Pimento Cheese Shrimp & Grits

Shrimp & Grits is a dish you'll find all over the Lowcountry.  From 4-star restaurants to home kitchens, every cook has their own recipe and some more than one depending on whether its for breakfast or supper shrimp.  My dear friend and adored author Nathalie Dupree even has an entire cookbook devoted to it.  I developed this pimento cheese shrimp & grits recipe for my father whose love of me and shrimp & grits knows no limits. This recipe is a cinch - simply use fresh ingredients and make your standard grits but instead of using water, use milk.  And, while I am sharing all my little secrets, I also like to add a 1/2 a stick of butter to my grits.  In the last 5 minutes of cooking the grits, add your favorite pimento cheese.  For this recipe for shrimp & grits, I made grits for 8 people and added my favorite 15-ounce container of pimento cheese.  Can you guess which brand?

Cooking the shrimp:

This recipe is all about building and enhancing all of the flavor.  It's very simple yet full of mouth-watering flavor.

Ingredients:

grits for 8 people (my recipe for decadent pimento cheese grits is above)

1 pint of cherry tomatoes, halved

1 large onion, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 lb bacon, cooked and drained

1/1.5 lb of shrimp, cleaned and peeled

1 chopped green onion

.5 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

In a large saute pan, cook the bacon and drain off half the fat and then add the first three ingredients, tomatoes, onions and garlic.   

Place the pan in a 400 degree oven for approx 15 minutes, shaking the pan half way through the cooking time.  

Remove from the oven and spoon out the tomato mixture, adding a little more bacon grease if you need to and DO NOT wipe out the pan!

On the stovetop, add the shrimp and cook on medium heat for no more than 5-7 minutes.  As soon as the shrimp are pink turn them once and let cook for another minute or two.

Add the tomato mixture back into the pan, mix them together quickly and spoon on top of the pimento cheese grits.   

I like to garnish with the crumbled bacon, and freshly chopped green onions--and of course just a little bit more cheese.