So I wanted to throw together something spicy, lipsmackin’, and quick. Weeknight dinners are always a challenge. And no, I do NOT believe that one can pull off a Rachel Ray meal in 30 damn REAL minutes. Do you? I mean it’s okay if you do, but in my kitchen, we don’t have commercial breaks where stuff gets magically prepped. Don’t get me wrong, RR is okay by me, in a chalk-board-fingernail-scratching sort of way. You know what I mean kids?

Some nights, I just sit in my chair and think about how tasty the meal I am not making would be, despite having planned it out, purchased the goods, I just will not be moving my ass to make. It’s really pathetic some nights. I just look at the wife with tired eyes and say, “I’m not really hungry tonight.” To wit she replies, “okay, I’ll have a brownie”

As I have been, more and more, coming of age, culinary speaking, I have begun a small arsenal of whip-em-up week-nighters. Some are good, most really, and some are followed by the sentiment “call the pizza guy I can’t eat this crap!” Sometimes experimentation can be most gastro-challenging.

Well, one of my winners, this dish, my interpretation of shrimp and grits. I wasn’t really thrilled with the idea several years ago when I had first heard of this dish. This because no one from Philadelphia would ever think of putting grits with seafood unless it was a seafood omelet and some of the seafood got pushed over into the grits. But, you see, rarely were there ever grits on a breakfast plate in Philadelphia. Common items would be home fries, scrapple, and cream of wheat, no grits. Here is the South seafood and grits is relatively commonplace.

Well, we were having dinner in some restaurant a while back and Beck ordered shrimp and grits, jalapeno cheese grits to be precise, and I found that they were extremely good. As were these…

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Spicy Shrimp and Grits

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup stone ground or quick-cooking grits (NO INSTANT GRITS!)
1 lb large shrimp cleaned
1/2 lb andouille sausage quartered then sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 trinity diced (1 bell pepper, 1 small-med onion, 2 celery stalks)
1 1/2 cup seafood stock
1/2 cup dry red wine
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tbsp flour
3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp Creole seasoning blend - recipe at end of this post
1 tbsp tomato paste
salt & pepper to taste

METHOD:

1. Cook grits according to instructions and keep warm. If using quick-cooking grits, wait until after step 2.

2. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add 1 tbsp olive oil and andouille. Cook for about 4 minutes stirring occasionally. Add butter, more olive oil if necessary, trinity, reduce heat to medium, and cook until vegetables are soft, about 8 minutes.

If using quick-cooking grits, do them now according to instructions.

3. Stir in Creole spice. Sprinkle in flour and stir. Add red wine, stock, and tomato paste. Simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes. Add more stock if too thick.

4. Add shrimp, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, 4 minutes.

5. Into the grits, stir the cream and cheese.

6. Spoon grits onto plate, top with shrimp mixture.

One could garnish with sliced scallions, but they didn’t get prepped during the commercial break.