One of the things that you figure out over time is that every restaurant on the Crystal Coast has its own version of shrimp and grits. Since my wife loves grits and enjoys shrimp enough to eat them with grits, I have seen several different plates of shrimp and grits.

I have even had to give up my dinner on occasion when a particular recipe was too spicy for my wife. I love shrimp, and I have yet to see a dish that destroyed really good shrimp like we have here on the Crystal Coast.

This weekend we were coming back from a visit to the Core Sound Museum on Harkers Island. We stopped by the Fish Town fish market in Beaufort for some shrimp.

My wife had decided we were having shrimp and grits for dinner. All I could remember was the time back in 2006 when my oldest daughter and I cooked shrimp and grits for my wife for Mother’s Day. My memory told me that it was an all day procedure.

Still i know that my wife has a good dose of Southern cooking magic running in her veins. That innate ability to make a meal quickly out of almost nothing is a skill that I believe you cannot teach. Number one they never measure anything, and the only cooking instructions are, “Cook until done.”

When we got home, I started cleaning the shrimp, and quickly saw that the magic was actually a package of Southern Garlic Cheese Grits from Savor the Flavor of Sumter, SC.

Our recipe ended up being very simple. After cooking your grits about twelve minutes take a pound or so of cleaned, deveined NC shrimpand saute them in olive oil with some chopped onions (green ones if you have them) for about three minutes.

Spoon some grits on the plates, add shrimp, and some crumbled bacon for an extraordinary meal in minutes.

The meal only took a minimal amount of magic.

Tags: Food