Entertaining with THE CHARLESTON SILVER LADY

Everything Old is New Again is a saying that many of us are familiar with. I have learned this is especially true with recipes and certain foods or ingredients that go in and out of popularity. I often think about the current generation of farmers and how closely what they do mimics the way we lived in Charleston all of my childhood. We had over 30 rows of tomato plants that happily grew the best tomatoes in the sandy , ocean side soil of our island home. We also had vegetables planted within our flower beds—peppers, tomatoes and eggplants all grew side by side with the blooms of the Southern garden.   

As with nearly all South Carolinians that I have come into contact with, we ate grits and we ate them often. They were considered ‘regular’ food and had not attained any of the status that a talented chef can give them in today’s world.

I remember the family “grits pot.” It was an old-fashioned, dented metal pot that clearly had seen better days, but it made the best grits. Little did I know, it was more-likely “something in the water.” If you don’t know this trick but want your grits to taste more like the ones you may have eaten near the ocean, add 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda to the cooking water. You will be amazed at the transformation!

For this recipe, please cook the grits in the way that suits your family. We always added 1/2 cup of heavy cream at the end, stirring round and round the pot with a wooden spoon until the cream was fully incorporated. Be sure to add salt to the cooking water—it makes a huge difference.

 Some of you may know the Missroon House in Charleston at 40 East Bay, which is now Historic Charleston Headquarters. This house belonged to my Missroon family members and was a place of play for me in the early 1960’s. The Missroons made shrimp nets by hand and also captained one or two shrimp boats. I was forever fascinated by my pirate relatives.

 We did not consider shrimp “fancy” food. It was so plentiful it was often given away. Someone always seemed to have more than they could use and they would drop it by the house.

Shrimp and Grits

Cook enough grits for 6 people—white or yellow, and keep warm. In a large skillet, on low heat, melt one stick of salted butter. Add 1/2 cup of any cocktail sauce you like to the butter, stirring as it melts together. Squeeze in the juice of 1/2 of a lemon; add salt and pepper. Allow this to cook together for a few minutes, gradually turning up the heat.

Now , here comes the magic... Slowly add 2 tablespoons of flour, completely dissolving it. Allow this to cook while stirring to remove the “raw” taste of the flour. Now, add about 30 cleaned shrimp. Toss them in heated sauce until they are fully cooked and opaque. Add small amount of warm water to get the sauce to the consistency you like.

We used big, flat, blue and white transferware soup plates from the 1890s for this dish. You can easily find oversized soup plates just about anywhere today and they are perfect for this.

Ladle the warm grits into the bowl and add the shrimp and sauce over the top. Add salt and pepper to taste. We always ate this with melba toast.