As obvious as is seems, shrimp and grits was originally a breakfast meal. Shrimpers and fishermen in the Low Country of South Carolina ate it often because it was simple, hearty and available.  I’ve seen it called “‘working man’s food” a lot more often than once or twice.

So, what happened?All of a sudden, it was as if the dish was on menus everywhere! Not only that, there were a lot of versions of it. As almost always happens to a good thing, it got ‘made better’ too many times by too many chefs and it kinda lost its way home.

It’s about the same thing that happened to fajitas. Butchers could barely give the poor cuts of beef away…until somebody got a big write up in a newspaper and a fad was born. (There is no such thing as a chicken fajita, by the way. Marketing. That’s all that was. It’s actually just a chicken taco. But you can’t sell tacos for $15…but you can sell fajitas for that! So, they became chicken fajitas on a menu. Just not in real life. )

That is exactly what happened to shrimp and grits. According to many — but notably Southern food guru John T. Edge — it got popular because of a review in the New York Times.  The chef was Bill Neal, originally from South Carolina, but working in North Carolina at the time. To him, the breakfast delight was a staple of his childhood. He did fancied it up a little bit, but kept it relatively true to its roots. Craig Claiborne from the NYT had a taste and the rest is history.

Next thing you know, Canadians for example — some of my best friends are Canadian — started adding things like Swiss cheese to shrimp and grits.  Well, that doesn’t work. But it happened. And adaptations like that happened here, there and yon  (short for ‘yonder’), and before you know it, you’ve got two dollars worth of ingredients bumped up to three dollars worth and put on a menu for $19 a pop when it’s all said and done.

So. Which one is ‘right’? I’ll leave that up to you.The answer is, obviously, whichever one you like best. Historically? Well now that you know the road it took to get here, you probably have a good idea.

If King Solomon had a web site about shrimp recipes…and he were to include a shrimp and grits recipe, my bet is he would use one of each;  One traditional and one kind of fancied up.  Sounds like a plan.

Traditional Charleston Shrimp & Grits

A Simple Version

A Little ‘Fancied-Up’ But Still Traditional

An adaptation from A Real American Breakfast by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison.

Takes about an hour to fix.

Ingredients:

• · 1.5 pounds medium shrimp, peeled, halved lengthwise, and deveined if you want to.
• Juice of a lemon
• Tabasco or other pepper sauce
• 1.5 teaspoons salt or more to taste
• 1 .5 cups stone-ground grits, not instant or quick-cooking
• 6 thick slices of bacon, chopped
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup finely chopped green bell pepper
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced scallions
• 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 or 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup (about 1/4 pound) grated medium to sharp Cheddar cheese

Directions:

• Combine the shrimp with the lemon juice and a a few splashes of hot sauce. Let it sit.

• Make the grits in a large heavy pan. Bringing 6 cups of water and 1 teaspoon of the salt to a boil. Add the grits a few handfuls at a time and stir as you add.  When you have added all the grits — and they have begun to bubble — cut the heat to a low simmer.

• Cook over low heat for 35 to 40 minutes. Stir occasionally at first and and then more often at the end.

• While the grits are cooking, get to work on the gravy. Fry the bacon until it’s brown but not at all crispy. Add the onion, the green pepper, and the garlic. Keep cooking until the onion and pepper are limp. That will take about 5 minutes. Add the scallions, sprinkle the flour over the mixture, and continue sautéing for 5 minutes longer. Stir in the stock and remaining salt and cook for 5 minutes more. Remove it from the heat and finish up the grits.

• When the grits become thick and creamy, add butter. As much as you want.  Then add the cheese. Add a splash of hot pepper sauce and a little more salt if you like. Just taste it. the bacon will add a lot of flavor…and a lot of salt. Cover the grits while you finish the gravy.

• Return the gravy to medium heat and stir in the shrimp. Cook until the shrimp are opaque. That will take about 5 minutes. Serve right away! Make a mound of grits in bowl or on a plate. Cover them with shrimp and gravy.

• Apply lips.

Serves 4 normal people — or 2 of me.

Incoming search terms:

• low country shrimp bisque
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Texas is almost 800 miles wide and just about 800 miles tall. What gets overlooked an awful lot is the vast 370 miles of coastline. Know what they pull a lot of out of the Gulf of Mexico waters in Texas? Among other things, shrimp.  And a lot of it.

Enjoy this shrimp boil recipe that has a hearty taste of Texas with that soulful Louisiana undertones.  As far as I am concerned, it is time for boiled shrimp to make a comeback!

This makes enough for 6 pretty healthy servings.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1.5 pounds andouille sausage, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2 ancho or other dried chile peppers without the seeds
• 3 cups coarsely chopped onions
• 1.5 cups coarsely chopped celery
• 1 cup coarsely chopped bell pepper
• 4 cloves sliced garlic
• 2.5 quarts chicken broth or stock
• 3 tablespoons OLD BAY® Seasoning
• 1.5 pounds potatoes, cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks
• 4 ears corn (fresh is best), cut into 2-inch chunks
• 1 can (14 1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes. (Drain them.)
• 3 pounds of unpeeled jumbo Gulf shrimp (21 to 25 count)
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a big stockpot on medium heat. Add the sausage and cook for five minutes or until browned. Stir sausage occasionally. Add dried chiles and cook and stir for two minutes.
2. Remove sausage and chiles. Set aside. Add onions, celery and bell pepper to pot. Cook and stir for about eight minutes or until onions are slightly softened. Then add the garlic. Cook and stir 2 minutes.
3. Pour chicken stock into pot. Add OLD BAY Seasoning; mix well. Bring to boil and boil 10 minutes. Return sausage and chiles to pot. Add potatoes, corn and tomatoes. Return to boil. Reduce heat to low; simmer for about minutes or so.
4. Add shrimp and lemon juice. Stir. Cook 3 to 5 minutes or just until shrimp turn pink. (Do not drain.) Serve with broth in large bowls. Sprinkle with additional OLD BAY Seasoning, if you’d like to add even a little more flavor.

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As the old saying goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat. Well, there is also more than one way to fry shrimp. Let’s start with this one from Rocco DiSpirito.

If you’d rather use small shrimp, there is no need to devein them. Rocco likes to use large shrimp for frying, though. He also leaves the shell on. It gives each bite a really crunchy snap.

• Canola oil for frying
• 12 large shrimp, deveined and butterflied, unpeeled
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• Sea salt

1. Heat enough canola oil to fill a deep pot 1/3 up. If you have a thermometer, test that the oil has reached 375°F. If not, do one test shrimp first.
2. Make sure the shrimp are completely dry.
3. In a colander, shake the shrimp with a few sprinkles of flour until only a very thin dusting clings to them.
4. Drop them into the hot oil. Do not crowd the pot. Fry for about 5 minutes, until the shrimp are light golden brown.
5. Place them on a rack or a plate covered with paper towels to drain the excess oil, and sprinkle with a few pinches of salt. Serve immediately.

Although my wife prefers Cocktail Sauce, I can’t imagine having fried shrimp without tartar sauce.  A little lemon squeezed on the shrimp — after it has been fried — makes the tartar sauce taste better. That’s my opinion. Gives you something to try and see which you prefer.

Buttermilk Fried Shrimp

Here is another recipe for fried shrimp. It features another heavily Southern ingredient, buttermilk.  [As a side note, if you will use buttermilk to soak chicken in before you cook it, you will be amazed at the difference it makes. But, back to the fried shrimp...]

This will feed four or five people.

Ingredients

• Conola or peanut oil for frying
• 18-24 medium raw white (not Tiger)  shrimp, peeled and deveined
• About 1/2 cup of self rising flour
• 1 tablespoon garlic salt (more /less to taste)
• 1 tablespoon black pepper ( more /less to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, if you like spicy food.

Directions

1. Combine 1 cup of buttermilk and 1 beaten egg in a bowl.
2. Put the shrimp in the buttermilk bath for about 20 minutes.
3. In a large zip top bag, mix the dry ingredients — self-rising flour, garlic salt, and black pepper
4. Add 3-5 shrimp at a time to the dry mix and coat.
5. Heat oil to 350 and cook shrimp to golden brown. About 4 minutes.
6. Repeat until they’re all done.
7. Munch!

There you go. Two pretty decent fried shrimp recipes. Take a shot at them and see which one you like best.

Incoming search terms:

• roccos shrimp reciepe
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‘prawn’ to mean prawn…or shrimp.  What it boils down to is what really are the differences in them.

Technically, there is a difference. It’s mostly a biological difference. They are different species and they also have different gill structures. As far as we cooks are concerned, yes, there is a mild difference in taste.

Shrimp are saltwater dwellers found in warm waters as well as cold waters. A lot of the shrimp we eat is raised in a pond…also known as farm raised shrimp. Generally speaking,though, no matter where they are raised, the colder the water, the smaller the shrimp.

Shrimp are packaged and sold according to their size, most usually. You will see a numbering scheme on the bag that says something like "10-12" or "15-20", which indicates how many shrimp it will take to make a pound. There is also a ‘mini-shrimp’ that is most often used in salads. Takes about one of them to make up a pound.

Though both prawns and shrimp are crustaceans, the prawn more closely resembles a small lobster and has sweet, delicious meat. Here are some other things that are prawns that go by different names; langoustines — both French and Spanish — are prawns. As is the Caribbean lobsterette. There is also a little fella known as the Italian scampi that is a prawn. It has nothing to do with shrimp scampi, though.

While it is very common to substitute one for the other in most shrimp recipes, I still prefer to call them what they really are. Of course, you should feel free to do whatever you’d like, but my preference is to say what I mean as often as possible to avoid confusion.

If you are interested in the biological differences in the two creatures, there are a few, but the main difference is in their gill structure and the size of their legs.

They are both, however, decapod crustaceans. They are 10-legged and have their skeletons on the outside of their bodies (exoskeletons). Another thing they have in common is that they both [prefer to stay close to the bottom of the ocean.

Will they both work in a shrimp salad recipe, for instance? Or most other shrimp recipes? Sure. Unless YOU decide differently.

So, there you have a discussion of the difference between the two. Any facts you would like entered int he record? Feel free to comment below.

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• what is the difference between prawns and shrimp?

The Stuff:

• Large Shrimp – 1.5 – 2.0 pounds
• Clarified Butter – 1/3 to 1/2 cup
• Minced Garlic  — 4 table spoons
• Green Onions, thinly sliced – 5 or 6
• White Wine (Dry) — 1/4 cup
• Lemon Juice (fresh is best)  — 2 tablespoons
• Chopped Fresh Parsley — 2 tablespoons
• Add salt and pepper to taste

Makin’ It:

1. Peel and devein shrimp.
2. Rinse the shrimp and set them aside.
3. Heat the butter in a large skillet, medium heat.
4. Cook garlic 1 or 2 minutes or until softened but not browned.
5. Add shrimp, green onions, wine and lemon juice. Cook until shrimp are pink and firm, about 1 to 2 minutes on each side. Do not overcook.  (‘Poke’ shrimp with finger to feel firmness.)
6. Add chopped parsley and salt and pepper before it hits the table.

Other Thoughts:

I’m a big fan of lemon zest. Especially with fish and chicken dishes. I like to zest a lemon and toss it in the pan at the very end of this preparation. The flavor, aroma and freshness-boost it gives the recipe is perfect.

A Little History:

Scampo is Italian for Shrimp. Scampi is the plural of Scampo. Now that we have all of that squared away, on to something that you may actually find interesting.

This dish made its way into our country around the end of World War II. Between 1955 and 1960 it started finding its way to big city restaurant menus pretty regularly. As with everything else, there are several versions of several stories about how it was really made in The Old Country. Here are some variations on the theme that you may want to experiment with as you develop your preferences for making shrimp scampi in your kitchen…

Instead of using butter, use olive oil – not extra virgin, though. Some older Italian cooks shake their heads ‘no’ at the idea of adding garlic to shrimp scampi. I have seen some scampi recipes and preparation that call for nothing more than a medium – hot skillet with olive oil and lemon juice, there seems to be plenty of room for interpretation. And that is probably as it should be. Cooking is, after all, art.  So experiment. Have a little fun. You’ll be amazed at what you learn.

Incoming search terms:

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Maybe you have seen the TV commercials that talk about “Wild American Shrimp.”  Believe it or not, that isn’t just marketing hype. There really is a difference. Wild shrimp get to swim around a lot more. They also eat seaweed and other things in the ocean that gives them a greater depth of flavor than, say, farm raised shrimp. If you have a choice and your budget can handle it, go with wild American shrimp. You will be able to create more delicious shrimp recipes with them.

When you buy shrimp there are a couple of things to keep in mind that will be helpful.

SMELL: There shouldn’t be any! If you smell anything but the ocean, forget it.

FRESH or FROZEN:  Nothing in the world wrong with frozen shrimp. As a matter of fact, frozen is the best shrimp to buy unless you live on the water where the fresh shrimp live. If you have your choice, pick frozen shrimp that hasn’t yet been peeled and de-veined. The shell will help protect the meat and keep the texture and flavor in tact.

WEIGHT:  A good rule of thumb is that a pound of shrimp that has not been peeled and de-veined will yield about a half pound of meat.

APPEARANCE: Raw shrimp should look translucent. There should not be a color to the flesh, unless it is a tiger shrimp. And they tend to have black markings that look like rings. That is ok for tiger shrimp, but not for any other raw shrimp. Pink OK? Nope. Not until the little beast is cooked.

COOKING: Boiled shrimp should be shocked in ice cold water the minute they come out of the boiling liquid, unless you plan to serve them immediately out of the boil. That will see that the meat stays firm longer.

FACTOID: 90+ per cent of all shrimp in the United States comes from the waters off of the Gulf Coast states, hence the name Gulf Coast Shrimp.

It is delicious and good for you. It is a very versatile ingredient, too. Fried shrimp, boiled shrimp, grilled shrimp,  — I’m starting to sound like Bubba in “Forest Gump” – regardless of your preference, shrimp is one of America’s favorite dishes.

I hope you enjoy these delicious shrimp recipes. If you have one you would like to share, let us know!