Shrimp and Fresh Corn-Meal Mush

Yum

Adding fresh corn to your grits or cornmeal mush is a wonderful compliment to a tasty dish.  Just slice down the side of the stalk of corn and cook the corn with the grits to compliment them.  

The first grits I ever had were on accident.  I was under the impression that a hash brown was what McDonald's hash browns are and figured shredded hash browns that I wanted to experience were most likely called grits.  I did not take more than a bite of those breakfast chained grits.  

Grits need love.  Adding depth with cheese, sour cream, cream cheese, fresh corn, bacon, pancetta, anything other than just grits will make this a tasty dish.

I wanted to try making fresh corn grits, adding fresh corn to grits, and when the time came realized I did not have grits.  I did have cornmeal though.  Looks the same, surely you can get a similar result.  Found out that there is such a thing as cornmeal mush.  Let me tell you, I believe it was better than grits!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 Cup of Cornmeal
• 5 slices of  Bacon (chopped)
• 1 lb of Gulf Shrimp
• 4 Fresh pieces of Corn
• 2 Tablespoons of  Olive oil
• Lemon Juice
• Himalayan Sea Salt
• Kosher Salt
• Fresh Ground Black Pepper
• 1 1/2 Cup of  Almond Milk
• 1 Cup of Water
• 2 Tablespoons of Earth Balance Butter

Directions:

1. Peel the corn and slice off the stalk.   Slice the corn off the cob and add it to a saucepan over medium heat for about 5-8 minutes.
2. Add   1 1/4 cup of cornmeal, with 2 tablespoons butter, 1 1/2 cup of almond milk, and 1 cup of water.  Add your salt preference and  cook over medium heat  until the mixture thickens.
3. In a skillet over medium heat, add  2 tablespoons of olive oil.   Add kosher salt, and fresh ground pepper   to the oil with a couple drops of fresh lemon juice.  I prefer to season the oil as it will adhere to the shrimp   versus seasoning the shrimp and throwing it in oil.  
4. Add the bacon to the skillet to give the oil a little more flavor.  The bacon is already cooked so it will only take 2 minutes to add what flavor it has to the oil.
   
5. Add the shrimp to the skillet and cook  through.
   
6. Put the cornmeal mash on your plate and top with your bacon and shrimp mixture.