Shrimp and Grits, Thursday Afternoon Style

Thursday was kind of a rough day, the first of the gray days of fall, with the economy falling apart, too much coffee, and much work to do. So of course the best thing to do was to sleep until noon and then spend a dazed hour or so making a rich dish I'd never had.

But there were these shrimp. Left over from dumpling making experiments the night before, the shrimp were waiting for me in the refrigerator. I had just announced at last night's dinner that I like them best unadorned, but something called me to make grits, and once those were started, I just started dreaming about buttery gravy with shrimp floating in tomato. The pot above is a quick shrimp broth, most of which met its end when I calmly strained it down the drain, but I saved some and it certainly helped the broth.

The rest of the process went more or less the same way. The grits, from Anson Mills, simmered slowly, while I mucked around with Anson Mills' recipe and combined it with laziness and the Lee Bros. recipe. The upshot, random shots of white wine and V8 included, was rich and sweet and creamy and lovely. Pretty hard to screw up shrimp, isn't it?