WHAT'S COOKING is a feature that will detail my adventures and forays into culinary odysseys, with recipes, tasting notes, and suggestions.
Some Friday nights are meant for staying in. A few friends, some rolling stones records, and a highly anticipated meal that takes hours to cook can be an extremely relaxing way to begin a weekend.
As part of my upcoming grits article, I set out to prepare a delicious grit dish with a daunting task: win over a couple of new Englanders who had never tried them. Barely any of my assembled guests knew what grits were, or knew what to expect. Mind you, this was a dinner, which made the use of grits that much more fun and...dare I say, risky considering present company.
The grand southern cuisine inspired meal consisted of garlic and herb pork sausage (purchased at whole foods) soaked in Victory Golden Monkey, Anson Mills grits with shrimp paste, pre-prepared, store bought garlic green beans (also purchased from Whole Foods, hey the other stuff took a lot of work!), and Boddingtons’s Pub Ale as the beverage.
To prepare the sausages I poked four wholes on opposite sides of the outer casing to allow the wheat ale into the meat and soaked them for around an hour. Wheat Ale gives sausage, particularly with garlic and herbs, a wonderful taste and functions as sort of a broth while cooking. Sometimes a bit of chopped garlic and some fresh rosemary is a good additive.
While the meat was marinating in the beer, I heated two cups of water and two cups of milk in a large pot for the grits, and defrosted, peeled, and deshelled the half-pound of shrimp for the paste.
Once the milk/water combination began to steam and bubble a bit (not boiling) I put in the organic, stone ground grits, which I had soaked in water beforehand to remove excess chaff. A generous dash of salt was added at this point as well.
The shrimp paste was made by cooking the shrimp in 6 tablespoons of butter with salt and pepper to taste. After they turned a robust pink color, they were thrown into a blender and the skillet was returned to the burner with the excess butter. Cayenne pepper, salt, and a bit of rosemary was added to the pan, and boiled down until it was a syrupy three tablespoons worth of seasoned butter. This was poured onto the shrimp in the blender and pureed with an additional tablespoon of butter into a fluffy, coral-colored mush. Once the shrimp paste was at the desired consistency, I set it aside to cool and put the sausages on as the grits continued to slowly cook.
From this point, it was just a matter of waiting for the sausages to cook in the beer and the grits to absorb the remaining milk and water.
After about 45 minutes, the grits had reached a near-solid, oatmeal like thickness and I slowly folded in the paste, allowing it to spread throughout and more salt was added. Since I was going for a more of a mashed potato-like consistency, I added some heavy cream and whipped it until the grits retained some of their hardness, but were creamy too.
The shrimp grits were delicious, to the surprise of my Yankee friends, as were the sausages and green beans. Boddingtons’s Pub Ale paired well with this rustic fare, the mellow, malt-driven creaminess, honey tinged flavors mingling with the savory flavors of the sausage, and taking some of the edge off the grits' slight kick from the Cayenne.
In the end, the mission was successful and a few converts to the graces of grits were won, and of course, it was a slow-paced, wonderful way to spend a Friday night with a few friends.
*recipe adapted from "The Gift of Southern Cooking" by Edna Lewis.
