-Making grits in the South
for your family
is a rite of passage.
When you visit someone's house,
and they didn't cook
their grits properly,
you probably shouldn't
marry into that family.
♪♪
Hey.
I'm Sean Brock, and I'm here
today to celebrate the release
of my new book, "South,"
and I'm going to be making
one of my favorite recipes
in the book,
very traditional
and simple version
of shrimp and grits.
This recipe is really
important to me,
and I wanted to
include it in the book
because it's a tribute to one of
the most iconic Southern chefs.
His name was Bill Neal.
He was one of the first chefs
to have the courage
to take these simple rural
kind of home-cooked dishes,
these old traditions
of the South,
and say, "These are worthy of
a white tablecloth restaurant."
We're going to do something
that I've been practicing
since I was a little kid
and still try to do better --
the simple act of making grits.
These are real grits.
This is an old heirloom
varietal grown
by my friend
in South Carolina.
So many factors that you have
to keep in mind
when cooking grits
and buying grits
because if you start
with a varietal of corn
that tastes like nothing,
your grits are going
to taste like nothing.
You can see the coarseness.
You can do them finer.
You can get a creamier grit,
or you can do them
even more coarse than this
and get something very,
very rustic, like a porridge.
This is something that really
changed the art
of grit cookery for me,
and that is soaking
the grits overnight
so that the grits
get a little head start.
There are different parts
of the corn kernel,
and during the milling process,
they all get busted up,
and they all kind of
go in the same place.
And, you know, we'll cook
the grits for, like, 4 hours.
That used to drive me crazy.
Which is how you get overcooked,
tasteless grits,
and it's these
little devils in here.
All that will rise to the top.
You just take a skimmer,
and anything that floats,
you want to skim off the top.
We'll let this soak overnight.
That's what I prefer,
but at least 8 hours,
and you'll see more rise
to the top.
This pot has been
sitting overnight.
You can look at it now.
Compared to what it was before,
there were tons
of different specks.
That's the endosperm.
That's the outer hull.
That's really pretty.
That's really nice.
Another step is making sure
there's none of this stuff
on the sides,
and so take your hand or spatula
and wipe
that back down in there or off.
Now, we're going
to crank the heat.
Wait for this
to come up to a boil.
The boiling's starting
to happen,
starting to get creamier.
Man, that smells good.
When you're cooking grits,
there's a lot different ways
you can go with the liquid
that you choose.
Some people use milk.
Some people use cream.
Some people use
different stocks.
I am such a purist.
I like just to use water.
To me, if you just dump a bunch
of milk in here,
it's going to taste
like milk and grits.
This is just pure,
honest-to-goodness grit flavor.
Now it's all starting
to come together.
We're going to give them
a little chance
to meditate and rest.
Okay. So these have some time
to kick back in the La-Z-Boy
and relax a little bit, and you
can see, they're much happier.
I like to change the pots out
because it gets stuck
on the side,
gets stuck on the bottom,
and once it gets stuck,
you're screwed.
Leave no grit behind.
We'll bring them back up,
and then we'll find
that perfect temperature.
This is a really important
flavor profile
for Southern cooking.
Bay laurel grows all over
the South everywhere --
side of the road,
along the beaches.
This has always been a primary
backdrop flavor
for Southern cooking,
starting with Native Americans.
And I always tear it
a little bit.
I mean, I like to imagine
this smell,
this flavor goes back
as far as grits can go back.
No matter how low you can get
this simmer,
it's still going to stick.
There's no way around it.
We cook grits in enormous pots,
which makes it
even more difficult.
So we have a rule -- if you can
see it with your eyes
or walk by it,
scrape the bottom.
Give it a stir.
We'll allow it to cook
for at least an hour,
but my rule is to check it
every 15 minutes.
What I'm looking for
is bubbles evenly,
not just around the side.
And no, there's no way
to save it once you scorch it.
I've tried every possible thing
you could imagine.
Now that the grits are cooking,
we're going to do
the really fun part,
and that's to make
the topping for the grits.
We'll start with country ham.
This one is heavily,
heavily smoked with hickory.
Our tradition of curing pig legs
and smoking them
is one of the great sources
of pride for us Southerners.
When you're cooking these
one-pot dishes in the South,
you will see, a lot of times,
starting off with fat
that has some umami to it.
And so that's what this does
for this dish,
but this can be any sort
of smoky,
funky, fermented,
salty, fatty anything.
Cooking slowly, render it out,
and then crisp it up.
If you add the tiniest,
tiniest touch
of just another fat,
it just kind of jump-starts
that process, helps it along.
You just let it sit,
do its thing.
I think listening is such
an important part of cooking.
So while that's dancing around,
we'll put some of these
in there,
and we'll season them.
Salt and pepper and flour.
You know, you want get just the
right amount of flour on there.
Serves two purposes -- one,
the flavor, the flour will brown
and have a different flavor
if the shrimp were just
in the pan,
but also, this is a really quick
way to use this flour
if you would a roux.
I love button mushrooms.
I don't care what anybody says.
I will eat these raw.
Slice them kind of thick.
Where I'm from,
when these are growing,
they'll be --
every dinner, every lunch,
there'll just be a pile
of these on the table.
You're eating,
and you're literally like...
In between bites,
you're just crunching, crushing.
♪♪
We'll kick this out to the side.
I'll lay them carefully...
in the pan
and not mess with them.
♪♪
If you just close your eyes
and listen to that,
imagine if this was just,
like, in your --
Like, every bathroom
in your house, you just go into
and listen to that
in your shower, in your sleep.
There's where I want
to take it off the heat
so that it doesn't
continue to cook,
and I'm going to carefully
turn each one of these.
We'll add in some mushrooms.
Okay. So now, I want to add
the liquid transfer
of heat and energy.
It's going to finish
cooking the shrimp.
Save some for the top.
It's starting to thicken up
from the shrimps, nicely cooks.
I'll season it quickly.
It doesn't need much salt.
Hot sauce.
♪♪
We'll add some butter.
So while that's melting,
we'll adjust our grits.
Grits are finished
and beautiful and creamy.
Salt, white pepper,
butter, hot sauce.
So now, here is where grits
get really personal.
I like for it to fall
just like that,
just like this wave crashes.
Yep.
That's the way I like it.
Right before serving, that's
when I'll always add lemon.
So I'll just add a tiny bit
to that, and the same thing here
right at the very,
very, very end.
The grits go and cover
the bottom
so that you're guaranteed
to get a little bit
of grits with every bite.
Whew.
God bless America.
Look at that.
♪♪
This is the purest, most honest
version of shrimp and grits
in the restaurant world,
and so easy to make.
♪♪
That's soul food.
That's the soul of our region.
When I taste this,
I have no doubt
that Southern food is amongst
the best in the world.
It's not only how delicious
this food is, but it's...
This reminds me of why
grandma food is so good.
It's like grandmas know
the secret,
how to build those flavors
to make you feel a certain way,
and that's why you crave
those things.
That's why I love this.
For the recipe, click the link
in the description below,
and you can buy my new book,
"South," which has other
shrimp-and-grit recipes
and other shrimp-and-grit ideas
and many, many,
many other wonderful
Southern traditions.
How fast do you think
I can eat this?
There aren't many dishes
I could eat every single day.
Eating this every day,
never get tired of it.
Bye-bye.
[ Indistinct conversation ]
I could eat another one.
Addiction is a scary thing.
[ Laughter ]
I'm not even eating this
because I'm hungry.
[ Chuckles ]
We all just want to feel good.
Mm, I just swallowed
an entire shrimp.
[ Laughs ]
Thanks to that flour coating,
it just went right down.
