Shrimp and grits

Once upon a time when I lived in Raleigh, North Carolina, I used to go to a restaurant called Glenwood Grill. It was a small restaurant located ITB (Inside The Beltline of Raleigh) and was the only place I ever saw men of a certain age wearing blue seersucker suits a la Ben Matlock. I can't tell you anything about the items on the menu except their shrimp and grits, which was the only item I ever ordered. It was delicious, spicy and mellow all at the same time.

Since moving away from Raleigh, I have tried every variation of shrimp and grits I could find, vainly searching for that same delicious flavor combination. In both restaurants and home cooking attempts, I came up short every time. Tremendously short. As in "how can this even have the same name" kind of short.

Last summer, I finally sent an email message to Glenwood Grill and pleaded for the recipe. Here is the kind (and completely unedited) but vague response I received:

"I would be happy to share the recipe with you. you will need some really nice sausage (chorizo), Leeks, cremini mushrooms, fresh oregano and parsley, larger the shrimp the better, and of course butter (unsalted). For the grits you need some coarse ground grits (or nice quick grits) pepper jack cheese, cream, salt and pepper, and of course more butter. There is a theme going on here, butter is better. mmmmm! I hope you enjoy, Chef J"

Today I finally got around to trying the recipe. With James and Aidan at a Cub Scout camporee, today was the perfect opportunity to experiment with only me to disappoint. Before I began cooking, I googled "Glenwood Grill shrimp and grits" and came up with a link to the recipe, which was added after my email exchange with the chef. Interesting that Chef J gave me a slightly different ingredient list! I had already bought the leeks and did not have any red or yellow peppers, so I used his original list of ingredients but followed the directions in the newspaper recipe, except that I subbed chicken stock for lobster and used Penzeys dried parsley and oregano.

I made a smaller amount than the recipe, so I fudged the amounts, but the end result was quite delicious. I will make again following the newspaper version, because I think the red and yellow peppers would be a welcome addition. I always make my grits with either cream or milk so that was no big revelation, but the pepper jack cheese in the grits was yummy. And while I did not consciously remember that the grits had a kick, I remembered it as soon as I started eating.

Funny, when I looked at the menu on the restaurant web site, it states "Shrimp & Grits: Pamlico shrimp, sweet peppers, Andouille sausage, lobster jus, cremini mushrooms over Pepper Jack grits."

Andouille sausage, not chorizo? Hmm. I really liked the chorizo but can see that andouille would probably be just as good.

I am glad to finally have a good shrimp and grits recipe, even if the chef played games - intentionally or not - with the information he gave to me!