Shrimp & Grits: A Soulful Classic, Elevated | LIVE

Happy Wednesday, I hope everyone is doing amazing. Today we are making a very special dish. Hello, we are making shrimp and grits, which this dish originated with the Gullah Geechee people. Have you guys ever heard of them? Go ahead, Google, Google this dish. This is where that dish originated. It started off as a humble dish for the fishermen and for the individuals that were going out and working. This dish has just been elevated and elevated, and now it's this illustrious dish that everyone loves. I just want to welcome everyone. We are making this meal. It's going to be delicious. I hope everyone is here to have a good time. If this is your first time tuning in, you are in luck. We party here. We have a great time. Everyone that attends are my cousins, and we just have an amazing time hanging out. From time to time, I'm going to go to the chat. I'm going to give some shout outs to people who are attending my A1 day ones. They are here every single day, which is my brother. Hi, brother. I know that you are here. I know my boo is here. Hello, boo. Thank you for attending. Look, we have some new people here. Okay, so I go and I read the comments. We have Ms. Ralph. Hello, club. Welcome. That is my sorority sister, everyone. She is here. We have a great time. If you are cooking along with me, yes, we actually have people at home cooking along. I love it. The ingredient list is in the description of this live. The ingredients are enough for a family of four. Okay. Right now, I'm not cooking for four. Okay. Sometimes I cook for one. Sometimes I cook for two. So when you see me cooking, it's going to be slightly different measurements, but just follow the measurements that are in the description and you will be fine. I want to welcome you guys to tonight's live. Happy Black History Month, everyone. Hello. Let's not forget. Happy Black History Month. If you're just tuning in, let's get started. The show of this dish, the start of this dish, in my opinion, are not the shrimp. They are the grits. Okay. And grits, even though people think they're simple to make, I judge grits very heavily when I go out. They really aren't an easy dish to make because you have to have the right texture, the flavor. I am going to put you guys onto game. I am sharing my great grandmother's recipe for grits. I went and judged it up a little bit. We're going to elevate it a little bit, but if you follow this recipe, you are guaranteed to have the most delicious grits ever. Okay. I'm telling you, these will be the best grits you've ever had. All right. So welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome everyone. We have people pulling up, the cousins are pulling up. Cousins are always pulling up late to the party, but that is fine. There is never a late time to hang out and make meals with Mika. Let's get started on these grits. So I have some white corn grits right here. And throughout this recipe, I'm going to give you substitutions. So I'm going to give you a substitution. If you don't have these corn grits, you can use polenta. Polenta is going to be like a yellow corn meal. If you have quick cooking grits, you can use quick cooking grits, but I have the original grits right here. So let's get these on first. Okay. You guys know I'll pull out my little, I'll pull out my little cooking pad right here. Okay. How is everyone doing today? I hope everyone is having a wonderful hump day. The key to cooking delicious grits is flavor. Okay. We want to flavor these grits. So the directions say you're supposed to use water. We are not using water. Okay. We are using chicken stock. I always use chicken stock. So I'm going to pour, this is one and one third cup of chicken bouillon or chicken stock in here. This is going to be the base of the grits. All right. You want your grits to be seasoned really, really nicely. And then, you know, once the grits start cooking, we're going to make them umptious. So right now we're just going to wait until this comes to a boil. Okay. And while, while we're waiting on our stock to come to a boil, let's just share what other ingredients we're going to be using. Okay. Okay. So this is just going to be in and out, in and out. I hope everyone is doing great today. I am so excited to have everyone here. So we have our chicken stock cooking. What else are we going to need for these grits? Okay. We're going to need butter. All right. This is whole butter. We don't use margarine around here. We don't use, so you think it's not butter or, you know, all the imitations. We use real ingredients around here. It is okay to use butter. We got more cousins pulling up. Welcome. Welcome everyone. You are making meals with Mika. You are just in time. I am starting to cook the grits part of our shrimp and grits. And I am sharing the ingredients that we're going to use for these grits. I have some chicken stock that is getting really hot on the hot plate. I have some butter. We're also going to use some cheddar cheese. Okay. This is a block of cheddar cheese. If you've cooked with me, if you see my reels, you know that I'm a big advocate for shredding your own cheese. We do not use shredded cheese here. Okay. The already shredded cheese has a chemical on the outside. It's actually like sawdust. Like who wants to eat sawdust? But it has a chemical on the outside of this cheese to prevent it from sticking together. But we want our cheese to stick together. So we are using some cheddar cheese. I have about four ounces here. Okay. And then we also are going to use some half and half. Yes. The half and half is one of my secret ingredients to make grits nice, creamy, and luscious. Okay. I hope you guys are taking notes. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome everyone. And we like to see where everyone is from. So I'm not going to do it right now. I'll wait until we have more cousins coming, but we have people from all across the world tuning in to make your meals with Mika. And you know, in a minute, I'm going to shoot a shout out to say, Hey, rep your city, rep your state, rep your country. We always have people from like everywhere from Asia, from Africa. We have people on every continent tuning in and that just makes me feel so good. So I hope you guys are ready to make these delicious shrimp and grits as, as the, the, the, the I'm just drawing a blank. What's going on here as the, as the stock is heating up, let's get started on prepping our ingredients. Okay. Now you're going to see this bacon on this cutting board. We're going to, the bacon is going to come into play a little bit later. Okay. But we are going to shred our cheese and you're like, well, Mika, can I use shredded cheese from the store? I mean, you can use shredded cheese from the store. I just don't suggest it. Okay. I would like for you to make this dish using already grated cheese for using the cheese that you grate. And I am like straight up old school. I literally use my little, my grater because I just like doing it. Right. But if you have one of those little fancy cheese graders that you like spin to grate your cheese, whatever works, use whatever you want to, you got a food processor or whatever you want to, I'm just going to use this because I mean, it's just what I grew up on. Okay. Let's see. We have some people already shouting out where they're from. So we have Russell. Thank you for hanging out with us. We have Mary. Mary is watching from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. So she already started it off. Hello, Mary from Pittsburgh. I am Mika. I am representing Chicago, Illinois. So we got the Midwest in the house. So go ahead. You want to rep your city, rep your state, rep where you are from. We are all family here. Let's go. And what we also do is we like to share similarities. So if you're from a culture that you don't have shrimp and grits, but you have something that's very similar, please drop it in the chat. I would love, love to hear about the similarities of our cultures. We have, someone says, I am watching from Laugh Tale, Texas. I have never in my life heard of that, of that city, but hello from Texas. What's up? We have Vanessa here. Hello, Vanessa. Welcome. You guys are, if you're just tuning in, you're making meals with and we are ready to cook these grits. Okay. And you guys know I cook on a hot plate because my stove is over there and no one wants to watch me cook from the side. Like we've tried it and it really didn't work. So we're just going to do it from this angle. So I have the, the chicken stock warming up. Now you guys know I am really big on, listen, I don't measure anything. I just eyeball it, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm real big on that. One of my secrets to making grits is I always measure my grits. Okay. If you want the perfect consistency, you want to take the guessing out of it. I always measure my grits. The perfect ratio to grits to liquid is one to four. Okay. One to four. So if you have one fourth cup of grits, you want one cup of liquid. I am telling you it is the perfect ratio. So I do measure my grits guys. Okay. Yeah. I, this is a rare time that you hear me say I measure. I, we're going to go ahead and measure these grits. So our stock is boiling, which is perfect. And we're just going to put the grits in here. So I have, now I'm using one third cup because this is perfect for two people. Okay. So I have one and one third cup of liquid in this pan. I mean, in this pot, and you just, you want it to boil and then you just want to reduce it. So I'm going to reduce it so it can cook slowly. Okay. And we're just going to reduce it and let it do its thing for a second with grits. We just want to let them do their thing before we go in and make them delicious. And these are going to need about 20 minutes to cook. Okay. Let's go to the comments real quick. Let's see here. We have Mary says, I love shrimps and shrimp and grits. And I was raised on them. Yes, ma'am. I'm going to give you guys a secret in a second. I love grits. Okay. I love grits. The secret is I'm really not a big fan of shrimp. I have tried them my whole entire life. It's a texture thing to me. I will eat them. I cook them, but I'm really not a big fan of shrimp. So for my dinner, cause you guys know, when I cook here, I eat it. I am going to actually eat sausage with some, with a nice little sauce with my shrimp. I mean, with my grits and any shrimp, these are for my boo. Okay. I'm just going to keep it 100 with you guys. But even though I don't eat a particular protein, I can cook everything. That is a test of a good cook. So I don't eat shrimp like that. And it's a texture thing, but I do know how to cook it. Okay. Let's see. We have the real channel and says, I use leffy bacon for it. I've never heard of leffy bacon. Is that a particular bacon for where you are, what region you're in? Let me know about that. Do you make chili con carne? I do make chili. You can hit me up on my email and I can send you a really good chili recipe. But right now we are going in with the shrimp and grits. We have the main ingredient. We have the grits are on. And you guys, I'm telling you this recipe is so simple. All right. So let's just let the grits do their thing right now. Okay. We're not going to mess with them too much. Let's talk about these shrimp. Okay. So I am using, these are medium sized shrimp. These are about 19 to 20 per pound. Okay. And these are raw. All right. So when you get your shrimp, you want your shrimp to be Brown. You want them to be D vein. The vein is, is the, is the poop. Okay. We don't want to eat shrimp with the poop. Okay. So you want to get your shrimp D veined. All right. I'm going to show you a really quick trick, trick on how to get this, this shell off. And then we're going to season these up. But before I do, I'm going to move my trash a little closer. You guys know, I have to move my trash closer. Let me wash my hands real quick. Okay. So we have our shrimp here, right? And these are already D vein. Now here's a quick way to peel your shrimp. So I just push them up just a little bit from the tail. And then you go in and you grab the center and you pull. Voila. Okay. You guys want to see me do that again? So you just push the tail up just a little bit, and then you take the center and then you pull it. And then it just comes off easy peasy. Okay. So I'm going to do these real quickly. And I'm going to season these for you guys. Okay. Listen guys, we got more cousins pulling up. Welcome. You guys are making meals with Mika and we are cleaning these shrimp. We're getting the shells off of the shrimp. Okay. And then we're going to butterfly these and we're going to cook these. Now I have about a half a pound of shrimp right here. Okay. So I would say a half a pound is good. A good serving per person. And this is about 12 shrimp and these are medium sized shrimp. So it's about 19 to 20 per pound. Okay. And this is just for references. All right. Let's see here. So I am quickly peeling these shrimp. Now, some people I know like to leave the shell on and you season it. And then the seasoning gets down in the shell. I have found that for shrimp and grits is best to take the shell off. Okay. So we're not leaving the shell on here. I know flavor lives in the shell. We're going to go ahead and take that shell off. Look, you guys, we got 50 people. We got 50 people at the table right now. Hello. Hello. Hello. You are just in time. We are about to butterfly and season the shrimp for our shrimp and grits. I am so happy that we have people hanging out with me today on this hump day. If you're just joining, go ahead and drop in the chat where you are from. So far, we have someone from Pennsylvania. We have someone from Texas. I'm Mika. I'm representing the Midwest. We have my sorority sister. She's from the Midwest. Tierney is here. We have my brother. He's from South Bend, Indiana, which is my hometown. So the Midwest is representing. Okay. Let me know where else you guys are from. So this is how we're going to butterfly the shrimp. Okay. So when you peel the shrimp, it has this natural line. Do you guys see this line right there? And you have to be gentle here. We're going to take the knife and we're just going to just go down the back of the shrimp. Not all the way, but about halfway. Okay. And then it opens your shrimp up. So you have the regular shrimp that hasn't been butterflied, and then you have the butterflied shrimp. I have found that butterfly shrimp, it soaks up so much more seasoning and flavoring, and they're also easier to eat. So I'm going to go through and we're going to butterfly these shrimp and then we're going to saute them in this beautiful, delicious broth. And we're going to pour it over the shrimp and grits and we're going to make, I mean the grits, and we're going to make this delicious dish. Okay. So I'm just butterflying the shrimp. We got 62 people hanging out. Hello. Hello. Welcome cousins. Welcome. If you're just tuning in, you are making meals with Mika and I am just making these shrimp more beautiful. You know, butterflies are beautiful, right? So I am turning these shrimp into butterflies and I'm just taking them. I'm just opening them up a little bit. So when we get ready to saute them, they could get all of that beautiful, deliciousness that we're going to make this sauce from. Our grits are already cooking. They're just doing their little thing. We're just going to let them hang out before we make them delicious. And if you're just tuning in and you miss my little tip for making grits, I suggest that you measure your grits. Okay. And the ratio is one to four, one part grits to four parts liquid. And if you use that ratio, I'm telling you, your grits are going to come out the perfect consistency every time. And if they don't go ahead and send me an email or inbox me and say, Mika, I use the four to one method and my grits were not delicious. And then I can walk you through how to make them more delicious. Okay. So here we go. Now, typically people will use a type of like, um, Cajun seasoning or something like that. Uh, you know, one, uh, all in one seasoning. And I, I have no qualms against that, but I like to make my own seasoning. So if you're using something like a Tony's or like what, like a Zatarain's or what's the other, um, Cajun seasoning, let me just tell you what's in there. And that way you could, you know, play around with it yourself. So we're going to lightly salt the shrimp. We don't want to, um, heavily salt these. We're going to lightly salt the shrimp and I'm using a kosher salt. Okay. And then we're going to use some black pepper. Okay. I'm grounding my black pepper, but you can use, you know, regular black pepper. All right. Then we're going to use a little celery seasoning. Yes. Celery seasoning. Go check out your Cajun seasoning. I bet it has a little celery salt in there, but this I'm just going to use celery seed because we don't want this too salty. So yes, I bet you guys didn't know that we're going to put a little celery on there and we are, that's going to add a depth of flavor to these shrimps. Then we're going to go in with some smoked paprika. Okay. We, you know, we got to do everything smoked around here. That's going to add a nice smokiness. And then you could either use crushed cayenne pepper, which is really spicy, or you can be like me and use some crushed red pepper. And I'm just going to use just a little bit. Okay. Just a little bit. And this is our seasoning for the shrimp. Now I'm just going to mix these in and I can already smell the seasoning. One way to know that your food is properly seasoned is if you can smell it. I can smell the seasoning, which is exactly, it's exactly what we want. Let me, let me show you guys. Okay. Look at that. You need to see the seasoning on your, on your food. If you don't see the seasoning on that food, then it's not seasoned. Okay. So cooking is you use all your senses here. So with your eyes, you need to be able to see that seasoning. These shrimp are seasoned perfectly. I can, I can just smell the aroma. We're going to put those down, let them marinate. Okay. Let's check on these grits. You guys think the grits are done yet? They shouldn't be, but we're about to check to see what they're looking like. And they're just at a, at a, at a low boil. And that's what you want. You don't want your grits to cook too quickly. If you cook them too quickly, the texture is, is just terrible. So I'm gonna go in with my spoon and let's see here. I don't know if you guys could, if you guys could see, but they are right here. Okay. They're not ready just yet. All right. I'm just going, going on around here and I am using, yes, I am using this little bitty pot because I'm not cooking for a lot of people, but let me let you guys see that. Okay. So right now they're not done. Okay. We, we gotta, we gotta let these do a lot more cooking. So I'm just going to leave them alone. Okay. Let them do their little thing. I'm going to add just a little more chicken broth to these. Just a little bit. I know I just got done talking about the perfect, uh, the perfect ratio. Maybe I put a little bit too many grits in there cause they were looking a little dry. So I had to add a little more, but okay. We're good. Oh, we got 102 people here. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. You guys are making meals with Mika and I just checked on our grits. Okay. Our grits is just, they're just doing their little thing here and we're going to make them luscious in a second. All right. Let's get started on the base for the sauce for our shrimp. Okay. Now we have our parsley for later. We have our, our lemon. This is going to be for seasoning. And then right now we have a shallot. Okay. I am going to use a shallot because a shallot is nice and sweet. It's going to give you a little more sweetness than an onion and it's not going to overpower the shrimp. You know, shrimps are very delicate and if you use too much seasoning or flavoring, you over, overpower the shrimp and we do not want to do that. So I'm going to cut this shallot. I'm going to dice it really nice and fine. Okay. And this is going to be the base of this sauce for our, our shrimp. The sauce is going to be nice and garlicky and delicious. Okay. So I'm going to dice this very finely. Take my knife through here. And I love shallot. You guys, if you want a nice onion flavor, but you know, the onions can do too much sometime. I suggest using a shallot. They are perfect. And you can also use shallot in most sauces, you know, in pastas and things like that. They just turn out so delicious. And I'm only going to use a half of a shallot because I'm only using a half a pound of shrimp. So that's a really good measurement. I would say use a half a shallot or one shallot per pound of shrimp. Okay. So I'm going to use one half shallot here. I'm chopping. And then I'm going to chop a lot of garlic because I love garlic and garlic is delicious. So I'm going to chop five cloves of garlic. And you guys know, like if you follow me, garlic is one of my favorite, my favorite seasonings. So I'm just going to use five cloves of garlic. Well, I'm going to use six. Okay. And those of you that are just tuning in, welcome cousins. Welcome. You are making meals with Mika. If you are having a good time, go ahead, hit the like button, drop where you are from in the comments. And every now and then I'm going to go to the comments and I'm going to read them, you know, because I like to interact. We are all here together having a great time on this Wednesday. I really appreciate you guys. And why is someone calling me? And I thought my phone was on do not disturb. Okay. They have to do better. Someone said I was gorgeous. Thank you for saying I'm gorgeous. I will always shout out that comment when people call me gorgeous. Thank you. We have someone from Baton Rouge. Okay. If you're from Baton Rouge, I know you eat a lot of shrimp and grits. Okay. I know you eat a lot of shrimp and grits, honey. Okay. So we have the garlic all chopped and we have our shallot. All right. Okay. Are you guys ready for this? Someone asked me, do I, do I still have my Christmas tree up? Okay. Look guys. Okay. You guys see that? Let's just take a break real quick. So technically, yes, that is my Christmas tree. But if you can tell there's no ornaments or anything on there. And this is why that is up. Have you ever gone to like a big department store or any type of store and you see greenery, like you'll see these nice, pretty trees or bushes and it has lights and it just brings like, you know, just a smile to your face and it, it just makes the room more comfortable. That's what I, that's the little, you know, um, mode or mood that I have going on in there. Okay. That is my feng shui. So yes, my tree is up, but it is strictly so I can have the nice white lights in the greenery, you know, to, to relax in. All right. But yes, my, my, my Christmas tree is up a 100% and it stays up all year. Now I just took all the ornaments down. So technically it's not a Christmas tree. It's just greenery. Okay. Let's get back to cooking. Shall we? We got 148 people hanging out with us today. We are making shrimp and grits. All right. So I have just chopped up the shallot. I have just chopped up the garlic and we are about to get started on the shrimp. Okay. Drop where you are from in the chat. I love to know where you are from. All right. Oh, before we do that. So the base of the shrimp, I have two pieces of bacon here. Yes. We use pork around here. Okay. I am going to chop this bacon up and I am going to saute the bacon in the skillet. And this is going to be the base of our shrimp and grits. Now, if you don't eat pork, what else can you use here? You can use a little olive oil. You can use some avocado oil. I wouldn't say use turkey bacon because we know turkey bacon does not have pork and it's not going to give what it's supposed to give. So we're just going to omit turkey bacon all the way. Okay. Just go ahead. Use regular bacon. If you're not using regular bacon, then I would just say, you know, use some olive oil. Okay. Just that easily. We have, let's go to the, to the comments. We have someone, Jay Kelly. Jay Kelly is A1 from day one. He is here. I mean, she is here every single weekend, every single weekend, every single Wednesday hanging out from Vegas. So hello, Jay Kelly. Welcome, welcome, welcome. I just chopped up this bacon. All right. And let's get, let's get, let's keep cooking. Let's keep cooking guys. I hope everyone is feeling great. This is actually my favorite day of the week because I get to hang out with you guys, make my, my food with you and just share my love for cooking. So I really appreciate you guys being here. All right. So I'm going to let this pan get nice and warm. You guys, let's check on these grits. Okay. So the grits are ready to get some love and just so they can just do their thing. So to these grits, I am going to have to add some half and half. Now this is a secret. I'm going to nuke this really quickly. Whenever you are adding liquid to something that's already cooking, make sure you warm the liquid up. Okay. It's important to warm the liquid up. Why Mika, why do we have to warm the liquid up? Because these grits, they have already reached a good temperature, right? They're cooking, they're getting nice and soft. So they are at a proper temperature. If I add something cold to this pot right now, my temperature is going to go down. That means that's going to change the texture of my grits. We don't want that. So because I'm going to add some liquid to here, I'm going to heat this, my half and half up because I want to make sure that the temperature of this pot stays where it's supposed to stay. Okay. That's why I'm going to go ahead and heat that up. Now we haven't seasoned these grits yet. Okay. But it's coming. Don't even worry about it. These grits have been cooking. If you're just coming in, I have our grits. These grits have been cooking for about 20 minutes and I have been cooking them in chicken stock. Okay. All right. We have someone from Santa Barbara. Hello. Hello, Benny. How is California right now? I've never been to Santa Barbara. All right. So let's, let's, let's add some love to these grits. So these are the grits right now. All right. These grits are not done. You see, they're kind of pale. They have no flavor, no seasonings, no anything. All right. So what we're going to do is we are going to add, I'm going to add approximately two tablespoons of butter to these grits. Okay. You've got to add butter. All right. I am going to season with a little salt, but I'm going to be very careful because I cook these in chicken stock. So I have to be very careful about adding salt. Okay. I'm going to add some fresh black pepper. Yes. These grits are getting seasoned. Do you hear me? Okay. And then I am going to add, I wish you guys could see inside of this pan. Then I'm going to add gently my half and half, and this is going to add the luscious creaminess to the grits that we want. Okay. And the good thing about the grits is it's going to soak up all of the cream. Okay. Someone says I'm coming over. Well, come on over. Let's go. Come on over. All right. Now I'm going to add a little bit more half and half because we want these to be just soaky and delicious. What up guys? We got 200 people hanging out right now in the kitchen. We are making shrimp and grits. All right. Now, now you guys can see that texture turning already, right? We're not done yet. You know that cheddar cheese that I grated myself. We're going to add the cheddar cheese here. Okay. So those of you that are just tuning in, let me tell you what's going on in this pot right now. We have grits that have been cooking in chicken stock. Okay. That is our base. All right. Then we added some butter. We added some half and half, and I just added some homemade shredded, some home, some hand shredded cheddar cheese. We added salt. We added black pepper. Okay. Now, if you wanted to, you can add a little garlic to here, but because our shrimp is going to have a nice amount of garlic, I'm not going to add too much garlic. And then I'm just stirring. Okay. Look at this, you guys. Look at that. Look at this. This is, I'm not even done yet. Okay. I'm not even done yet. Let me, I'm going to finish adding the rest of my cream. Well, half and half. And if you're following my directions, I've already told you how much to add. Okay. But you want your grits, like your grits should be a nice, smooth, kind of like a cream of wheat consistency, right? You don't want them too tight. You don't want them too loose. You want them like this. Okay. Like a porridge. Look at that. All right. So this has everything that it needs. And then I'm just going to turn these down and just let all of those, those ingredients just get to know each other. And then of course I'm going to taste them. So I'm just going to taste the back of the spoon. Y'all know when I dance, it's delicious. I am telling you they are delicious already. Now they just got to go ahead and do what they're going to do. So what I'm going to do is I'm actually going to put these on my stove. Okay. Don't worry. They're not going anywhere. I'm going to put these on my stove and just let them do their thing. All right, let's go. This is the nitty gritty. This is the good part. It's time to cook the shrimp. All right. So we're going to start with the bacon. Okay. If you don't have bacon at home, it's okay. No worries. We're not going to flip out. Okay. You're just going to omit this step and we're going to use just a little bit of avocado or olive oil. You know, no biggie. We're not flipping out here. All right. So while I am rendering the fat from the bacon, let's go to the comments. Let's see what people are saying. Someone says, what are you cooking? Well, I am cooking. Is that, is that rain? Right. I am making shrimp and grits. Okay. So right now I, the grits are pretty much done, but I'm just letting them do their thing. Just letting all the seasonings melt together. And I am cooking the bacon for our shrimp. Okay. Now we're working on our shrimp and the sauce and we're going to pour it over the, the shrimp and it's going to be delicious. All right. We have Jason. Hey, Hey, Hey, thank you for coming in and speaking. Jay. I love when people come to the live and they speak. Okay. Someone raised you. Well, I am loving the manner, the manners. Someone says two, seven, two in the chat. Okay. I don't even know what that is. We just want to keep going. Never made grits. Jane, you've never made grits. Well, you are in for a treat boo, because I just taught you how to make the most delicious grits. So not only are you seeing grits being made for the first time, but you're seeing them being made gorgeously. Let's see. Dakota says bacon sounds good. Doesn't it sound good? Listen, everyone, whatever your preference is, I support that. You know, if you don't want to eat pork, don't eat pork. If you eat pork, eat pork. But there is just something about bacon. Okay. I feel like even if I was to stop eating pork, I would still eat bacon. It's just that delicious to me. Okay. And so we got to get Jane, you guys. She's never tried shrimp and grits. We got to get her together. I hope everyone is having an amazing time. Go ahead and tell me where you are from in the comments. I'd love to know where you're viewing from. We have people from all over the world hanging out at this kitchen table. Okay. So drop where you from. I already let everyone know that I am representing from the Midwest. Chicago is in the house. Okay. Where are you guys from? Let me know. I really appreciate it. We have someone from England. Well, hello, England. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. We have Atlanta. We have California. We have Bloomington, Illinois. Let's go. Someone says shrimp is their thing. I think shrimp is everyone's thing, you know. So you are in good company. We have urban Texas. We have Charlotte. We got Massachusetts. Let's go. We have people from everywhere just hanging out. And if you are from somewhere that really does not eat shrimp and grits, I would love to know if there's a dish that's similar. Okay. Let's share similar experiences. We have someone from Australia. Hello, Crystal from Australia. Hello. We have Carol. Is that Carol from New Jersey? Let's go, New Jersey. We got Detroit in the house. Let's go, Motor City. We got everyone from everywhere. We got Connecticut. What's up, Connecticut? Hello. Okay. So someone asked for me to make gumbo. All right, guys. So when I come on and I cook live, there's just so many recipes that I love to cook for you guys. But we have to be realistic here, right? If we're cooking live, you want to see the dish from start to finish. So something like gumbo, because it is a labor of love, and it is a good labor of love. You know, gumbo could take up to two hours, depending on how you cook it. But if you guys want to hang out with me for two hours and watch me cook gumbo, let's cook gumbo. I'll try to work that in, okay? Whatever you guys want, I'm going to try to give it to you. We have someone from Pittsburgh. Hello, Pittsburgh. We got someone from Michigan. We just got everybody from everywhere. And I really appreciate you guys hanging out. You guys see this thick cut bacon? Y'all see that thick cut bacon? Don't even worry about it. I'm rendering it right now. That means I am getting all the fat out, because we're going to use that fat to cook everything in, okay? We have someone from Brooklyn, New York. Hello, Brooklyn. You guys, we have people from all over the world, okay? People are hanging out from all over the world. So my shrimp, I mean, my bacon is ready to come out. Let me go get a paper towel. I always leave stuff on the side that I have to leave the camera, then come back. Welcome, welcome, welcome. If you are just tuning in, you are making meals with Mika. You guys, we have 137 people hanging out right now, okay? Is this a party or what? I love it. Someone asking, CR23, what are you cooking? Guess what? I am cooking shrimp and grits, okay? I have the grits on the stove, and they're pretty much done. They're just marinating, doing their thing. And right now, I am rendering the fat from this bacon for our shrimp. Now, I don't know if you guys have ever had shrimp and grits with bacon, but I am telling you, it is amazing, okay? So if you've never had it with bacon, try it with bacon. And as you can see, it really didn't have a lot of fat, which is good, okay? So I'm just going to take the bacon pieces out. It is about to start smelling so good in here. It's already smelling good because it's bacon, but we are about to turn this up a notch. Do you hear me? I have someone from, did we, we got someone from New Orleans? Oh, come on now, New Orleans. You better talk to us from New Orleans. We love to eat. Yes, listen. Let's eat to live, okay? We can eat to live. So we got that good crispy bacon. Who want a piece? Go ahead. Go ahead and get a little piece of that. Can I get some ice, please? Come on in here. Oh, you guys listen. So my boyfriend just got here. Oh, it's two, two, two. It's 222 people here. And he doesn't want to like walk into live, and he needs some ice. Is it okay that he can just come in here and get some ice? Honey, I think you'll be okay getting some ice. So we're going to put some shallot on here, okay? So we're going to saute this shallot in the bacon grease, okay? This is called adding flavor, okay? So we have the bacon drippings, and it's not that, it's not that much, okay? So for those of you at home that are saying, oh my God, I cannot believe she is cooking everything in bacon fat. Guess what? It's not even a lot of bacon fat, okay? So this is exactly what it's supposed to do. It is doing exactly what it's supposed to do. So we, ooh, it is smelling amazing already, right? We got the bacon, we got the shallot. So you guys, I am sauteing some shallot right now. I feel like shallot goes better with shrimp because it's not going to overpower the shrimp, okay? Someone says we have different cut of bacon. What kind of, what kind of bacon? Miss Tamika is making me hungry. I am making you hungry. Listen, go ahead and get a piece of this bacon while you, okay? Just get a little piece. Hello, cousins. Welcome. If you're just tuning in, you are making meals with Mika. I really appreciate you guys hanging out with me. We are making shrimp and grits. Well, I have the grits, ooh, the grits are, they're just, I'm just so excited because they're creamy and they're ready. And now I am sauteing the shallot for the shrimp, okay? And now to the shallot, I'm going to add the garlic, okay? You guys, this is just going to get better and better. We are building flavors here. We haven't even put the shrimp in here yet. Don't worry about it. It's coming. So now in here we have bacon drippings. We have shallot and we have garlic. Just imagine how good this is smelling. Okay, let's go to the comments. Let's see what you guys are talking about here. What are you guys talking about here? Someone says, when is dinner? Dinner will be done in about 15 minutes. Someone talked about using Canadian bacon. Okay, so Canadian bacon is more like a ham, right? So Canadian bacon would not really work in this recipe because it's not going to render the fat that we need. But you do want something that has fat. You know what I mean? Someone says it's 1.43 in the morning and now they want a bacon sandwich. James, go get a bacon sandwich. Do you have bacon in the refrigerator? Make you a bacon sandwich. Do you hear me? This is what this is for. Carol says she loves garlic. Carol, you and I are BFFs. If you continue to follow me and watch my reels, I have one favorite ingredient and it is garlic. Fresh garlic. I love garlic powder. I put that in pretty much any and everything that I can. Okay, I love garlic. Garlic is amazing. It makes everything taste so delicious. All right guys, so we are over here. Let's see. Okay, all right. We're over here real quick. Okay, we got everything smelling delicious. I really just want to eat this bacon. I just want to eat this bacon but I'm not. You guys want to see what the grits look like? Let me show you guys the grits. Okay, the thing with grits is once you really can't cook grits too long. Look at that. Look at that. Let me give you guys a if your grits are not this consistency. Are they really grits? These aren't too runny. They aren't too stiff and they are just oh look at this. Don't even worry about it. And yes, I'm hitting it on the side. Do not even worry about it. Okay, the grits are doing what they're supposed to do and you guys know I want to lick this spoon but I have like I keep licking the spoon so I'm just going to put this to the side. Someone asked if I have a recipe book. Hey, let's just say not at this moment. Okay, but stay tuned. Stay tuned. Okay. All right. Okay, so let's see here. All right, guys. We have the shallot and we have the garlic. It's where it's supposed to be. Now it's time to add our beautiful delicious shrimp. Okay. All right. Okay. Someone says everything you're cooking has high cholesterol. Says who? Says who? Are you over here doing a cholesterol check? Let me give you guys let me give you guys a little let me spill a little knowledge to you guys. Did you guys know that your brain is mostly cholesterol? Go ahead and Google it. Go Google it. So if someone's talking about this is high cholesterol, your brain is mostly cholesterol. I'm just going to leave that there. You guys do whatever you want to with that with that information. If you don't believe me, go ahead and Google it or ask your doctors. Okay. So what we're cooking right now is highly delicious. Okay. It's very highly delicious. I know that. And if you follow a balanced diet, meaning you don't eat too much of anything and you exercise and work out, you can eat whatever you want to. I am a firm believer of eating whatever I want to because I eat everything in moderation. So here we go, guys. Look at those shrimp. Okay. Okay. Let's see here. We have mocked the freak. Did you just propose to me? You guys, someone just proposed to me. Oh, that's so sweet. You don't want me for me. You just want me for my cookie. Is that what it is? But that's okay. I'm okay with that. Someone says they grow their own garlic. That is amazing. That is amazing. Okay. Those of you that are just tuning in, I know you're like, what's going on here? What are you guys talking about over here? So we are sautéing our shrimp. Okay. So we have our shrimp sautéing in a pan. Our shrimp is sautéing with some garlic and is sautéing with some shallot. And I had already seasoned the shrimp. Now I'm just going to let the shrimp do their thing for a second. Okay. I don't want to stir them too much. All right. Let's see. Let them do their thing. Toss them a little bit. All right. And then while we toss them, let's go ahead and get the other ingredients ready. Now we do need a lemon. Now, this is how I was taught to squeeze the juice out of a lemon. Okay. So you just put your weight on it and you just roll it. Okay. You just roll it, roll it, roll it. And then that is going to give us the juice that we need from this lemon. And it's going to be nice. And look, the juice is already coming out. Okay. Someone asked if I'm making, did you say if I'm making a roux? I'm not making a roux. I am just making a nice little sauce to pour over our grits. And then, you know, we always have to have some, some parsley. So the parsley has been sitting out for a little bit. So it's not as crisp as I want to, but it's okay. It's still going to do what we need it to do. Now, this is how you chop parsley. Okay. For those of you who, who struggle with parsley, I just ball it in one big old ball. Okay. Describe the smell. Let me tell you what's going on right now. So I just cut open the onion. Okay. I mean, I just sliced open the lemon. So there's a very strong, um, citrus flavor, right? We have, we have the shrimp that's been cooking with the garlic and also the shallot, right? So it's very, very, it just smells very delicious. Just imagine shrimp, uh, garlic and, and onion because shallots have an onion flavor. Okay. So imagine onion and garlic with, with some, um, seafood. All right. Now what we're going to do is this is some chicken stock. Okay. We're going to add the chicken stock. Oh yes. I'm sorry. I said chicken stock. That's that is seafood stock. I am sorry, you guys. So that is some seafood stock. Okay. So we have the seafood stock and that's just going to bring everything together. The little bits and pieces that were hanging out at the bottom of the skillet, the seafood stock is going to bring that together. And then we're going to take our lemon and we're going to juice the lemon in here. I'm putting my hands right here to catch any of the seeds. Okay. Cause we don't want seeds in there. All right. Now, you know, you can't cook shrimp for too long, so we're not going to leave them in here for that long, but look at that, you guys. Oh my goodness. You guys need to smell this. This, oh, this smells so amazing. It smells so amazing. Now we're going to add a little bit more cholesterol to this pan. Are you ready? Now we just want to just smooth this sauce out just a little bit. And then we're going to add one little teaspoon of butter. We did that. One little teaspoon of butter. And then what you have is this. It's almost like a gravy, but we didn't use any flour or anything like that. Do you hear me? So look at that, you guys. Oh, you see that? It's like a gravy, but it's not a gravy. Okay. Let's see here. Okay. We don't want to overcook the shrimp. So it's time to put everything together. I'm going to turn this off and believe it or not, we are at 52 minutes and it's time to plate this up. You guys, this time has just like flown by. Where has the time gone? Oh my God. Okay. So this is the shrimp. Are you guys ready to plate this? Let's put this all together. Okay. Let's put it all together. So we have our little bowl. Okay. And we have our little serving bowl. Okay. Now we're going to take our grits that are perfect. These are perfect though. Look at that. Okay. Look at that, you guys. If you ever order grits at the table and they come and they don't look like this, go ahead and send them back. Okay. Those are not the grits for you. So we're going to take this, these grits, and we're going to put these in the middle of our plate. And the grits are the star of the show. So we want to make sure, and I like to do shrimp and grits in like a bowl, a deeper dish like this. Perfect. You guys know, I really want to just like, I just, oh hell. You guys, you guys, they're perfect. Okay. They're perfect. Now we're going to look at that. So the grits had, they were cooked in chicken stock. Right. And then I put some sharp cheddar cheese that I shredded myself. I put some half and half. You can use heavy cream if you want to. I'll put some half and half in there. Season with salt, pepper. That's it. And we have these beautiful bowl of grits. Now we have the shrimp. The shrimp were cooked in bacon drippings. Okay. With shallot and also some fresh garlic, a little lemon juice. And then I added a little seafood stock at the end. Okay. And don't worry about the size of the plate. We're going to, we're going to fix those up. So we're going to put the, the shrimp down there like that. Now we have all this extra sauce. So we're just going to go in. Right. We want to get the shallot and all of that because that is the goodness. So we're just going to take the sauce and just put it directly over there. Okay. Can you guys see that? Oh my goodness. Yep. All of it. Okay. I like to have it kind of like swimming in there. Now, before we do anything else, we have to clean the sides of our, cause we can't serve it like that. Like I don't like when there's stuff on the side of the bowl. No, no, no, no, no. We don't do that. So we're just going to go and just wipe the bowl. Okay. Now you guys do remember we had bacon. Guess what we're going to do with that bacon. We're just going to just put a little couple of pieces on there. Okay. The bacon is going to add some texture that we need. Okay. And then we are going to finish it with that beautiful parsley. Okay. Now, if you go to a restaurant here in Chicago, you're going to easily pay about $40 for this bowl. And here we have it. We have a beautiful, delicious bowl of shrimp and grits. Okay. Look at that. Look at that. Oh my goodness. Yes. Thank you. And you guys, this is the perfect dish to make in the middle of the week. It really didn't take us that long. We really didn't have a lot of ingredients, right? So if you want to cook a dish in the middle of the week, that takes, it's only taken me an hour cause I've been hanging out with you guys. You know, this takes less than 30 minutes, very little ingredients. And look, you guys, this is a really nice bowl of deliciousness. It is a hug. And this is a soul food classic. All right. I really appreciate you guys hanging out with me for Black History Month on this hump day on this Wednesday. If you haven't done so yet, go ahead and subscribe. We hang out like this every single Wednesday. And then during the week, I send you guys little reels about how to cook and things like that. So go ahead and hit the subscribe. If you've had a great time today, hit the like button. If you want to redo this recipe, every single thing that you need is in the description. And I just love sharing the recipes with you guys. I really appreciate you guys hanging out with me. Here is the shrimp and grits. You guys already know it's time for me to eat. Okay. So I'm going to go and enjoy dinner. I really appreciate you guys hanging out with me and I will see you guys next Wednesday here, 7 p.m. And we are still going to be making some delicious soul food. Hello from Panama. Thank you for hanging out. I love you guys. And I will see you guys next week. Look at that. Look at that. Look at that shrimp and grits. All right, guys. I'll talk to you guys later. See you guys later. Bye.