Shrimp and Grits

I was very kindly invited to spend Thanksgiving with my little brother's girlfriend's family this year.  With my parents overseas, I am always a bit of a Thanksgiving orphan.  It was nice to be welcomed into another family for the day, everyone was so kind and welcoming.  When I asked what I could bring I was told to be creative.  I decided to go with a traditional Southern dish, shrimp and grits.  But as usual, I put my own spin on it.  Be warned - this is not a healthy recipe.

I made WAY too much, as I had three pans about this size.  I took two pans to Thanksgiving and I have one left over for me to eat this week.  I was pretty pleased with the results.  My inspiration again comes from the ever lovely Paula Deen.  A coworker of mine often makes her tomato grits recipe for work functions, and it is always delicious.  I decided to make "Shrimp, Sausage and Tomato Grits" and it was very well received by all.  The recipe below is exactly what I made, it fed 18 people with some leftovers plus my extra pan... If you were making it as a main dish it would serve a lot less, but you might want to cut it in half.

Ingredients:

1 Pound Raw Shrimp

1 Pound Smoked Sausage

4 Cups of Quick Grits

4 Cups of Chicken Stock

2 Cups of Water

2 10 oz Cans of Rotel

3 Cups of Shredded Cheese

1/4 Cup of Parmesan Cheese

Tony Cachere's 

Put the chicken stock and water in a large pot and bring to a boil.  Add the grits slowly to the boiling stock and water stirring as you go.  (If you dump them all in at once you will get clumps of grits and no one likes that.)  Cover the grits for 3 minutes and then stir very well.  Repeat until the grits are cooked, you will want to taste them and make sure they are done.

Add the 2 cans of Rotel (or any can of tomatoes and peppers) to the grits and stir to combine.  Add in the cheese and stir to combine.  I used 2 cups of Colby Jack, but regular cheddar would be fine as well.  I used a cup of Habenero cheddar as well, but you will want to avoid this if you are not a fan of spicy food.  

Move the grits into a baking dish (or multiple dishes if you don't have a large dish).  Top the grits with a light sprinkle of cheese.  I used about a cup of Colby Jack in total.  Place casserole in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until the cheese starts to bubble and brown slightly.  

Slice your sausage into 1/4 inch slices and then quarter each slice.  Saute until the pieces start to brown.  Peel the shrimp and cut into 2 or 3 pieces depending on the size of the shrimp.  Sprinkle the shrimp lightly with the Tony's (or any seasoned salt you like) and then add the shrimp to the pan with the sausage.  Cook until the shrimp turn pink.  Remove the casserole from the oven and top the casserole with the shrimp and sausage mixture.  

Happy Dining!

Stuffed Zucchini

I am a fan of pinterest.  I have been getting a lot of ideas from there lately.  I saw this beautiful picture of stuffed zucchini one day and decided that I had to make it.  This was my inspiration, you can click the picture to go to the recipe.

http://www.kayotic.nl/blog/stuffed-zucchini

As I am want to do, I started tweaking it a bit.  The recipe called for bacon, but I thought that sausage would be better (I was right, it rocked).  I was super happy with the results of this experiment.  It was surprisingly creamy.  The zucchini boat was tender but not mushy, and the filling was packed with flavor.  Here is what mine ended up looking like.

I obviously do not have a great camera like the blogger of my inspiration, and hers were so much prettier.  But I know that mine tasted better. :)

Ingredients:

1/2 Pound Sausage

1 Small Onion 

1/2 Carton of Mushrooms

1 Tomato 

2 Zucchini

Salt/Pepper

Parmesan Cheese

1/4 Cup of Bread Crumbs

1 Egg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cook sausage in a skillet until browned.  Move from pan into strainer to remove excess fat.  Leave some of the drippings in the pan.

While the sausage is cooking dice the onion and the mushrooms.  Add the onion to the pan and cook until translucent, then add the mushrooms and continue cooking.  

While the mushrooms and the onions are getting happy, slice your zucchini in half lengthwise.  Use a spoon to scoop out the zucchini, you want about a quarter inch of pulp left in the peel. (Reserve your zucchini "guts" in a bowl.)  This will make a little boat to fill with goodness.  Place zucchini boats on a greased cookie sheet.  If they are wobbly you can use a vegetable peeler and peel off a flat section on the bottom so that they will be stable for filling and baking.  

Add a handful or so of your zucchini guts to the onions and mushrooms.  Dice the tomato, but lose the seeds and the juicy part.  Add the tomato to the mixture and cook about 2 more minutes.  Add the sausage back in and remove everything from the heat.  I didn't include a measurement for the parmesan because it is a matter of personal taste.  I grated a whole lot of in at this point, basically blanketed the mixture with cheese.  Taste the mixture after you add the cheese (everything is fully cooked at this point) and then you can season it more if needed.   Set aside and allow to cool.

Once the mixture has cooled sufficiently, you want it cool enough that the egg won't start cooking when you add it, sprinkle in the bread crumbs and mix to combine.   The mixture should be fairly dry at this point, if it is still wet add more bread crumbs, you want something that will stick together if you balled it up but not something that is runny.  Add in your egg and mix it in well.

Spoon your filling into the zucchini boats, top with a little more cheese :), and then bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.  Check the zucchini to make sure they are fork tender then serve and enjoy.  

Happy Dining!