The BEST Shrimp and Grits | 50 States, 50 Plates (Ep. 1)

Hey y'all, I'm Mandy, and this is Mandy in the Making. I am so excited about a brand new series that we're doing. We're gonna explore our country through food. Every week, we'll cook an iconic local dish, we'll dive into some history, and we're even gonna let our cookie jar pick our next destination. I'm calling this series 50 States, 50 Plates. So why should you join us on this journey? Because this is gonna be so much more than cooking. We are gonna explore America one plate at a time. I'm gonna show you how to recreate famous regional dishes at home in your kitchen. We're gonna use simple, everyday ingredients, and along the way, I'm gonna share some fun history. We're also gonna ask you guys for pictures from around the country, so we can discover what makes each state very special. So come along with us on this delicious way to see our country without ever having to leave your home. And of course, we're gonna start right here in South Carolina with a low country classic, shrimp and grits. So you're gonna have to tell me below, have you ever had shrimp and grits? And I'm guessing a lot of you have not. It's a really easy meal to make, and there's lots of different versions that you can make. We've made a version here on our channel before. Today, we're going a little bit of a different route, but it's fun to kind of change it up. Here's the thing. If you don't have grits local to you, because I know that's more of a Southern thing, you can get these grits that we're using online. I will link it below. They don't know that I'm linking this. I don't earn anything from that. But that's a way for you to get a really great quality grits shipped right to your home so that you can recreate this without having to travel to South Carolina. We went and picked these up at Sweet Tea Station yesterday. Sweet Tea Station is a local coffee shop slash, of course, they have sweet tea as well, but they also carry all kinds of different things. And one of the great things that they carry is this particular brand of grits. So let's get started on our grits. That's the longest part of cooking today. We are using these stone ground grits. You can use the quick grits if you wanted to, but they're gonna have a little bit different texture. So I highly recommend doing these. We need one cup of chicken broth. And I'm just making enough for two people today because that's something that's kind of important here. This is not a leftover kind of meal. You don't want leftover shrimp, really. So just a heads up, you're gonna just wanna make enough for you and whoever else is eating and not plan to have leftovers. So we've got one cup of low sodium chicken broth. We need one cup of whole milk and we need about a tablespoon of butter. That's gonna go in as well. Now, I'm also gonna add just a little bit of salt to this. We don't need a lot, but let's bring this up to a boil. While we wait on that to come up to temperature, we're gonna be using the shrimp that we got from our local grocery store. You want the peeled, deveined shrimp. You can always get this frozen. Not a problem, just thaw it out. But we got fresh this time just because we're trying to make it fancy. Today, I'm just gonna do a little over a third a cup of grits, not quite half a cup because I'm only making two servings. We need to shred some cheese. Shred some cheese. We're gonna do cheesy grits this time. In the past when I've made it, I don't normally do the cheesy grits, but we're adding cheese this time. A little cheddar to make it better. So recently when I've been shredding cheese, I've been using the smaller grate insert on my shredder. If you don't have this shredder, highly recommend. I've got one linked in my Amazon store. But this just makes it a smaller amount so that it melts even faster. Not smaller amount, a smaller size. We'll taste this. Mm-hmm. Gotta make sure it's good. Yeah. A little bit of quality control. Okay, look at that. We are starting to come up to a bubble, which is exactly what we want. Mm, that butter's all melted throughout. So let's add in our grits. And that doesn't look like a whole lot, but y'all, it's gonna soak up all of that and it's gonna be so creamy. So now that it's up to a boil, we're gonna turn it down to about medium low. We're gonna let this simmer for about 15 minutes. Now, every now and then we're gonna come in here and we're gonna whisk it, and it's just gonna get thicker and creamier. It's gonna be amazing. We're in South Carolina, but I know a lot of you know Georgia, our next door neighbor, as the peach state. But did you know South Carolina is the number one peach producer in the South? We're number two in the country behind California. Who knew? But Georgia is not really the peach state. So while our grits are going, we're gonna start here. We need to heat this pan to about medium high-ish. We're gonna be cooking some bacon in here. That is key to shrimp and grits. You want some crumbled bacon over top. Trust me. And the bacon grease too. Yeah, we're gonna use the bacon grease and we're gonna cook the shrimp in the bacon grease. You gotta have bacon with shrimp and grits. I don't care how you make it, make sure you have bacon. We've got our bacon going, we've got our grits going. For topping, we just want a little bit of green onion on top, so I'm just gonna go ahead and chop some of that up now. So when you hear the state, South Carolina, what city do you immediately think of? My guess is you're probably either thinking Charleston, Myrtle Beach, or Greenville. Those are probably the top three. Spartanburg, where we live, is right outside of Greenville. We're just a hop and a skip away from Greenville. Charleston is absolutely beautiful. And Myrtle Beach is not my favorite place. It has become very overcrowded and I just, I don't enjoy going to Myrtle Beach. There's so many more beaches in the state of South Carolina that I feel like are better than Myrtle Beach. But it's definitely a having in place. There's a lot to do there. So our bacon is done. I'm just gonna remove it to a paper towel. We're gonna be using most of this bacon grease. I may drain a little bit, for our shrimp. Now, I'm not gonna start on my shrimp quite yet because I want to time it to where my grits are pretty much finished when I start on my shrimp because as y'all know, shrimp takes 2.5 seconds to cook. So it's been about 15 minutes. However, it was not simmering that entire time. I had turned it down and it had kind of lost the little bubbling action. So we're just kind of monitoring it, but here we are at our consistency right now and it's not quite thick enough. So we're gonna let this hang out for a few more minutes. We're almost there, just not quite. So let's chop up our bacon for topping. We have the thick cut bacon. I'm responsible for that. Mm-hmm. So it's not gonna crumble as easily. I said, I'm gonna get the bacon. I'm the one that got the thick stuff. I mean, you know, that's what a man does. So in the South, we eat grits with breakfast a lot, not with shrimp necessarily, just by itself. And most people add salt and pepper, maybe some cheese and bacon. They make it a savory side dish. I do not. I put sugar in my grits and not a lot of people do that. You'll have to comment below and let me know. Do you like the sweet grits or do you like more of the savory? Now, I like the savory, obviously, but in the morning when I have my eggs and my bacon, I want to put a little bit of sugar in my grits. And I'll never forget one time I went to a Waffle House and I grabbed the sugar container that's meant for like your coffee or whatever. And I was pouring it in my grits and the waitress said, honey, that's not salt. I said, I know. She was like, it's not very common for people to put sugar in their grits, but I love it. So we are finally there at the consistency that we want. You see how it's still very creamy, but it's not super liquidy. That's what we want. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna turn the heat off and I'm gonna pop the lid on this and we're gonna start on our shrimp. So for this, we've got some leftover bacon grease. However, I did drain some of it. And you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna supplement and add just a little bit of olive oil too. And this is the garlic infused olive oil that we really love. So I'm gonna add just a little bit of that in, not a lot, but that'll bring even more flavor, which is what we want. So I'm gonna let that heat through for just a second and then we're gonna throw our shrimp in. Okay, so let's go in with our shrimp. I've got a half a pound of shrimp because it's just two of us eating. And then we're gonna season our shrimp once I get it in here. So let me get it in an even layer here. I'm gonna throw Old Bay seasoning on there. You can do just salt and pepper if you want to, that's fine. This has a good bit of salt in it, but I love the flavors of Old Bay seasoning. And then I'm also gonna throw a little extra pepper in there. Okay, these are gonna cook for like two minutes. To our grits, let's add our cheese and stir it around. We're gonna let that melt as we flip our shrimp. Okay, let me season the other side. Throw a little more Old Bay on here. That looks good, baby doll. We're about to throw some butter in here with it because these are almost done. About a tablespoon of butter is gonna go in. Just a little bit of chicken broth, like a quarter cup, just to make it a little saucy. These are just about done, which means it's about time to eat. It's gonna be amazing. Mm-hmm. That is the most perfect consistency. Exactly what we want. It didn't look like a lot of grits, but man, it definitely thickens up and makes a lot of grits. We'll pour some of this sauce over top of it too. So shrimp and grits have been around for quite a long time. However, it didn't really get started, people weren't calling it shrimp and grits until the 1980s. Before that, especially like in the Charleston area, people called it breakfast shrimp or they called it shrimp and hominy, which hominy is basically cooked grits. So I'm not saying harmony in a weird way, by the way. Hominy. But now they call it shrimp and grits, but it wasn't made popular as like a nationally known thing until the 80s. Some Southern chefs really started making the grits super creamy, adding a lot of cheese, adding even mushrooms and things like that and making it more of a star platter. And so then it became kind of nationally known as shrimp and grits. And again, a lot of you probably have never even had it. So highly recommend that you try it at home. You don't even have to come to South Carolina. I mean, we recommend coming and visiting South Carolina, but if you can't, make this at home. I'm excited about this. This is gonna be so good. All right, go ahead. Look at it. Oh, man. You gotta dig in. I haven't had shrimp and grits and I can't remember. Yeah, it's been a while. Usually we don't have it unless we go to the low country. Man, those grits are so creamy. Baby! Is it good? Wow! Why are you screaming? You did so good. That is amazing. Golly! Just wait till you eat that. They're so fruity. That is incredible. Oh man, the creamy, buttery, bacon flavor. And the shrimps are perfectly cooked. Yay. So tender. Yes. Just, mmm! You don't wanna overcook your shrimp. You don't want rubbery shrimp. So you gotta be real careful. You got to try this. Okay. I may eat. You are going to love this. He has sold it. You ready? Yeah. Is that not? Cheesy, bacon-y. Delicious. Those grits are so smooth and creamy. And the shrimp are perfectly cooked. Yeah, and that flavor is just out of this world. Man, that Old Bay seasoning. What? Yeah. That's my favorite. That is amazing flavors in there, baby. Okay. Yeah. Babe, I'm just so proud of you right now. Show them your plate. Yeah. I mean, look. Grandma would be mad. You gonna eat that? Last bite. Mmm, man. What did you tell me? I'm stunned. But you said, out of all the shrimp and grits you've ever had. This is the best, by far, that I've ever had. I mean, I've had some shrimp and grits that were good. And I would say this is definitely in somewhere in the top. I mean, you did this, sweetheart. You did this. So, I really like adding the cheese to it. Yes. The bacon flavor throughout is tremendous. Yes. But it's so simple. It is simple. There's nothing fancy about this. Nothing fancy about it. I'm gonna tell you what, this is gonna be on the top five. You already called it. But to be honest with you, them grits by themselves could be on the top five. Those grits are so good. If you have never tried this particular type of grits, highly recommend trying it. They are a step above. There is a reason why we made a special trip just to go get these grits. Definitely order these grits if you can, because it's gonna make a huge difference based off of just like grocery store grits versus these grits. Heaven forbid, you have to use- It makes a difference. Anything else. Yeah. But these grits are absolutely amazing. Oh my goodness, babe. I'm so proud of you. I just can't get over how good this is. Well, thank you. It is so good, sweetheart. Thank you. You did such a good job. Yes, it's good. All right, you ready? So, we need to figure out which state we're going to next. I've got 49 states in here. Obviously, South Carolina is not in there. But we were trying to figure out how we were gonna figure out the next week. And we said, you know what? We're going with grandmom's cookie jar. This is Steven's grandmother's cookie jar. We're going with that. So, we've got 49 states in here. Upside down? Upside down. We're going to- Texas. Oh, that's a good one. I'm excited about that. Yeah. So, you gotta leave us a comment below. What do you think we're gonna make from Texas? At the beginning of each week, we're gonna share pictures from y'all. So, I am really hoping that y'all are gonna send us in some pictures. So, for next episode, we're gonna do like a flashback to South Carolina. If you are from South Carolina and you have some really pretty pictures of landscape, however you wanna show us South Carolina in your pictures, to mystateatmandianthemaking.com. I'll get those in and I will pick a few and share them next week when we get started on Texas. So, don't forget to hit that like button. Hit subscribe if you're not yet subscribed. We are so excited to go through all 50 states from the comfort of our own home, but we get to try food from everywhere. Thank y'all for being here. We look forward to seeing you next week. Bye, y'all.