S3 E42 Cajun Shrimp & Grits

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:12

Hello and welcome to Perfectly Seasoned, the podcast about all things culinary. I'm your personal chef, Greg Strom, and today on Perfectly Seasoned, from a humble fisherman's breakfast to an iconic southern staple. What are we talking about? Stay tuned to find out, y'all, today on Perfectly Seasoned. And today we are exploring the evolution and origins of one of the most iconic Southern dishes, Shrimp and Grits. And not unlike other Southern dishes, the real story of shrimp and grits goes back a lot further than we think and embodies a lot of the painful history of this country during the times of slavery. Many of the dishes that we identify as classic Southern come from that culture and the influence of the Gula Geechee communities, which are the descendants of slaves on the East Coast, Southern East area, so uh Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia. And they came from when you know when they came over on the slave ships and got uh situated and they did their own cooking, and this these are the foods that they ate, and they were acquisitioned by whites in the um area, and they've become a staple on most menus in restaurants, and it began just basically with shrimp and corn. That's how it started. And after you hear this recipe today, you'll you'll see how far we've come. So on the phone today, after some technical difficulties have been straightened out, we have our good friend Andrea from New York. And we have Matt y'all. Hey y'all, and we have Matt and Deanne also here in Palm Beach Gardens. Hi.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Hello there.

SPEAKER_04 2:48

Hello. Now, Matt was the he was the the mastermind behind prepare the preparation for this dish. What did you do, Deanne?

SPEAKER_03 2:59

I shopped an eight.

SPEAKER_04 3:01

Shopped and eight. Were you the loudmouth supervisor?

SPEAKER_03 3:07

I don't do that.

SPEAKER_04 3:08

No? Okay. Well, you're not from Ohio, because in Ohio, there's always a loudmouth supervisor.

SPEAKER_03 3:16

Well, and you have to remember, I'm from north of Chicago, so there were no grits in my upbringing. I tasted them for the first time last year. So that's another. I'm not going to tell him how to cook something. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 3:27

That is an actual another issue that we can discuss because I can't tell you how many times people who come down here and they've never heard of grits or they've never eaten grits. Well but so what Andrea, uh, let's just start with you. What how did you like this recipe? What did you what were your thoughts about it?

SPEAKER_02 3:50

Well, when I said I was gonna make it, Bill's first reaction was, I don't like grits. I don't want to eat it. Don't make it. I said, okay. I said, I'll make a piece of corn for you. You don't have to eat the grit.

SPEAKER_04 4:07

Well, you know I'm not a big fan either.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

Okay. I mean, I'm a I'm a northern snob.

SPEAKER_04 4:14

You can use rice. You can use rice.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

Well, I tried it. I I I was game, I followed the recipe. I didn't love them, and I found that they were a little salty. So I probably, if I was to make it again, I would definitely use rice.

SPEAKER_04 4:33

The grits, like most foods, are regional. So if this if this dish would have started in you know, like the Midwest, it would have probably had rice. But grits are uh whatever you're putting it on, it's just simply a vehicle for the gravy. That's all. So it it the gravy, the roux was sensational.

SPEAKER_02 4:58

That was sensational. What that was the best part of it. That was just that was very tasty. But uh I I I probably would not do the grits again. I I don't know if there's a difference between the quick cooking grits and the long quicking. Maybe that may was the difference. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 5:20

It is, but if you're if you're not a grit person, you're not a grit person. And and like I said, the the the grits are simply a vehicle for the gravy.

SPEAKER_00 5:29

Yeah, if you're if you're not a grit person, you could do kind of rosoto as a base instead, just a basic rosotto.

SPEAKER_04 5:36

That would be awesome.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

What I find funny about what I find out funny about uh the word grit is if you take go into an Italian store or something else. Grit and polenta are almost the same thing. They're slightly different variations of corn, but they can be almost identical. So you can even do a polenta base and gifted the roux and the gravy over everything there and do that. So that that's what I I kind of found curious moving to Florida and being enshrined in the grit culture down here. All of a sudden I'm like, wait, what's the difference between polenta and and grits? And there's really not a whole lot. There isn't. Polenta is creamier.

SPEAKER_04 6:30

No, polenta, polenta is creamier, it is it is creamier, and it doesn't seem to have the hominy taste that grits has. And because because that's basically what grits are, they're ground-up hominy. So hominy is definitely an acquired taste. So but the polenta would be a great idea, and I would definitely use that. Uh I would prefer that actually than than trying to uh do the risotto because uh there's a lot on this recipe. It it it is a little, it's it comes together pretty quickly, but there's a lot of prep to do for this recipe.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

So yes, definitely an active recipe, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:18

Uh what was there any seasonings that you would prefer not to have, or uh did it need more? Because I some it depends on the seasonings and all of these southern dishes. It varies from county to county.

SPEAKER_02 7:31

So well, I thought I thought the spice, the amount of of hotness, heat, was perfect. It wasn't too much, it wasn't too little. So that worked for me. But I used a a sausage, a smoked sausage, that uh for some reason it was very bland, and the spice didn't affect it at all, and the sausage didn't add anything to it. I would have been better off without any sausage at all.

SPEAKER_04 8:01

Well, do you so we use andouy? Yeah, that's what I I like to use as well. Now you you have have you had andouille? I'm sure you have, Andrea, haven't you?

SPEAKER_02 8:10

Yes, yes. I it might have been totally different if I used that.

SPEAKER_04 8:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:16

I just bought a plain smoked sausage.

SPEAKER_04 8:19

I actually have made this dish with chorizo as well. So Spanish chorizo or Mexican chorizo? It was well, no, it was the Mexican chorizo. That's usually what you can get in the grocery store. I find Spanish chorizo a little too hot for me. I I and you know me, food is not meant to be painful, so but the the other, just so you know, the I don't know what you did for the spices when because I know it the recipe called for uh I use my own seasoning spice, my own seasoning, Rasa Hol New, which you you actually I gave some to you to you and Deanne.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

I think did you use that in the in this uh I yeah, I I had it all made up, the Cajun seasoning, and I had it all made up and left it in Pennsylvania. So when I made it here in New York, I just uh I just use uh a a Creole seasoning.

SPEAKER_04 9:33

That's it. I'm glad you brought that up because I I was going to mention that because uh you can use this is an issue that I have with uh when they name dishes and spices in the South. Cajun versus Creole. It's two totally different things, but even uh Cajun spices, there's no one set Cajun spice. If if you if you grew up with one type of spice, and the person next door to you also makes Cajun spice, but totally different spices, it's still Cajun spice. So it just depends on what you like, and it's very the beauty of this recipe is it's very flexible, it really is as far as the spice goes. And the the the uh shrimp and the uh andouy sausage, those are the kind of the two constant things. What did you uh Matt, when you when you were uh putting it together, did you did you use make your own cajun spice? Because I know you have tons of spices that you guys make.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Yeah, I keep my own Cajun spice led around. And mine is is really just a normal Cajun spice with the cayenne and the other all the other cumin and other spices in there, minus the garlic powder and the onion powder. Because the end has a sensitivity to it, so I I leave that out. And then uh you you gave us out of car, so we had that, but we decided instead of making up the whole batch when we weren't sure of how we we'd like the batch, we we just make the whole food from a half bottle of there and and just pick that up.

SPEAKER_04 11:23

That was easier to do that, and it's enough that we have plenty left over to well it the commercial rash alhanoo is very it's actually very good. But when I was researching the spice, if you make it the way it's traditionally made, it can be up to 27 different spices. And that ain't and that ain't gonna happen. I'm just telling you that right now.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

I mean four and a half minutes away from Whole Foods, it was a no-brainer for us.

SPEAKER_04 11:59

I know. I I mean the first time I I it called for one at uh the Rasa Halnu in a recipe didn't have any of those spices, but I thought, well, I'm just gonna go to Fresh Market and I found a jar of already put together. I said, that'll do it. And then I started researching it because I discovered that the the rich history of spices in that whole area of the world, they there there are multitudes of them. And they each village made their own. And the one that I did find, and I'm not joking, it was 27 different spices. I don't even know how you'd be able to taste 27 spices in such.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

But on a good perinal wine, that's how you taste it.

SPEAKER_04 12:50

And an alka seltzer afterwards. That's the one thing I did discover about spices from this area from that area is that they they are they can be really toxically hot. Oh so I I the I I'm I'm very sensitive to that. So I I tend to be a little bit more conservative. And I think that's why, Andrea, uh, you said the spices, the spice was right, because I I when I worked on this dish, that was to me the key was making the spices something that are a little bit more ubiquitous for guests because not you know Yeah, not too hot. Not too hot. All right.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

At at our age, we just can't handle it anymore. You know, I'm sorry it doesn't work.

SPEAKER_04 13:43

Well, here the question is did you serve what did you serve any kind uh alcoholic beverage, a wine or with this?

SPEAKER_02 13:52

What did you I think I did white, I think we did a white wine. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:58

Well, I know you guys probably did a white as well because I know Deanne likes white wine.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

So yeah, I yeah, I'm not drinking red, so you know, I actually knew what red red we paired with it, but uh I I did have red.

SPEAKER_04 14:13

Well we I think it was uh Spanish red that night. Thank you for saying that because you know that Tim and I are are on this big Spanish kick as far as wine goes. And we we had a Spanish wine as well. It really worked very well.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

Uh so a little bit Was that the wine you introduced me to?

SPEAKER_04 14:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 14:37

Oh, it's delicious, it's a delicious wine.

SPEAKER_04 14:41

Well, I we'll have to wait and see what Cynthia is. I'm sure she'll choose something. She was gonna be on the podcast today, but she's close to delivering her first child. So we have to give her a little grace here because she she's pretty close. So I'll be doing uh wine o'clock with her remotely next Tuesday. So uh yeah. So I hope she I hope her they know it's a little boy, and oh I I said I know a perfect name, but and the perfect birth date, but it's up to you. So uh uh I can only guess.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

Yeah, I can only guess what they're suggesting there.

SPEAKER_04 15:28

Well, on a scale of one on our one to five forks, how would you rate this, Matt and Deanne?

SPEAKER_03 15:38

Five. Five. And I love the grits, by the way. Love them. And I don't like grits, but with the cheese, the basically obscene amount of cheese in the grits, it was awesome. Everything tastes better with lots of cheese. Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah. So from a from a girl who's just had her first grits, what, like two years ago, I thought it was quite good.

SPEAKER_02 16:03

Well, I just I'm wondering if that if if that amount of cheese though is what made it too salty for me.

SPEAKER_04 16:09

Well, it could be. Uh it could be. Could very well be. Uh, because uh cheese does, you know, it is salty.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

So uh Yeah, and I'm I'm so sensitive to salt that uh it just if if it's too salty, I can't I just I can't eat it. Yeah, I can't eat it.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

It also depends on your stock. Yeah, I was just gonna say is low sodium broth instead of instead of stock. You may have ended up with a salty broth instead of a stock. Yes, yes, and that added a lot of salt too.

SPEAKER_04 16:42

Well, yeah, I think so. Here's a little hack about that. You know, people they they don't realize you can buy low sodium chicken stock and beef stock. I don't even bother buying the regular anymore. I always buy the low sodium because you can always add more salt, but you know, you can't take it out.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

So yes, good, good, good control.

SPEAKER_04 17:07

Yes, yeah. And especially with a dish dish that has this many spices in it, you have to really, really control the seasoning. You know, when it's taste for seasoning, you gotta do a lot of a lot of tasting because it it could easily be over seasoned.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very easy to do that.

SPEAKER_04 17:28

Well, this actually has turned out to be one of my most requested recipes to make when people go. Oh my well, actually, I think Deanne, you and Matt were here. Didn't you have it here the first time?

SPEAKER_03 17:45

First time I ever went to your house for dinner, you made this. And I dreamed about it for days after you really set the bar high with this one, Greg. You did it served like boxed mac and cheese, but no, it was delicious. I think we've had it twice with you, actually.

SPEAKER_04 17:59

Yeah, you have. You have.

SPEAKER_03 18:01

Yeah, love it.

SPEAKER_04 18:03

Well, listen, uh, it's about time for wine o'clock, so we're gonna um yeah, yeah. I want to see what Cynthia is going to choose when I speak with her on Tuesday, and I'll just edit her in. But uh if she isn't in labor by then, I don't know. It's we're we're close. We're close. So we don't know what's gonna happen. But I want to thank you guys, and now that you've tried it, you can see how flexible it is. Knock yourself out. You know, you don't have to worry about the grits if you don't want to. But I will suggest, Andrea, that you take Matt's suggestion and try the polenta.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

Well, I think I think I'm gonna be uh more judicious with my my broth and do the low sodium. I'm gonna go with the andouille sausage, and I am definitely gonna try the polenta.

SPEAKER_04 19:00

Well, good. I forgot to even ask you how did Bill like this?

SPEAKER_02 19:06

He liked the shrimp and he liked the roux.

SPEAKER_04 19:10

Good. Okay. Well, that's the main part of the dish, so that's good.

SPEAKER_02 19:13

Yeah, it's good.

SPEAKER_04 19:14

Yeah, yeah. Well, listen, you guys, I'm gonna sign off here and head over to wine o'clock. So we'll we will see you soon. Actually, I know I'll be speaking with Andrea and one of our upcoming recipes as well. Just an FYI season four is fast approaching, and I already have half the season of recipes, so you guys are gonna be busy next year.

SPEAKER_02 19:45

All right, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:47

Okay, we'll talk to everybody later. Hello, Cynthia.

SPEAKER_05 19:53

Hello, Greg.

SPEAKER_04 19:55

Well, this was a very, very successful recipe. The Cajun Shrimp and Grince went over very well. What what do you think we would probably serve with this?

SPEAKER_05 20:08

Okay, so obviously I'm going to say bubbles. So one option is always a champagne, a kava. It's gonna be delicious with that. But for a red, I'm suggesting a Cote de Rhone. A grenache-based will play super well against that Cajun heat.

SPEAKER_04 20:34

It's similarly, I served uh Beaujolais with it, I think. It was a Beaujolais.

SPEAKER_05 20:38

Oh yeah, fabulous choice as well.

SPEAKER_04 20:41

So tell me a little bit about the the Cote de Rhone.

SPEAKER_05 20:44

It's in the Rhone region, the Cote de Rhone region of France. And they're really just known for just being super balanced with their acidity, lots of fruit and earth. Usually 90% of the Cote de Rhone's are grenache, Syrah, Mu Vegra. So you're getting lots of raspberry, black cherry, dark plum, a little bit of herbaceousness as well. And very food-friendly wines.

SPEAKER_04 21:17

Well, this dish is particularly spice heavy. It's not hot, spice heavy, but it is spice heavy.

SPEAKER_05 21:24

I chose the Cote de Ron because with the complex warm heat of spices like Ross Alhany, which I love and Cajun seasonings, the wine has a natural fruitiness, kind of tames the spice. The tannins aren't huge. They're pretty moderate. And they can handle both flavors without making the wine taste bitter. And there's a signature, like kind of black pepper spice in a Cote de Ron that goes really well with that, you know, meat. So the symmetry between The spice and the wine and the spice in the dish is what I was looking for.

SPEAKER_04 22:05

Well, let's get an update. We need an update. What's happening? When's the event?

SPEAKER_05 22:11

When is the little chef arriving? Yeah. Well, so far, it's still September 13th. He's doing very well in there. We're now at the third trimester, seven months along. You know, he's making me crave such things as margarita pizza and really lovely chocolate ice cream and cheesecake are like what he wants right now.

SPEAKER_04 22:43

So speaking of cheesecake, did you get my recipe?

SPEAKER_05 22:48

I did. We have yet to make it, hopefully this weekend.

SPEAKER_04 22:51

I just made one today for we're having uh we're having a brunch tomorrow for uh a couple that we have not seen since we lived in New York.

SPEAKER_05 23:02

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_04 23:03

Yeah, and Tim was working at Christie's and they moved down here to Boynton Beach, and we are meeting them for the first time since probably since like 1997.

SPEAKER_05 23:16

So oh my gosh, that's quite the reunion.

SPEAKER_04 23:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 23:20

Well, you need to open a bottle of 97. Yo, the last time you saw each other.

SPEAKER_04 23:25

I wish, I wish we had a bottle of 97. So okay. Well, that was pretty straightforward considering I thought it was going to be a lot more complicated considering all of the spices and everything. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 23:40

Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_04 23:42

Okay, well, that was good. That was good. And I thank you for the update. And how's Brian holding up?

SPEAKER_05 23:48

He's doing great. He's currently at Costco at the moment, getting some supplies, and he painted the nursery last night, and I painted the guest bathroom last night. So he's finishing that project today. So yeah, we are only 10 weeks away. Oh my gosh. So he's got a lot to do.

SPEAKER_04 24:12

Okay. Well, if you have any questions about today's recipes, or if you would like to be a guest home cook on perfectly seasoned, please email me at infothesilvershef.net. And I'd like to thank today's guest home cooks, Matt, Deanne, and Andrea, for joining us today on Perfectly Season. And of course, thanks to Cynthia and Mini Chef for providing us with today's pairing choices. And you can listen to Perfectly Season on my website, thesilversh.net, my Facebook page, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Pandora, Spotify, Amazon, wherever you get your podcasts. And this is your personal chef, Greg Strom. Thanks for joining us today on Perfectly Season. And remember, always eat fresh. May the fork be with you, and may all your days be perfectly seasoned.