shrimp and grits

I just now watched sixteen videos on shrimp and grits. Possibly four videos, I lost count at three. It seemed like a million. This guy, Charlie Andrews, is the best. Let's watch. When I watch it again, that'll be like, what, twenty-six videos.

I like Charlie. I like his eyes, his teeth, his voice, and his attitude.

He works too hard. And he uses four pots. And he uses commercial spices, and those are unacceptable. No self-respecting cook uses those things.

Pot for shrimp stock.
Pot for corn grits
Pot for shrimp sauce
Pot for garnish shrimp

But why not use commercial spices? 

Because whatever commercial spices contain, and that's not much, you already have the ingredients in your cabinet. They are not mysterious and they are not magic. And you have the real original ingredients, not their dehydrated ugly cousin versions. So you'll have real onion and not onion powder. Same with garlic. Same with lemon. Same with chiles same with vinegar. There is no point in ever buying Paul Prudhomme's "Magic" spices. You're never that hard up for flavor. The only magic is the magic of marketing that allows Paul Prudhomme to become wealthy by simplistic combinations and that separates cooks from authentic ingredients and fools them into thinking that Paul Prudhomme knows something about flavors that they don't.

Let's look. [ingredients label, paul prudhomme, spice]

Salt, spices, garlic, ground chile, onion

All chefs agree universally that the citrus juice concentrates that come in bottles are the worse possible choices. Every single one will tell you to scrape the peel of fresh citrus instead. And here it is even worse, lemon and lime oils. Those things are just awful. When you have fresh oils right there in the peels. 

Okay? Everybody has all these ingredients already. They're actually too simple to even market, but there you go, real cooks actually using them.

Eh. He's young. Maybe he's got some flesh in the game. Who knows? 

And that was a lot of trouble and a lot of time to contrive shrimp stock. It doesn't take that long to extract flavor from shrimp carapace and their heads. They give it up rather quickly. And vegetables likewise. Whereas drawing flavor from bones takes a bit longer. Even that is speeded considerably with pressure. There is no point in having those things boiling away for hours. Unless you like that boiling smell through your home. 

One time I did a bouillabaisse experiment. I made it several times in a row using different bases; the original French style using mirepoix and fish odds and ends, like Charlie does here, another using clam juice base, and another using Japanese style kombu and bonito flake dashi. 

Credit where it is due. Japanese really do know their seafood. They have their seafood stock act down pat. Home cooks have the ingredients to whip out superior fish stock in minutes. Their approach amounts to a gently steeped tea off the boil composed of dried seaweed and dried fish. The solids strained out for gently flavored water. 

You wipe the crystals off a patch of kombu seaweed, the basis of MSG, bring water to a boil then cut the heat, and soak the kombu for 10 minutes. It softens immediately and swells. Remove the kombu  and dump in a handful of bonito flakes, a dried skipjack that's shaved with a mandolin and purchased as flakes, bring the water with the flakes back to a boil then cut the heat immediately and steep again for another 10 minutes. Like tea. Strain the exhausted fish flakes. This fish stock, their dashi, is used as base for a thousand different things chief among them miso soup. It is unbelievably simple and straightforward, and good, and then with saffron, it makes the best base for bouillabaisse that I could come up with. Better than the neighborhood French restaurant. Kombu/bonto dashi wins.

But I did not do that tonight. 

Tonight I went even more simple. Because I add so many other competing strong flavors, powerful cheese, jalapeño, and hot red Hatch chile powder, garlic and onion, very strongly flavored smoked bacon, all that in overabundance and the delicate flavor of fish stock is lost in the background and the effort of making it separately is wasted. Another pot to clean. So I use commercial chicken stock instead. Now my combination has shrimp, pork, chicken, and cheese. And that's just insane.

Even though I ground my own grits from hard posole, my process is still faster than Charlie's. I cooked the grits in three minutes in the microwave, stopping three times to stir them while the bacon was cooking. One less pot to clean. Charlie must have his own restaurant dishwasher. He uses a fourth pot just for the garnish shrimp. If he lived alone and washed his own pots and dishes, he'd be more conservative with pots. I don't bother with keeping shrimp separate for garnish. That's a restaurant chef's conceit. Their preferred appearance. Mine are buried to surprise you how many shrimp are covered and concealed. Even though I cannot fool myself since I put them in there. 

But I did fool myself, again, I was all, what? What? Another three shrimp are still in here?

I don't know why chefs haven't latched onto the idea of milling their own corn. They have the knowledge and the equipment right there. The difference between popcorn ground at home, a few seconds in a coffee milll, and yellow grits from a commercial mill is amazing. The popcorn tastes explosively fresh. It's outstanding. While the commercial milled corn grits begin oxidizing immediately and taste vapid in comparison. I compared them side by side. And then threw away my box of grits. 

But why is oxygen so bad? The milling increases surface area times a million to interact with all atmospheric gasses and airborne organisms, not just oxygen. The difference in freshly milled and not so freshly milled is pronounced. Why don't cooks appreciate this? They're better at this sort of thing than I am. It's a mystery. And that is something that is not overwhelmed with strong flavors. While I admit the difference is more noticeable when they're prepared with water and without cheese.

This actually had too much shrimp. I got tired of eating it. By the end I was thinking, oh please, not two more shrimp. Will I ever learn to stop making so much? They're worse than a steak. 

The thing about shrimp and grits is, you eat a bowl and twenty-four hours later you're hungry all over again.