Shrimp and Grits

Let's just start out by saying that never in my life have I actually even eaten grits before this day. Maybe my mother made me try a bite once when I was little, but believe me, I considered them disgusting. I'd been thinking about making them after seeing them featured at thekitchn.com and when I had the most (frighteningly) domestic conversation with my boyfriend's mother and grandmother about the various approaches to the recipe, I had to.

I mostly used the recipe here, although I never follow things perfectly. Here we go:

Shrimp and Grits
1 package of shrimp
1 cup chicken stock
Some lemon juice
4 slices of bacon
2 TBSP flour
pinch of salt
A bunch of red pepper flakes
1/4 green bell pepper
1 small onion
3 TBSP scallions
1 clove garlic

For the Grits:
1/2 cups Grits, water and salt, follow package directions (not instant! quick cook is what I used)
salt, pepper, garlic powder
4oz grated cheddar cheese

• Marinade the shrimp in lemon and red pepper flakes. Don't be afraid to be generous, it's just a marinade.
• Chop up all the vegetables (pepper, scallions, onion, garlic)
• Prepare grits: cook in salted water according to package instructions. After they are finished, stir in the salt, pepper, and garlic, then stir in the cheese until melted.
• Chop up the bacon then cook it in a skillet until brown (but not crisp or it'll over cook)
• Add the onions, garlic, peppers (but not the scallions yet!) Cook for about 5 min.
• Add scallions and sprinkle flour over everything. Cook 5 min.
  
• Add the stock and stir together for about 2 min, until it thickens. You're making a roux here.
• Add the shrimp and cook until they're opaque. (Standard shrimp doneness!)
• Serve over the grits!

The end result was delicious. I wasn't too big of a fan of the grits on their own, and I think the sauce to grits ratio could have been a little better (aka, more sauce) but then, you know my previous opinion on grits. With a chunk of bacon or a piece of shrimp, it was amazing. If I were changing anything about the recipe, I would add a lot more shrimp, and more bacon, so that I wasn't left with as much left over grits + sauce once the protein chunks were gone. I would say this is much more of a dinner shrimp and grits, rather than a breakfast one.

I know I usually write more than one recipe per post, but I think if I do it this way, I'll be more likely to update more often! Until next time.

Flakey Phyllo and Flambe!

Sorry for the disappearing thing again. Per usual, it was a case of losing my camera charger. And then my camera. Rather, it was exactly where it was supposed to be (the camera) but when I found my charger I somehow overlooked it. Don't you love it when stupid stuff like that happens.

But back to the food! I've made a lot of great things recently, some of which I managed a picture of. On my right here, I made homemade chicken pot pies! Here's what I did:





Individual Chicken Pot Pies- Phyllo Dough Style
Ingredients:
Phyllo Dough
Chicken Breast (1)
Onion (whole)
Garlic (fresh)
Carrots
Chicken Stock

First of all, a lot of chopping is in order. Chop up about 2 large carrots into small pieces. Do the same with half an onion. Chop up 3 cloves of garlic. (Oh, and pre-heat the oven to 350.)

In a large pot, into it place chicken stock, pieces of onion, four cloves of garlic, and a few pieces of carrots. Simmer for 30 minutes. Pull chicken out and shred meat when cool enough to touch. Keep stock simmering with onions etc.

Either line muffin containers with foil or spray ramekins with cooking spray. Prepare philo dough by layering it (at least 6 layers) with melted butter between each. Place philo dough on the inside to form a cup. Reserve some to place on top of the cup.

Next we're going to make a roux. In a skillet, melt some butter. The ratio you're going to want is 4 tablespoons butter to 4 tablespoons flour to 2 cups of stock. Add all the stuff you diced earlier (carrots, onions, garlic) to the skillet and allow to cook for about 5 minutes- but watch it to make sure it doesn't burn! Might be less than 5 minutes.

While this goes on, strain the stock mixture to get 2 cups of stock. Next, you want to add the flour to the skillet roux. Mix it in quickly to make sure it doesn't clump up. Once it is well mixed, pour the stock into the skillet and allow it to simmer until thickened. (Make sure you make the roux in the right order, I did it backwards and it was almost a disaster!) Then, add the chicken shreds!

Spoon the filling into the phyllo cups and place a reserved piece on top to cover the filling. Place in the oven for 30 minutes, or until the phyllo begins to look crispy and done.

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Another delicious phyllo thing I made a while ago (so I don't completely remember what I did... though I'll give you an overview...) was pan-seared lamb with spanakopita and a tzatziki sauce, to the left here. The lamb is the simplest part... marinaded it in dill, garlic, olive oil, salt/pepper. Once the spanakopita were in the oven, just seared on the stove and stuck it in the oven until the temperature was appropriate.

The spanakopita involved three steps: 1- mix feta, and egg, and drained, defrosted frozen spinach. 2- Layer 4 sheets of phyllo dough. Brush a layer of melted butter between each. 3- Place a spoonful of the spinach mix in the corner of the phyllo sheets. Cut a strip of it off so that the filling is on a portion of the end of the strip. Fold the strip like a flag until the dough is thick on all sides. Put in the oven for a while... 20 min?

The sauce, well. I'm going to have a hard time remember all the stuff. So uh... you're going to want to look that up. But it's delicious. DELICIOUS. I'm so sad I failed to find another time to use it. It's basically dill, drained cucumbers, drained greek yogurt, and fresh garlic. In any case, the combo of these things was wonderful.

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Last but not least, we have the non sequitor! Banana's Foster! Really, I just can't wait to show this off. I'm happy that I didn't burn anything down (the back of the bottle of 151 told me vehmenently not to light it on fire, but I ignored it.)

Banana's Foster
Ingredients:
6 Bananas --- 151 rum
Brown Sugar --- Nutmeg
Cinnamon --- Butter
(Vanilla ice cream) --- (Waffles)

So quarter the bananas (once lengthwise, once across). Melt 5 tablespoons of butter. Mix in a cup of brown sugar, and do a fair bit of cinnamon and nut meg in there. Mix, then add the bananas and allow them to cook for a few minutes. Use this time to carefully measure out the 151 (1 cup!!)

Take the skillet off the burner and pour the 151 over it, making sure to spread it around the pan evenly. Using a long armed lighter, carefully light the skillet. A flame will appear but it will take some time to reach its maximum height and will burn for a while (about 5-7 minutes). When the flame dies, serve mixture. I did it over ice cream on waffles!

By the way, that recipe made 10 servings! So divide it into whatever!

Although the waffles/ice cream was just my way of how to serve it, amusingly, I received a serving suggest a few days after I made it that makes Banana's Foster related to the other two recipes! Line a ramekin or pie dish with puff pastry and then fill it with the bananas and sauce. Also sounds delicious... but less simple for a potluck!

The point is, I did my first flambe! That is incredibly exciting. Some parties were concerned that the paint on the wall would bubble, that I would burn wooden cabinets nearby, or that I would burn myself. But! Everything worked out perfectly! No property damage! Everyone liked it!

And on that note... signing out! (Just made Shrimp and Grits tonight, look for that in a post soon!)