausage.  Then everything is assembled.  I’ll talk about it in that order.

I used 4 Roma tomatoes (also known as plum tomatoes), cut in half lengthwise.  I put them in a baking dish, cut side up, and covered them with minced garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. I roasted them for half an hour in the oven and set them aside.

I bought one fennel bulb and cut off the fronds. If the fronds look nice, you can use them along with the bulb. I cut the bulb into thin wedges and put them into a small saucepan with enough water to cover, a little butter, salt and white pepper. The fennel cooked on top of the stove for 10-15 minutes, then I set it aside.  Save the cooking liquid.

The recipe called for coarse corn grits, bay leaf, butter, cream cheese, lemon juice, hot sauce, salt and white pepper.  Brian thinks slow-cooked grits would be best.  We used quick-cooking grits because it’s hard to find slow-cooked grits in markets, but I would NOT recommend instant grits.  Brian wants to order Callaway Gardens Speckled-Heart grits next time. 

For our California readers, it’s important to stir the grits to keep them from clumping and sticking to the bottom of the pan.  The grits were cooked according to the package instructions with the addition of a bay leaf.  Other ingredients were added after the grits were cooked.  The recipe calls for cream cheese, but you could use other cheese if you prefer, such as high-quality cheddar or gruyere (NOT the shredded stuff in the zip lock bag from the supermarket).

I cooked one cup of sausage in a small frying pan and set it aside.  The recipe calls for crumbling the sausage, so we used regular breakfast sausage.  We think we will use smoked sausage such as andouille next time, cutting it into small bite-sized pieces. 

For the shrimp, Brian insisted on buying it fresh, not frozen.  He handled the peeling and deveining.  He says you don’t have to be all that particular about the deveining.  Just pull it out as best you can.  If it doesn’t all come out, it’s no problem, but make sure you remove all the shell and tails.  The picture above shows the peeled and deveined shrimp on the left side.  We do at least buy them with the heads already removed.  We're not quite THAT hardcore!

In a large sauté pan, I cooked the shrimp very quickly in a little olive oil, just a minute on each side. I added the fennel, sausage, roasted tomatoes, and a cup of the fennel cooking liquid.  Simmer all together and add lemon juice, hot sauce, and salt to taste.  Brian is trying to reduce his salt intake, so we didn’t add much salt, especially since the sausage is already salty.  Once we plated everything, we ended up adding quite a bit of hot sauce.  Next time, we’ll probably add a little more hot sauce or perhaps cayenne pepper in the preparation.

To assemble the dish, spoon a generous bed of grits onto the plate.  The shrimp, sausage, fennel, and tomatoes are added on top.  Make sure you get some of each!  We garnished with parsley, but you could use some of the fennel fronds here.  Isn’t this pretty?  The only other thing you need is some crusty French bread!

Here’s Brian to talk about the wine.

For typical shrimp and grits, white wine is often recommended. With this expression of the dish with the roasted tomatoes and sausage, I was skeptical that a Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc would really work.  A nice Riesling might be good, but I decided a refreshing, chilled rose’ would be just the right pairing.  Spring is springing here in the Jackson area, the weather is getting nicer, and rose’ sounded great!  Our friends at Briarwood Wines and Spirits in Jackson already have a nice selection.  Another nice feature is the price tag.

This particular wine is a rose’ of Garnacha from the Navarra region in northeastern Spain.  The grape is known in France as Grenache.  Rose’, often called rosado in Spain, is made by leaving the juice in contact with the red grape skins for only a short time.  If the grapes are mature, varietal character should be apparent on the nose and palate, but rose’ wines typically also show lively flavors of berries and melon.  They’re great for picnics, lunches or dinners on the patio, or just watching a pretty sunset if you enjoy wine that way.  This Garnacha rose’ was perfect with our shrimp and grits dish, a delicious contrast to the spicy notes of the sausage and hot sauce.  Here are my notes on the wine, short and to the point.

Bodegas Alconde Viña Sardasol Navarra Rosado de Lagrima 2008.  Delicious berry and melon fruit aromas and flavors, a little Garnacha spiciness on the palate, fresh acidity, nicely balanced, a terrific pairing with shrimp, grits, roasted tomatoes, and sausage.  13.5% alcohol.  $16 at Briarwood Wines in Jackson.

That’s our post for today.  We hope you enjoyed it.  Comment on our blog and offer your own suggestions for interesting cuisine and wine and food pairings.  Keep coming back to Cépage et Cuisine for more about food and wine.  In the meantime,

Cheers!

Mary♥Brian