The Most Fantabulous Shrimp-n-Grits

Tags

cream sauce, grits, recipe, shrimp

(Adapted from AllRecipes.com)

1 cup water

1 pinch salt

6 tablespoons grits

2 tablespoons olive oil (or better, vegetable broth.  I use mushroom broth – yum!)

2 tablespoons diced onion

2 tablespoons diced green bell pepper

20 medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

1/4 cup white wine

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 fistfuls of fresh spinach

salt and ground black pepper to taste

Bring water and a pinch of salt to a boil in a saucepan and slowly mix in the grits, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low and simmer grits until tender and smooth, about 20 minutes.  Recite lines from My Cousin Vinny, i.e.: “No self-respectin’ Southerner uses instant grits!” (For Pete’s sake, don’t tell anybody if you DO use instant grits!) Stir often. Set aside and keep warm.

Heat broth (of your choosing) in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  (Here’s the Purpose Driven Mom coming out in me:  you don’t want to sauté with olive oil because it cannot withstand high heat and will release harmful free radicals as it cooks.  Okay, rant over…)  As you’re sautéing, add a few more drops of broth as needed if you feel it’s evaporating out too fast.

Stir in onion and green bell pepper and cook until onion is translucent, about 4 minutes. Lightly stir the shrimp with the vegetables and broth until pink; remove shrimp from pan and set aside.

Pour white wine into the skillet and stir, dissolving any browned bits of food in the bottom of the skillet; slowly add the cream and stir gently.  Reduce heat to low and simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper, then add fresh spinach and stir until it’s just a little wilted.

Gently combine the sauce with the grits and ladle onto plates.  Top with shrimp and serve.  Become somebody’s favorite chef ever.

The first time I made this, I didn’t have enough grits on hand and was afraid the meal would be lame.  So I made sweet biscuits and served the shrimp and grits over them.  Oh.  My. Goodness.

(If I can ever figure out why my biscuit recipe is so wonky – and fix it – I’ll share it with you.  Until then, I don’t want you to bake them up and be like, “Um, Lori?…what’s with this freaky biscuit batter??!!”  But they taste incredible, so I promise to share someday…)

I also use the same sauce with pasta (like this delicious organic spinach and cheese ravioli that I found at Target.)  It’s a win!

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Mediterranean Spinach Sautee

So three nights ago, Dom and I decided we would try our hand at Blackened Salmon (which turned out fine, even if we didn’t know what we were doing.)  I looked around for healthy ingredients to make a quick side dish, and this is what I came up with.

2 T organic chicken broth or vegetable broth
½ cup Organic Kalamata olives, sliced
½ cup Organic sun dried tomatoes in olive oil, chopped
4 cups fresh organic baby spinach

Heat the broth in saucepan and sautee olives with the tomatoes for about 4 minutes.  Add the spinach and sautee just until wilted and serve immediately.  Makes roughly 3 servings.

Greek Omelets

2 eggs, beaten
Salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup chopped onion and bell pepper combination
2 T vegetable broth
1 T diced mushrooms (I use organic baby bella)
fresh spinach leaves, torn (I use about a handful for each omelet.)
1 T chopped tomato
1 T feta cheese (or to taste)
Sliced Kalamata olives (Totally optional.  Sounds good, in theory, but I can’t vouch for it yet.  I’ll be trying this next time.)

Whisk eggs together with salt and pepper; set aside.

Sauté onion and bell pepper in vegetable broth over medium heat until almost tender, about 7 minutes.  Add mushrooms and tomatoes and sauté 2 more minutes. Place beaten eggs in an omelet pan and begin to cook while the shrooms are sautéing.  Toss the spinach into the vegetables and sauté just another minute more while your eggs begin to cook.  Place all vegetable mixture onto one half-side of the eggs.  Sprinkle some feta cheese on top of the veggies and fold the omelet over.  (Good luck!) Turn the entire omelet over once to make sure it’s cooked all the way.  J

VARIATION: Greek Egg Wrap
Use all the same ingredients, but when the veggies are almost through sautéing after the addition of the shrooms, toss in the spinach and the egg all together and scramble the whole pan.  Spoon the cooked mixture onto a tortilla, add feta cheese, and roll up like a burrito.  Yum!!

Fancy Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and Their Endless Variations

I first got the notion of fancy grilled cheese sandwiches from Joy the Baker when she introduced her readers to sandwiches made of goat cheese, spinach, ham and mustard.  I substituted blue cheese because it’s what I had on hand, slathered on some organic dijon and I was instantly hooked!  Have one of those with some HonestTea Peach Oo-La-Long, and you’ve got a mighty fine lunch!

Then last month Southern Living ran an article on upgrading the standard grilled cheese sandwich. I tweaked it a little because, come on…it’s a sandwich.  You can do that.   I actually had to just nut up and make this sandwich, put it on a plate and shove it in front of Dom before he would concede to eat it.  But halfway through dinner he looked up at me, grinned that sly little grin while chewing, and gave the thumbs up sign.  Yesssssssss!!

Grilled Strawberry and Goat Cheese Sandwich

Crumbled goat cheese
Red pepper jelly
Spinach leaves
Fresh basil leaves
sliced fresh strawberries

Butter one side of two pieces of bread. Spread red pepper jelly on alternate side of one slice of bread; layer that slice with goat cheese, then sliced strawberries, followed by basil and spinach leaves over the strawberries. Then sprinkle on some more cheese for good measure if ya want. (I did!)  Carefully close the sandwich and either pan fry or place in a Panini maker.

Balsamic Feta Portobello Burgers

Makes 2 burgers:

2 large Portobello mushroom caps, stemmed
3 T balsamic vinegar
1 T olive oil
1 t minced fresh garlic
½ t pepper
¼ t salt
¼ c crumbled feta, gorgonzola or blue cheese
2 T light mayo
1 t balsamic vinegar
Baby spinach leaves
Sliced tomato
2 burger buns
Plenty of napkins!

Scrape gills from mushroom caps.  Combine 3T vinegar, oil, garlic, salt and pepper in a zip-top freezer bag.  Add mushrooms, turning to coat. Chill 30 minutes to 1 hour, turning occasionally.  Remove mushrooms from marinade and discard marinade.  

Grill mushrooms over med-high heat until tender (3-4 minutes each side)

Remove from grill and immediately sprinkle feta cheese to underside of each cap. 

Stir together the 2T mayo and 1t vinegar; spread on burger buns.  Build burger with the spinach leaves, tomato and mushroom and serve immediately.

Ginger Flank Steak with Edamame Rice

Serves 2-3 people  (Count on two with some leftovers!)

1 1-lb flank steak
½ T Kosher salt
1 t pepper
½T parsley
¼ t ground ginger
½ lime
1 pouch ready-to-serve Basmati Rice (I use Uncle Ben’s 90-second microwavable pouch)
1 cup fully cooked and shelled edamame (buy shelled edamame frozen, then steam in microwave.)

Mix together the salt, pepper, parsley and ginger and rub on all sides of the steak.  Slice steak across the grain into thin strips for grilling (we use our little George Foreman) OR grill whole steak on regular grill (slicing will be last step).  Remove from grill and squeeze lime over steak.  Cover loosely with foil and let stand 10 minutes.

Prepare rice according to package and steam edamame.  Stir the edamame into the rice and squeeze lime over the rice mixture. 

Slice steak across the grain into thin strips if not already done, and serve over rice.