Creole Shrimp and Grits

Brown Sugar Kitchen

Here's another, very different, shrimp and grits recipe! You might think since this has the word "Creole" in it, that it would be similar to the last one (with gumbo sauce) but it's not at all like that one. There's no tomato, no okra, but lots of spinach in a darker sauce.

There are several components to this recipe, so it's a bit involved. Nothing is too difficult, though, and you don't need anything special to make it. We liked it more than we expected, especially after I had to substitute for part of the Worcestershire sauce

I found the full recipe online here: https://www.sfmoma.org/read/one-beautiful-bowl-tanya-hollands-shrimp-and-grits/

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello
[00:05]: and welcome to cooking the books with
[00:06]: heather today we are going to be making
[00:08]: another shrimp and grits recipe today is
[00:10]: going to be
[00:11]: creole shrimp and grits from tonya
[00:14]: holland's brown sugar kitchen cookbook
[00:17]: and we're going to start right away with
[00:19]: making the creole
[00:20]: spice mix this is separate from this
[00:23]: recipe but it's so it's used throughout
[00:24]: the book but it's super simple so we're
[00:26]: just going to include it here
[00:29]: so we're gonna just mix everything in a
[00:31]: bowl and it'll be ready and you can keep
[00:32]: this for six months she says in a
[00:35]: airtight container so i have
[00:38]: kosher salt i've already pre-measured
[00:41]: everything
[00:42]: i have herb de provence which is a mix
[00:45]: of
[00:46]: rosemary and savory and a bunch of other
[00:50]: herbs
[00:52]: have ground cumin
[00:56]: i have some cayenne pepper this is quite
[01:00]: a lot of cayenne pepper mine is not as
[01:02]: red as i was expecting but that's okay
[01:08]: i have an awful lot
[01:12]: of freshly ground uh black pepper
[01:15]: we i started with my regular grinder and
[01:18]: ended up just pulling out a
[01:20]: coffee grinder that we keep for spices
[01:22]: so we're using
[01:25]: that and then the last thing we have is
[01:28]: sweet paprika so this is um not
[01:32]: not smoked paprika not a hot paprika
[01:35]: just regular old
[01:36]: usually just says paprika which is sweet
[01:38]: paprika
[01:39]: and we're gonna mix it up
[01:43]: and there we go creole spice mix um
[01:46]: we're gonna use a little bit of it for
[01:47]: this recipe and the rest i'll probably
[01:48]: just put in a ziploc bag and store it in
[01:50]: my cupboard
[01:51]: like i do with everything
[01:55]: let's see and our next i think the rest
[01:57]: we have to move to the stove
[01:59]: for um this is basically
[02:03]: still three more recipes in one
[02:07]: so there's um white cheddar grits that
[02:10]: we are going to start probably first
[02:12]: just because they
[02:15]: they're going to take a little little
[02:17]: while and can hold and then a creole
[02:20]: sauce that we're gonna use
[02:23]: with our shrimp so we'll meet you back
[02:25]: at the stove in
[02:26]: just a minute okay we're ready to start
[02:28]: our
[02:30]: white cheddar grits so i have
[02:33]: water coming to a boil it's already
[02:36]: mostly boiling so i'm ready to add my
[02:38]: grits now she says to use
[02:40]: a quick cooking grits i didn't have any
[02:44]: on hand
[02:45]: apparently i did very poorly shopping
[02:48]: making sure i had everything on hand in
[02:50]: the right amounts for this recipe
[02:52]: that's okay um but i have old fashioned
[02:54]: and that's okay i just might have to add
[02:56]: some extra water at the end
[02:58]: they tend to cook about the same in my
[02:60]: opinion but
[03:01]: so i'm going to add the measured
[03:06]: grits here and then
[03:09]: we're going to whisk this in
[03:15]: and take it down to
[03:18]: a simmer and i'm supposed to
[03:23]: cook this whisking constantly until
[03:26]: they're like a mush
[03:30]: for about four minutes i think mine are
[03:32]: going to take a little bit longer to
[03:33]: cook than that
[03:35]: but we're going to try four minutes and
[03:37]: see
[03:38]: where we are
[03:41]: the good thing about this is they will
[03:43]: hold
[03:44]: so i will when i'm ready to continue
[03:48]: with the recipe
[03:49]: um i'll just put a lid on this and then
[03:52]: when i
[03:53]: am ready to serve i'll check the
[03:55]: thickness
[03:57]: add some water if i think it needs it
[03:59]: and
[04:00]: whisk it up and it'll be fine
[04:05]: grits do not get mushy not in my
[04:09]: experience
[04:09]: and i will leave them sitting on the
[04:11]: stove for half an hour more than that
[04:13]: while i make breakfast they i start them
[04:16]: first
[04:17]: and then they just sit until i'm ready
[04:19]: for them it's been about four minutes
[04:22]: mine's not going to be done in that
[04:24]: amount of time just because i have
[04:26]: a a longer cooking grip
[04:30]: so what i'm gonna do is what i usually
[04:32]: do
[04:33]: um is i'm gonna put the lid on this
[04:37]: i'm gonna put it on really low heat and
[04:39]: just sit it back there while i continue
[04:40]: with the other part of the recipe
[04:42]: it's got my grits on the back burner
[04:45]: pretty
[04:45]: low not as low as it'll go but
[04:47]: definitely kind of low i'm going to
[04:49]: check it occasionally and give it a
[04:50]: whisk
[04:51]: and when it's about done we'll fix it
[04:54]: add the rest of the ingredients but now
[04:57]: we're going to make our creole
[04:58]: sauce so i need a little bit of unsalted
[05:02]: butter i've got this pan
[05:04]: on a low-ish heat
[05:10]: and we're going to melt the butter in
[05:12]: the saucepan
[05:13]: i've got a relatively shallow saucepan
[05:16]: because it's not going to be a lot of
[05:17]: ingredients
[05:18]: in here
[05:21]: so it'll be fine and shallow will help
[05:25]: the
[05:25]: um the liquid sort of boil and thicken
[05:30]: which is what we are going to need my
[05:33]: butter is melted in my saucepan
[05:35]: and i'm going to add um in here i have
[05:38]: some
[05:39]: green onions just the white parts
[05:41]: chopped so i
[05:42]: almost almost minced them not as tiny as
[05:45]: i normally would do garlic which is also
[05:46]: what's in here
[05:47]: and that's a little bit of minced garlic
[05:49]: and we're going to cook these
[05:51]: in the butter for about i don't know
[05:55]: four or five minutes
[05:56]: you see yep about five minutes until
[05:58]: they're softened
[06:00]: and just on the low heat is fine
[06:04]: right now okay my um it's been about
[06:08]: five minutes and my garlic is starting
[06:09]: to get brown and i don't want that to
[06:11]: happen
[06:12]: so i'm gonna go ahead and add some beer
[06:14]: now this is
[06:17]: um she says a belgian
[06:21]: uh wheat beer belgian
[06:25]: wheat beer doesn't say belgian but like
[06:26]: half a bison so i found
[06:28]: a local belgian style wheat beer
[06:32]: it has coriander and curacao orange peel
[06:36]: i don't know it's what i picked
[06:39]: that i could buy one bottle of because
[06:41]: it's not one of our favorites
[06:43]: or one of our favorite styles and then
[06:47]: this is another part where i did not
[06:48]: plan very well that we need quite a lot
[06:51]: of worcestershire sauce
[06:53]: so i have about three quarters of
[06:56]: what she um
[06:60]: calls for in this recipe and i'm
[07:05]: adding to that i looked up what some
[07:08]: good
[07:08]: substitutes for worcestershire sauce are
[07:11]: and
[07:13]: the top two were balsamic vinegar and
[07:15]: soy sauce plus sugar i decided not to
[07:17]: add the sugar but i've got sort of a 50
[07:19]: 50 mix of
[07:21]: balsamic vinegar and soy sauce in here
[07:23]: so hopefully
[07:24]: it'll be okay you know didn't figure out
[07:27]: i didn't have enough until i started
[07:29]: measuring it
[07:30]: right before i was gonna make it so
[07:33]: if that's not quite right that'll be on
[07:35]: me it'll be a little different than what
[07:37]: she intends but you know
[07:39]: and now we're gonna bring this to a boil
[07:42]: reduce it to a simmer and we're going to
[07:44]: reduce this liquid until it's thick and
[07:47]: syrupy and we have about
[07:49]: a cup so that's what we're doing right
[07:53]: now
[07:54]: okay so my grits have been cooking for
[07:57]: a really long time now just on pretty
[07:59]: low heat
[07:60]: they're a little bit thick for me but
[08:02]: i'm gonna wait to see if i should add
[08:03]: some water until i'm done adding the
[08:05]: rest of the ingredients
[08:07]: so um my sauce is still reducing i just
[08:10]: sort of moved that to the back burner
[08:12]: it takes 15 to 20 minutes so i'm just
[08:14]: going to finish up my grits and then
[08:16]: they will sit on
[08:17]: the lowest heat you can until you're
[08:20]: ready
[08:20]: so i'm going to add um
[08:26]: some heavy cream just a little bit so
[08:28]: these will be much
[08:30]: less dairy heavy than the ones that we
[08:32]: made from deep brown roots
[08:36]: which were cooked entirely in milk we
[08:39]: have some
[08:41]: unsalted butter
[08:45]: we have some salt grits need
[08:48]: grits need quite a bit of salt so
[08:52]: i'll be tasting this before i serve it
[08:54]: to see if i need to add more
[08:56]: and i'm going to get these things
[08:58]: incorporating
[09:06]: there we go and now i'm going to add the
[09:08]: white cheddar
[09:10]: so i just have some white cheddar that
[09:13]: i've grated
[09:14]: and pre measured by weight and then
[09:17]: grated
[09:18]: so there we go
[09:24]: and that's another reason why i want to
[09:27]: um wait until we're just about done
[09:30]: and the cheese is all melted because the
[09:32]: cheese will add a little bit of salt
[09:35]: to the to the grits as well
[09:44]: there we go that is actually a
[09:48]: pretty good serving consistency
[09:51]: for me it's not lumpy it's not too
[09:56]: thick it's not too thin
[09:59]: but i will since it'll have to sit here
[10:01]: for a little while while our
[10:03]: sauce reduces and we cook our shrimp
[10:06]: i will check it again before i serve it
[10:11]: but i'm just going to put the lid back
[10:12]: on and let it sit here
[10:14]: until we are just about ready to serve
[10:17]: um just want to show you guys what my
[10:19]: sauce looks like
[10:22]: now that it's reduced you can see the
[10:25]: uh when i drag the spatula over it you
[10:29]: kind of can see the pan
[10:31]: for a little bit before it covers it up
[10:34]: again
[10:35]: it's not super syrupy but it's
[10:37]: definitely thicker than it used to be so
[10:39]: i'm going to measure
[10:40]: the amount that i need for the
[10:44]: shrimp so i've got just some neutral
[10:46]: vegetable oil
[10:48]: heating up in a large skillet
[10:51]: over medium heat until it shimmers
[10:55]: turned my heat up a little bit because i
[10:56]: was getting impatient but
[10:58]: uh our oil is starting to get kind of
[11:00]: shimmery
[11:02]: a little bit yeah i can see it if i look
[11:05]: at it just right
[11:06]: um i'm gonna go ahead and put in some
[11:08]: red bell peppers oh yeah that's warm
[11:10]: enough
[11:13]: some green bell peppers
[11:16]: these are just diced kind of small
[11:20]: but not mint um some green onions now
[11:23]: this is
[11:25]: the whole green onion white and green
[11:28]: part
[11:33]: just sliced and then we have some garlic
[11:46]: i think now we also add our
[11:49]: cajun creole spice mix
[11:53]: some of our kale spice mix i will have
[11:55]: an awful lot of this leftover
[11:57]: i'll figure out something to do with it
[11:59]: all right we're just cooking this until
[12:01]: the vegetables are soft
[12:02]: about five minutes i think the
[12:05]: vegetables are softened enough
[12:07]: i was not super paying attention to the
[12:10]: time but i think i don't want them super
[12:14]: soft i don't think
[12:15]: but i think it's about time to start
[12:21]: adding our shrimp so i'm going to
[12:24]: put them in sort of one by one these are
[12:27]: 2125 shrimp that have been peeled and
[12:30]: deveined
[12:31]: 21 25 just means that they're 21 to 25
[12:35]: in a pound so i'm gonna start turning
[12:38]: them over as i see
[12:39]: that um the top sides are starting to
[12:42]: look kind of pink
[12:44]: because that means it's almost done
[12:48]: and that means we also don't need to
[12:51]: make sure they are
[12:52]: fully cooked at this point it's a little
[12:55]: bit fiddly for me
[12:56]: just turning them once for this recipe i
[12:59]: probably wouldn't do it this way again
[13:01]: but
[13:03]: try to follow it as closely as i can
[13:06]: so we're going to add our creole sauce
[13:10]: to this
[13:16]: i'm going to add
[13:19]: right now we're gonna add some heavy
[13:22]: cream
[13:29]: and
[13:30]: [Music]
[13:34]: we're going to add a little bit of
[13:37]: unsalted butter
[13:42]: so we just want this sort of simmering
[13:44]: i'm going to mix all that stuff
[13:46]: in we need to add all
[13:50]: of this baby spinach spinach
[13:53]: thoroughly wash ready to eat especially
[13:55]: since i'm going to be cooking it i'm not
[13:57]: going to bother washing it again
[13:60]: so i'm just going to put handfuls of
[14:02]: this in here
[14:04]: and when this is all wilted this is just
[14:06]: about done
[14:07]: so i'm gonna wilt some add some wilt
[14:10]: some add some
[14:13]: and uh when we're done
[14:16]: it'll all be wilted
[14:20]: and ready to eat okay i'm gonna call
[14:23]: that shrimp
[14:24]: wilted it's pretty much there and it
[14:26]: will definitely be done by the time we
[14:28]: plate everything up because i'm just
[14:31]: going to turn this heat off
[14:33]: and we're going to add a little bit of
[14:35]: fresh squeezed lemon juice
[14:43]: and mix it up
[14:48]: there we go there we go that's a very
[14:52]: thin sauce but that's okay some people
[14:55]: like sauce pretty thin
[14:57]: and it will go well with our grits i
[14:60]: think
[15:02]: all right and then i do want to check
[15:06]: my grits a little bit they they have not
[15:10]: gotten too thick so we're gonna
[15:11]: we're gonna call that good
[15:15]: um i did have a little taste of them
[15:18]: salt is good i'm concerned about the
[15:21]: salt level on the shrimp because
[15:23]: the only salt that we put in here was
[15:25]: with the
[15:27]: um creole spice mix
[15:30]: but i think we'll be fine uh and we're
[15:33]: gonna
[15:34]: plate up the shrimp or the shrimp plate
[15:36]: up the grits and put the shrimp on top
[15:38]: and we'll show you what it looks like
[15:47]: on this episode of cooking the books
[15:49]: with heather you watched me make the
[15:50]: creole shrimp and grits from
[15:52]: tonya holland's brown sugar kitchen
[15:56]: cookbook and um i have to say
[15:60]: the grits were much more like i
[16:03]: generally like them although i usually
[16:04]: cook mine with more milk and she just
[16:06]: adds
[16:07]: um some cream at the end they were still
[16:10]: cream and
[16:11]: uh cheese and butter at the end
[16:15]: uh that was much more the way i like
[16:17]: them and they were super easy
[16:19]: it's just it's the way it's more the way
[16:20]: i'm used to making grits and
[16:22]: that's just that's just how you cook
[16:23]: grits right
[16:26]: so that was great it did include several
[16:30]: different components so i had to go
[16:32]: ahead and do the
[16:33]: creole spice mix which is sort of a
[16:36]: separate recipe and probably
[16:37]: included elsewhere in this book so now i
[16:41]: have it and i won't have to make it
[16:42]: again
[16:43]: um and then you also have to make a
[16:46]: creole sauce which was not too difficult
[16:49]: it just took some
[16:50]: took a little while to reduce it in fact
[16:53]: i think it took more than the 15 to 20
[16:55]: minutes that she
[16:56]: said it should take for mine to reduce
[16:59]: appropriately
[17:00]: um and while i did not have quite as
[17:05]: much worcestershire sauce
[17:06]: and i substituted about a third of it
[17:09]: with a combination of
[17:13]: balsamic vinegar and soy sauce half and
[17:16]: half
[17:16]: um it still it turned out really well a
[17:19]: lot of times
[17:21]: vinegar in the sauce will just become a
[17:24]: little bit overpowering and it did not
[17:26]: in this case i think i could tell that
[17:28]: it was there
[17:28]: in a way that i wouldn't have been able
[17:30]: to tell um with the worcestershire sauce
[17:33]: like it wouldn't be quite the same but
[17:36]: it was still really good
[17:37]: and it still did its job well i think
[17:40]: and it kind of surprised me that the
[17:42]: creole sauce doesn't have any spice in
[17:44]: it
[17:46]: and that there's only a little bit of
[17:49]: the spice mix that we made only like two
[17:50]: teaspoons of that spice mix that we made
[17:53]: goes
[17:53]: into the shrimp part of the shrimp and
[17:56]: grits
[17:57]: but i could feel sort of the the heat of
[18:01]: it just on the back of my throat it was
[18:03]: not
[18:04]: not spicy in my mouth it did not make my
[18:06]: mouth hurt but it was sort of back of
[18:08]: the throat heat
[18:09]: um but it was not overpowering
[18:12]: uh the kids willingly ate it all and my
[18:16]: husband in fact
[18:16]: really loved it and i think he preferred
[18:20]: this to our previous
[18:22]: uh shrimp and grits recipe surprisingly
[18:25]: to me because that was
[18:27]: a little bit closer to what i thought he
[18:28]: would like but he really did enjoy
[18:30]: um the the shrimp and grits um
[18:34]: the shrimp mixture and the creole sauce
[18:36]: particularly i believe
[18:38]: um even though it wasn't very wasn't
[18:40]: very spicy he could tell
[18:42]: he said he could feel the spice you know
[18:44]: so he could tell that there was some
[18:46]: spice in it
[18:47]: so that was good however i think i
[18:50]: personally i felt like my
[18:54]: shrimp were just a little bit overcooked
[18:56]: and i think the method here
[18:58]: where you sort of make the sauce and
[19:01]: cook the shrimp
[19:02]: and then add you cook the shrimp and
[19:05]: then you add the sauce and then you add
[19:06]: the spinach to it
[19:08]: it's very glad to have vegetables in it
[19:10]: however must say
[19:11]: very glad there were vegetables in it
[19:14]: green vegetables even
[19:16]: so i could feed my kids just this and
[19:18]: not feel bad about it
[19:23]: having it cooked that way where the
[19:25]: shrimp continued to sort of
[19:26]: cook in the sauce i think mine got a
[19:30]: little bit overcooked now
[19:31]: i'm not saying that when she does it it
[19:32]: gets overcooked or and because
[19:34]: obviously maybe i cooked my shrimp a
[19:37]: little bit too long before i added
[19:38]: everything else but i think it just
[19:39]: makes it
[19:40]: easier to overcook the shrimp
[19:44]: doing it this way so um comparing and
[19:46]: contrasting i think that the way that
[19:49]: vivian howard does her shrimp and grits
[19:51]: with gumbo sauce where she makes the
[19:52]: sauce
[19:54]: and then just sautes the shrimp and
[19:55]: serves them on top i think that that
[19:57]: would
[19:58]: improve this recipe a little bit for me
[20:01]: and it's
[20:02]: you know if i'm looking for the best
[20:04]: which i'm not always sometimes i'm just
[20:06]: looking for something easy to do but if
[20:08]: i was looking for you know every
[20:09]: ingredient being you know absolutely
[20:11]: perfect
[20:12]: um in a way that i can cook it
[20:15]: i might cook my shrimp sort of
[20:17]: separately and then add them
[20:19]: to the sauce after i take it off of the
[20:22]: off of the heat
[20:24]: anyway that being said we did all enjoy
[20:27]: this this recipe
[20:28]: um the amount of grits were a little bit
[20:31]: more
[20:33]: appropriate for a four four person
[20:36]: serving in my opinion and um
[20:40]: it didn't require any special
[20:41]: ingredients and it didn't
[20:43]: feel like it took me forever i think it
[20:44]: took me a little over an hour with
[20:47]: you know setting up everything and and
[20:49]: not being able to multitask like i might
[20:52]: generally if we're not filming a recipe
[20:54]: um so i think it was
[20:58]: relatively easy and i think anybody
[20:60]: could could put this together
[21:01]: and i hope you'll try it and if you like
[21:04]: it please let me know in the comments
[21:06]: down below
[21:07]: and if you enjoyed watching me make this
[21:08]: give me a thumbs up hit the subscribe
[21:10]: button and come back and watch me
[21:12]: make something else