/U/RhintoneTaco's Famous Shrimp 'n' Grits from /r/CTH

Comrade @QuillQuote was good enough to let us all know that all the r/CTH content is still out there and can still be searched in this post

This reminded me of the shrimp 'n grits recipe that comrade u/RhinestoneTaco was good enough to share. I really planned on making it, so I was pretty bummed that it got lost in the divorce. But it's back! The shrimp have come home to roost! I know what I'm cooking tomorrow.

Here it is:

Start with the grits because they take a while and also they’ll keep fine if you let them sit in the pot while you do the rest of it. Volume-wise, this is how much I make – feel free to tinker with this bit depending on how many people you are serving and how many leftovers you want.

Things you need for the grits:

1.5 cups of regular grits. What I mean by that is DO NOT buy anything labeled “quick grits” or “instant grits” unless that’s all they have in the store (in which case, skip everything I am telling you and follow the instructions on that package). Quick grits tend to be watery and… I dunno they’re just not very good. There are also a lot of bougie grits out there. You can get some of those if you want. Quaker brand is also fine. Just make sure you get regular grits, not quick grits.
3.5 cups heavy whipping cream
2.5 cups of water (adjust if the instructions on your grits package says something drastically different)
6 tablespoons of butter
1 tablespoon of salt
Pepper to taste.

To make the grits:

Put the cream, butter, water, and salt in a big pot. Bring to a boil very carefully as not to scald the cream.
Once it’s at a boil, scale it back to a light simmer.
Put the grits into the simmering liquid a quarter-cup at a time while whisking the shit out of them. Do not dump them in all at once because they’ll clump, and it’s very hard to de-clump them.
Put a lid on the pot, turn the heat on the lowest setting your stove will let you do and cook for about an hour. You can let this go while you work on the rest of it, just stop and stir it about every 10-15 minutes or so just to make sure you’re not burning the bottom.
If they start getting too thick, add some more heavy cream. If they are too loose, leave the lid off for a while.
They usually take about 45 minutes to be edible, but you can leave them simmering for longer as long as you keep stirring. Now for toppings. Things you will need:
2 pounds of raw, uncooked shrimp rinsed and patted dry with a paper towel or something like that. If you’re into the whole ethical eating thing, buy American wild-caught shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico or lower Atlantic. Buy them peeled to save the hassle and deveined because otherwise you’re going to be eating shrimp doodoo.
1 pound of smoked pork sausage. If you can get andouille, that’s the “traditional” way of doing it, but I live in Georgia not Louisiana, so I just buy regular stuff. Cut into thin slices, about 1/8 of an inch if you can manage. If the sausage is really big around, you can also dice it into cubes.
About six slices of the thickest-cut bacon you can get in a package at your grocery store. You mostly want this for the bacon fat found within, so if it’s super streaky that is A-OK.
3 bell peppers cut into slices. I like red and yellow ones because they look nicer when the dish is done. * 1 large or 2 medium sweet onions cut into small slices. You’re looking for about 1.5-2 cups worth raw when you’re done chopping. Buy Vidalias if they’re in season. If not, well, sorry.
1.5 cups of cherry tomatoes cut in halves (or quarters if they’re those big golf-ball-sized fuckers) * 3 cloves of garlic, or about 3 tablespoons worth, chopped as fine as you can get it.
4 tablespoons of butter * .25 cup of all-purpose flour
1 cup chicken stock. Some people use seafood stock, but to me it makes the whole thing too fishy. Chicken is less intrusive.
4 tablespoons of lemon juice.
2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon black pepper
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flake I also want to point out because I don’t think enough recipe books/websites do this, the hardware you will need once you start: o 2 large skillets or sauciers o 1 plate with paper towels lining it o 1 extra plate To make the topping:
In a Zip-Loc bag or Tupperware container, put the shrimps with the lemon juice, Worcestershire, cayenne, black pepper, red pepper flake and paprika. Make like the hokey-pokey and shake it all about, then put it in the fridge until later.
Take a large saucier or frying pan and get it up to medium heat.
Toss the sausage slices in the pan. Cook them until they start browning on the edges and have given up some of the greasiness into the pan. When they’re done, scoop them out and set them on a plate to the side but don’t wipe the pan out.
Bring that same skillet up from medium to medium-high heat.
When it’s up to temp, carefully put the bacon in. Cook bacon until it’s crumbly and has given up most of its grease – that stage right before it blackens. When it’s done, set aside on some paper towels or something like that.
DO NOT POUR OUT THE BACON GREASE MIXED WITH SAUSAGE GREASE LEAVE THAT IN THE PAN YOU’LL NEED IT FOR THE REST OF THIS.
In the same skillet you’ve been using this whole time, bring the temperature back down from medium-high to just plain medium. * Put the onion in the pan with the bacon grease. Cook alone for about 3-4 minutes until it starts to get clear slightly.
Add the bell peppers, garlic, and tomatoes in the pan with the onions and bacon grease. Cook for about 8 minutes or until the bell peppers get that nice floppy, almost stir-fried texture to them but are not mush. The tomatoes should give up most of their juicy guts and be rather mushy at this point, which is fine. That’s the point of them being in there.
Go get the shrimp from the fridge. Remove the shrimp from the bag/Tupperware they’ve been chilling in and add them to the veggies you’ve got going. Throw the remaining shrimp juice away.
Add the sausage you already cooked to the pan that now has the veggies and shrimp. Drop this pan down to low heat and let it set while you work on the rest of it.
In a fresh new frying pan, melt the butter over medium heat and be gentle with it. Don’t hurry this and try to bump the temp up to medium-high, you’ll brown the butter, which we don’t really want.
When the butter is totally melted and is starting to bubble, take a whisk and hold it in your dominant hand. * Take the measured flour and hold it in your other hand.
SLOWLY mix the flour, little-by-little, into the bubbling butter mixture, always whisking to prevent the flour from clumping. Keep whisking you’re almost there I promise.
Keep stirring until the flour is totally integrated and the flour/butter mix starts to turn a golden color.
Pick up the measured chicken stock and hold it in the hand your flour used to be in.
SLOWLY pour in the stock, little-by-little, until it is fully integrated. It’ll start to thicken a bit here as it gets up to temperature, but don’t panic, it’s supposed to do that.
Pour everything from the butter-flour-stock pan into the other pan with the veggies, shrimp and sausage. Stir to make sure everything is evenly distributed.
Bring this one pan with everything in it up to about medium heat and keep cooking until the sauce you just made with the butter-flour-stock is fully mixed in and thickened. This usually takes about 10 minutes for me once everything is back up to medium temperature. It’s not going to be the thickest thing ever, think of being just a bit thinner than a traditional gravy.
Before you finish, make sure to scoop out a shrimp and cut it in half to make sure it’s done the whole way through. The last thing you want to do at this point, after all this work, is accidentally serve under-cooked shrimp and give everyone diarrhea. To serve:
Scoop some grits into a bowl.
Top with a ladle-full of the topping.
Sprinkle the top with your crumbled bacon.
Add hot sauce if you’re into that kind of thing.

Enjoy, comrades!