It’s probably safe to say that Shrimp and Grits is the signature dish of the Carolina Lowcountry. Originally served for breakfast, it’s now found on lunch, brunch, and dinner menus in working man’s diners and in the very finest of restaurants.

It’s also probably safe to say that there are dozens, if not hundreds of ways to make Shrimp and Grits. Some folks like them spiced up with hot pepper sauce, others add bits of smoked sausage or country ham, some start with a medium roux for the sauce and some folks like no sauce except what the shrimp and the other ingredients provide.

But the one thing that all the myriad variations have in common is that they’re all delicious. This version takes what are considered the classic ingredients and gives them something that Shrimp & Grits don’t usually have: portability!

These little cups are big on flavor and are the perfect appetizer to celebrate almost any occasion, from Christmas and New Years to Valentine’s Day, birthdays, weddings, and more.

Or why not have a ‘What-the-Heck-It’s-Tuesday’ party once in a while? Life’s too short to have to wait for a holiday to enjoy Shrimp and Grits!

Here’s how to make the Carolina Shrimp and Grits Party Appetizer Cups:

Ingredients:

1 lb bacon
3 cups water
1 cup half & half or milk
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup yellow grits
2 tbsp butter
1 cup chopped onion
2 oz medium or sharp cheddar, grated (plus additional for garnish)
Sesame seeds
1 cup chopped green pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
60 cooked medium shrimp (about 1lb), peeled & deveined
1 tsp lemon pepper
1 small jar chopped pimento for garnish
Finely sliced scallion tops (optional)

PREPARATION:

Cook the bacon until crisp. Drain and crumble into small pieces. Reserve the bacon fat.

Whisk together the water, half & half, salt, and grits in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring regularly. Stir in the butter, cover, and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook 20 minutes, stirring regularly.

While the grits are cooking, saute the onions in 1-2 teaspoons of the bacon fat until well softened. When the grits are done, stir in half the cooked onions (reserve the remainder) and the grated cheese.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spray five 12-cup mini-muffin pans with cooking spray and sprinkle with seeds. Fill each muffin cup about 3/4 full with the grit mixture, then spread the grits up the sides to create an indent in the center. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until lightly crusted on the outside.

While the grit cups are baking, saute the green peppers with the garlic in a little more bacon fat until just softened. Add the shrimp, lemon pepper, bacon, and remaining onions and cook until the shrimp are just heated through. Let sit at least 5 minutes so the bacon can absorb any liquid.

Separate the shrimp from the bacon/green pepper mixture. Divide the bacon/pepper mix among the grit cups and top each with a shrimp. Sprinkle cups with a little grated cheese, add a dab of chopped pimentos, and top with a sprinkling of scallion tops.

Makes 60 appetizers.

Enjoy!

You Can Read More of Doug’s Recipe Corner Here.

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• Gourmet Comfort Food: Cuban Style Yams With Garlic and Lime Recipe

Just before leaving Upstate New York for Charleston, I did a very satisfying thing: I gave away my snow blower — because I knew I’d never need it again. Years later, I still savor that moment.

Growing up in the city, snow was a fact of life. Winter was a messy slog, you dealt with it, and that was that. But moving to Ithaca, NY taught me what snow really is: a lovely, delicate form of precipitation that will, if left unchecked, bury you, your car, and your house under a soft and very quiet mountain of white until spring thaw, when the mailman might look in the window and see you sitting at the kitchen table, still partly frozen in the act of trying to warm your hands over a torn-out magazine photo of a fireplace.

Hence the snow blower. The shovels were already out and in use by mid-November and it became kind of a pre-Thanksgiving Day ritual to tune up the old snow blower and get it ready for the real winter siege soon to come.

But here in South Carolina, Thanksgiving Day is usually sunny and in the low 70’s. People do their last-minute supermarket runs in t-shirts and shorts. And when folks down here ask me what I’m thankful for, I just smile and tell them I’m thankful that I don’t own a snow blower anymore.

Inspired by the warm weather, I decided to do a somewhat non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner with a tropical Cuban accent. The turkey was marinated for 24 hours in a mojo marinade containing lemon, bitter orange, oregano, and other good stuff and was incredibly flavorful and juicy. There was a side dish of fried plantains made ‘tostone’ style and served with a mango-green chile salsa, and dessert was a mango horchata flan that was ethereally delicious.

But the surprise of the day was this very easy yam dish that breaks away from the traditional sugar-and-spice treatment that yams and sweet potatoes receive during the holidays. This recipe treats them like real vegetables, not like a pre-dessert. It was a big hit and I plan to make it often while yams are available.

I used country ham in this dish, but you can use any dry ham like prosciutto or Serrano, or even unsmoked bacon or ‘streak o’ lean’ style salt pork. You want something with a good salty pork flavor to stand up to the lime and garlic. You can peel the yams if you want to, but the skin adds additional flavor and texture to the dish.

Here’s how to make the Cuban Style Yams With Garlic and Lime:

Ingredients:

3 pounds yams (or sweet potatoes), washed or peeled
1 tsp salt
1/4 lb country ham (or other dry, unsmoked pork) cut into small pieces
2-4 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 Tbsp butter, softened
1 1/2 Tbsp lime juice (or more to taste)
1/4 tsp salt (or more to taste)
Fresh black pepper

PREPARATION:

Cut the yams in quarters lengthwise, then slice into 1/2 inch pieces. Cover with water in a large saucepan, add the salt, and bring to a boil. Simmer until yams are just cooked through but still hold together.

While the yams are simmering, cook the ham chunks in a skillet over medium heat until lightly colored and crisp on the outside, adding a little olive oil if necessary.

Drain the yams and return them to the pot. Add the ham pieces, garlic, butter, lime juice, salt and pepper. Stir gently to incorporate. If you prefer a “smashed potatoes” texture, you can stir more aggressively with a wooden spoon. Taste and adjust seasonings. Serves 4-6.

Variation: you can make this a bit spicier by adding a big pinch of cumin and a small pinch of cayenne.

Enjoy!

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Before there were cooking shows on The Food Network, public television was one of the best places to go to find inspiration and instruction, and like many, I found myself watching such culinary greats as Julia Child, Jeff Smith (The Frugal Gourmet), and Nathalie Dupree on PBS.

If you love good Southern cooking, you’ll definitely want to get acquainted (or reacquainted) with Nathalie Dupree, the driving force behind the New Southern Cooking movement.

Though classically trained at Le Cordon Bleu (like her PBS predecessor, Julia Child), Dupree prides herself on being the anti Martha Stewart. Refreshingly unfussy, Dupree employs a graciously laid back, yet pragmatic approach to home entertaining; all excellent qualities that can serve one well with holiday season fast approaching.

If you’ve never read any of her 10 cookbooks you can find them all on Amazon here.

Two of them, Nathalie Dupree’s Southern Memories and Comfortable Entertaining are James Beard Award winning cookbooks.

For those who already own her cookbooks, Nathalie Dupree’s own website offers a master index to all of Nathalie’s published recipes to make it easier to find the ones you need for all your parties and gatherings.

Enjoy!

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(Photo Credit: Biscuits by smohundro.)

Are you in the mood for a culinary roadtrip? Do you enjoy eating delicious regional food served by award winning chefs, visiting palm tree lined beaches, enjoying local history, going boating and fishing, as well as viewing majestic live oaks draped with Spanish moss?

If so, then a relaxing foodie vacation in Charleston, South Carolina may be just what the doctor ordered.

The cuisine of Charleston, SC is an addictive combination of such classic Southern and Lowcountry foods as pulled pork barbecue, shrimp and grits, red rice, she-crab soup, roasted oysters, fried fish, cornbread, biscuits, hoppin’ John, boiled peanuts, and red velvet cake.

In 2008, Travelocity named Charleston one of the world’s 10 Best Delicious Destinations for Foodies. Top Chef Judge and cookbook author Tom Colicchio lists Charleston as one of his favorite eating destinations, praising the flavor of its fish as well as the rough sensual delights of its local oyster roasts.

With such Charleston area James Beard Award winning chefs as Mike Lata of Fig and Robert Stehling of Hominy Grill, as well as James Beard winning cookbook authors Nathalie Dupree and Matt and Ted Lee (The Lee Bros.), Charleston is also home to a wide variety of locally based gourmet stores and specialty food shops which help provide inspiration for chefs of every stripe.

Whether you’re planning to visit Charleston (or are lucky enough to live here), below are the addresses for 13 interesting local gourmet shops, markets, specialty delis, bakeries, and more you might want to visit.

Enjoy!

• Caviar & Bananas Gourmet Market and Cafe
  51 George St.
  Charleston, SC
  A gourmet specialty store and deli.

• Charleston Coffee Exchange
  2875 Ashley River Road
  Charleston, SC
  Locally owned. Sells a good variety of coffees and teas.

• Charleston Cooks
  194 East Bay St.
  Charleston, SC
  Cooking classes from world class visiting and regional chefs. Also has a kitchen store.

• Charleston Farmer’s Market
  Marion Square
  Charleston, SC
  Named the 5th Best Farmers Market in the US by Travel and Leisure Magazine.

• Cupcake
  433 King St.
  Charleston, SC
  A cupcake-riffic bakery, with everything made from scratch.

• Doscher’s Supermarket
  1133 Savannah Highway
  Charleston, SC
  An old fashioned Southern style supermarket featuring regional cuts of meat.

• Earth Fare
  74 Folly Rd.
  Charleston, SC
  A large Southern based supermarket featuring such health foods as organic produce, bulk grains and spices, and more.

• Euro Food
  1727 Ashley River Road
  Charleston, SC
  Sells Eastern European and Russian food.

• H and L Asian Supermarket
  5300 Rivers Ave.
  Charleston, SC
  A giant Asian supermarket with a large variety of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and other Asian foods and spices.

• The Moon Pie General Store
  48 North Market St.
  Charleston, SC
  Sells a variety of Southern goodies (and yes) moon pies.

• Nelli Indian Grocery
  1901 Ashley River Road (Highway 61)
  (West Ashley) Charleston, SC
  Sells Indian and Pakistani foods and spices.

• The Olive Oil Shop
  316 King St.
  Charleston, SC
  Sells specialty olive oils pressed from all over the world, balsamic vinegar, rubs, spreads, and condiments.

• Ted’s Butcher Block
  334 E Bay St.
  Charleston, SC
  Specialty butcher shop and gourmet market.

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As we pointed out yesterday in our previous article, 16 Refreshing Summer Fruit Drink Recipes and Ideas to Help You Cool Off and Quench Your Thirst, here in the South where the four seasons of the year are Almost Summer, Summer, Still Summer and Christmas, one essential way to stay cool and hydrated is to make sure to drink enough beverages.

While such drinks as water, soda, lemonade, and fruit juice based punches are as served down here much as they are elsewhere in the United States, no other cold beverage er–warms the heart of a Southerner quite like iced tea (which is known here as sweet tea or unsweet tea, depending on the presence of sugar).

Called the wine of the South, here in South Carolina there are few (if any) restaurants down here that don’t serve freshly made sweet iced tea all year round; from casual neighborhood BBQ joints to the most upscale restaurant.

In fact, sweet tea is so popular, that when a Charleston distillery brought out an alcoholic version of classic Southern sweet tea called Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka, it was an overnight sensation both locally and nationally.

Needless to say, at Hugging the Coast we’re thrilled that June has been named National Iced Tea Month. You might be surprised to learn that 80% of all tea consumed in the United States is now used to make iced tea.

There are many ways to make classic Southern sweet tea, but the secret is to use a good strong orange pekoe tea (a few popular brands down here are Luzianne, Lipton, or Tetley). It’s also important to make sure the sugar or sweetener you use melts well enough to fully release its sweetness and flavor into the infused tea itself (as is shown in the two short videos below).

Once you try this method, you’ll find that adding sugar in your glass after the water has cooled or been iced isn’t nearly as effective or flavorful as mixing it with a combination of cool water and the hot tea concentrate itself. It’s also important not to steep your tea any longer than 10 minutes so that you sweet iced tea doesn’t become bitter from excessive tannins.

Classic Southern iced tea doesn’t usually use lemon or mint, but don’t let that stop you if that’s the way you prefer it. The brewing tips below will help you make ice tea that will cool down much more quickly than the giant pot of boiling water method more commonly used, so however you like to drink your iced tea, you’re bound to find them useful.

Here are two video recipes that will help you make fresh iced sweet tea quickly and easily like a pro.

Also, the folks at the Southern Plate Food Blog have two simple recipes for making Southern style sweet tea using either a saucepan or a well cleaned coffee maker which you can see here.

Enjoy!

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(Photo Credits: Ice Tea Weather by JenWaller and Peach Ice Tea by olgucz.)