Valentine’s Shrimp & Grits

For a Valentine’s weekend we prepared the perfect meal. Shrimp & Grits!

Make your shrimp marinade. Simple melted butter and garlic is fine. We mixed a creole seasoning (Kevin Bolton’s) with Spanish olive oil, Flatiron 4-pepper blend, Spanish paprika and fresh crushed black pepper. We tossed in 10 peeled jumbo shrimp and let them rest.

Ingredients:

1 to 2 lbs. Shrimp

1-2 TBS. butter

1 TBS. olive oil

½ medium onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 red bell pepper, chopped

½ lb. Andouille Sausage, rough diced

¼ c. dry white wine

1 cans fir roasted diced tomatoes

2 c. chicken broth (*we used bone broth)

½ c. half & half

1 c. quick cooking grits

Ground pepper

1/3 c. grated Parmesan cheese

Heat a large sauté pan over medium heat. Melt 1Tb butter and 1 TB of olive oil. Saute onion, garlic, and pepper until tender and translucent. Add sausage. When sausage has heated, add white wine and tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer until ready to serve.

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring chick stock to boil and add cream at a low simmer. While simmering, whisk in the grits. Stir constantly and cook until thickened (about 5 minutes). We added a little more grits to thicken it up. Stir in 1TB butter and Parmesan cheese. Season to taste with pepper.

Cook shrimp. Grilled is best, but on this rainy day we pan seared ours over a medium-high heat.

Serve grits, tomato mixture in the center and shrimp on top.