Riverside Ovens
Test Kitchen

Grits are easy to make good.  On their own, at least in the simple instant form, grits aren't much more than water and texture, but add to them a variety of spice, vegetable and shrimp and its like instant transformation to comfort food.  I had been enthusiastically introduced to the wonderful world of grits a few years back in Charleston, SC, where grits are God and a little out of the way eatery on the

grounds of Middleton Place served a batch that blew my socks off -- it was one of the great meals I've ever had.  That was homemade and had about two hundred years of experience behind it. Recently, a batch from Doc Ford's New Orleans eatery at Captiva Island continued in-line with the excellence.  Here up north, grits are not particularly prodigious on menus, but in the past few years the instant packs have showed up on shelves.  One half cup of boiling water onto the pack of dried grits and

that's that, a fine, but dull, concoction that could be used as a simple side for somebody.  A nice recipe in Food Network's most recent magazine provided what seemed like a good solution: cover those grits with everything but the kitchen sink. Get some butter in there, a bit of pepper jack cheese, celery, bell pepper, some garlic, scallions, chopped tomato, juice of lemon and, of course, a cayenne seasoned handful of shrimp.  I did all of this, plus added a sauce of parma rosa as a kind of gravy to pull it all together and to seep down into the grits, creating flavor in every pocket.  Luckily all of this, although a pinch spicy on the shrimp, is mostly mellow and something kids can enjoy as long as they set aside the scallions.