Kardea's Charleston Shrimp and Grits

Hi, guys

I am Cartier Brown, new friends with Bobby Dean. And he invited me here to share a recipe with you all

This is a recipe that's been passed down from generations to generations in my family, from my grandmother's

mother, to my grandmother, to my mother, to me. Now I'm sharing it with you all. It's our Charleston

style shrimp grits and gravy. Now what we're going to do is come over here and start with our grits

You want to make sure your grits are going first because it takes about 20 minutes. And the shrimp

and the gravy, it only takes about 10 to 15 minutes to cook those. So you want to make sure

that you have about three cups of boiling water here. And what I'm going to do is just add a cup

of old-fashioned homni grits. Make sure you immediately give it a stir

If not, the grits will lump. Turn your heat down, cover, and let that do magic by itself

Now, while that's going, I'm gonna come over here and start with our peppers

We're gonna do a half a cup, which is about a half a bell pepper. Just cut it down half like that

The first time I made this recipe, It had to be when I was around 16

My grandmother would never allow me to come in her kitchen while she cooked this As a matter of fact no one was allowed to come in her kitchen while she cooked but I always watched her And when I had the opportunity to cook it on my own I made it at my mother house

And needless to say, the first time it didn't come out so well. So I called her and I asked her how she made hers

and I kept at it until I got it right. So almost 10 years down the line, I think I got it

My grandmother's mother grew peppers in her yard. And so our food comes from the idea of we ate what was given, we ate what was grown

We're going to also chop up an onion. Just give it a rough chop

It doesn't have to be neat, it doesn't have to be uniform. Basically what these peppers are doing is just giving the shrimp and grits a nice little flavor

I'm also going to take some garlic. For me to make this recipe my own, I added cheese to the grits because, you know, who doesn't like cheese and grits

And sometimes this happens with the grits. If you do not have enough water in it, it will start to lump

And like I said, no one likes lumpy grits. Also, to give the gravy its signature taste, we're going to go to the bacon

Country style, fresh bacon. Now, what my grandmother did, she would cut her bacon in half

So just cut that in half. And once that bacon has crisp I like to add in my veggies Now while the grits are still going and the veggies are softening what I going to do is add some salt and a little bit of pepper

And I'm going to add a little oil to this. And the reason I'm adding oil to this

is because I need to add flour. To get a nice little crispy crust on it

once it goes in the pan, just give that a little toss

All right, and just we're going to dump that right in the pan

Give that a toss. Now we can move on to the gravy part

And what we're going to do is use about that much flour

and about a half a cup of water. Just going to whisk that up until that's well blended, okay

And just pour it right in there. Now, if the water looks a little cloudy, that's great

because that means it's going to thicken up correctly. If it's too pale, then that means you don't have enough flour

All right, now what I'm going to do to get that nice, If you've ever seen anyone from Charleston make shrimp grits and gravy

you know that it's a brown color, and that's from the soy sauce. So we add a few droplets in there

These recipes stem all the way back to West African culture, and most of the time you would see this made with rice

But because the first slaves came into Charleston and were rationed out grits

I know for a fact that this was the first time in Charleston

when they ever made shrimp grits and gravy. What I want to do right now is make sure the gravy

is well seasoned. Of course this is really hot so you don wanna burn your tongue or your hand I will see my grandmother my mother take the back of the spoon and put it on their palm like that and try it And I say that just about right

I may add a little bit more pepper, but what we'd like to also do while the shrimp is still hot

is add a little butter. And that's to make sure that that grits comes out nice and buttery

I say about two tablespoons. Just throw it right in there. I think a little less than half a cup of milk

and about a cup of cheddar. And just stir that right in

And what you can do, too, is also put a little bit of garlic powder. And that gives it, you know, it gives it an extra kick

And I love garlic and everything, so... Scoop out enough to cover the bottom of the bowl

And you just want to ladle that right across. So this would be perfect on any Christmas holiday, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day

when everyone's full of energy, everyone's excited. This would be the perfect way to start your Christmas day

Charleston-style shrimp grits engraving. Try it. Ooh, that's hot. Mm, mm-mm-mm

That show is good eating. This is great. Oh my goodness, I think my grandmother would be really proud of this