Srhimp and Grits and sleeping late.

My God. I got up at 7 to go let a friend's dog out (and man was she happy to see me!) and then came home and went back to bed...and didn't get up until 11:30! I never sleep that late!

So I got up and we made a lazy breakfast of shrimp and grits. I based it on a recipe I got off of delicious! delicious! that Caryn got from the Market St. Cafe (6 degrees of recipe separation?), but made tons of changes, so it can't even really be called the same recipe anymore.

I poached the shrimp in their little shells first, then peeled them and made stock with the shells. I came out with about 8 cups of shrimp stock, so I reduced 4 cups of it to about 1/2 cup and made the grits with the other 4 cups of stock instead of water. The reduction I added a little blurp of cream to, made a roux with butter and flour and a splash of white vermouth and added that, and cooked the whole thing down. It was too tight and I had used up all the yummy liquids I had on hand, so I added some water to loosen it up - next time I'll reserve some stock for that, b/c that really reduced the intensity of the sauce. I threw great handfuls of asiago into the grits and plated it up. Warmed up the shrimp in the sauce, poured it over the grits, and covered (mine) in green onions.

See, the problem was that Robert isn't supposed to eat onions or peppers right now (acid reflux) - and the recipe sort of demands both. So yes, put jalapenos in your grits (and use cheddar!) and definitely put chopped bacon in it and green onions! Have extra shrimp stock on hand and use that to thin your (what amounts to) fancy gravy!

So here's my imaginary recipe that I will use next time:
Cook bacon, saute mushrooms in bacon grease with garlic. Drain and use bacon grease to make roux. Pour reduced shrimp stock into roux to make fancy gravy (that cracks me up every time I type it.) Make grits with shrimp stock instead of water; add minced jalapeno (maybe even a tiny hint of chipotle?) and aged cheddar. Warm shrimp in sauce, pour over grits, cover with bacon, mushrooms, green onions.

That is totally yum in my imagination. I can't wait till R's stomach is better! (What we had was pretty darn good, just subtle. And I'm not much for subtle - I like big bold punchy flavors.)