Roasted Banana Grits with Spiced Shrimp
The shrimp are bold and bright with copious amounts of ginger and accented by tart coriander and warm nutmeg. The shrimp contrasts perfectly with creamy grits that have an unexpected hint of fruity sweetness that pairs perfectly with the flavors of the spiced shrimp.
Eric Adjepong, author of Ghana to the World, was featured on The Splendid Table, one of my favorite cooking podcasts. Adjepong is the son of Ghanian immigrants and he likes to use flavors of Ghana with American twists. One of the highlights of the interview was his recipe for roasted banana grits and he had me.
The grits was his way of bridging the gap between team sweet grits and team savory grits. If you want to know what team I’m on, well, I ordered grits in IHOP when I was 19 while in Oklahoma. The waitress put the bowl of grits in front of me with a smaller bowl of brown sugar next to it. I thought they were trolling me … I hadn’t heard of sweet grits and I found it a bit sacrilegious.
I found the roasted banana grits and shrimp recipe on The Splendid Table’s website. I ended up using the recipe as more of a guide. I’m not better than the author, but I wanted to make the grits more practical for my kitchen. I substituted ingredients to ingredients that I usually have on hand. The shrimp called for All-Day Seasoning Blend which is new to me. A quick Google search came up with BBQ seasoning blends and others that were vastly different from each other so I couldn’t get a good sense of the flavor profile. I took the approach of finding common flavors in Ghana and I found two common spices are nutmeg and ginger so I built a mix based off of that.
My usual theory of cooking a new cuisine is to find a really good recipe and follow it because it’s hard to get it accurate by winging it when you haven’t had it before. I gave myself liberty to adapt the recipe since it was more of a chef created dish and used an unknown (to me) spice blend. I think the cookbook would solve the mystery – but the book isn’t in my paws.
Roasted Banana Grits Ingredients
3 ripe bananas in their peels (not overly ripe)
3 Tbl butter (divided)
4 tsp minced garlic
3 Tbl, thinly sliced green onion – whites only
4 c milk
½ tsp salt
1 tsp Better than Chicken Bouillon
1 c grits
Roasted Banana Grits Directions
Heat the oven to 400 degrees.
Put the bananas on a rimmed baking sheet. After 10-15 minutes, one side of the banana should be very dark, but still relatively firm. Flip the banana over for another 10-15 minutes until both sides are black. Some liquid will be oozing. Pull the bananas out of the oven and allow them to cool.
Heat a sauce pan to about medium. Add 1 ½ Tbl butter, 3 tsp of minced garlic, and 3 Tbl sliced green onion. You should hear a little sizzle that continues to sizzle. Stir occasionally.
When the garlic just starts to brown, add 4 c of milk, ½ tsp salt, and 1 tsp of Better than Chicken Bouillon. All the liquid to boil. Add 1 c of grits and stir for a few minutes until the grits begin to thicken. Reduce the heat to low and cover. Cook for the amount of time on the grits package.
While the grits cook, peel the bananas and chop them as small as you can. You can put it in a food processor, but I find it’s just as fast to chop them by hand.
When the grits are cooked to the allotted time, taste. They should be creamy. If you pick up some drier bits that are almost like wet sawdust, continue to cook. Taste (I want you to see the changes as we add flavor). Add 4 Tbl Greek yogurt and 1.5 Tbl butter. Stir. Taste. Stir in ½ c of chopped banana. Taste. Add salt if needed. You can add a little water if you want to thin out the grits, but it should be too thin. The garlic will not be strong, but if you leave it out, it won’t be as good. The banana flavor should be subtle. Resist the urge to make it more banana-forward.
Spiced Shrimp Ingredients
1 lb peeled and deveined shrimp
¾ tsp salt
¾ tsp garlic
1 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp ginger
¼ tsp cayenne
½ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp coriander
1 Tbl parika
2 Tbl (plus more for cooking) neutral high heat oil, like grapeseed or avocado oil
Sliced green onions – green tops only (for garnish)
Spiced Shrimp Directions
Put all of the spices in a small bowl and mix thoroughly.
Pat the shrimp with a paper towel to dry them then place them in a medium bowl. Drizzle 2 Tbl oil on the shrimp. Gently mix until the shrimp are well coated.
Add half of the spice mixture to the bowl. Use your hand to fold the shrimp so the shrimp on the bottom of the bowl are at the top. Add the remaining spices. Fold until the shrimp are evenly coated with the spices.
Heat a cast iron frying pan to hot. Take your fingers and splash a tiny amount of water on the pan. The water should dance before it evaporates.
Add enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Add shrimp to the pan and leave about ½” of space between the pan. You should hear a loud sizzle that continues throughout the cooking process. When the shrimp are opaque about ⅓ of the way up, flip the shrimp over. The cooked side should be dark in color. After about a minute or two on the 2nd side, the shrimp should be finished. They should be opaque throughout but still tender. If your shrimp is dry or tough, they are over cooked. If your pan is not hot enough, you won’t get as much color so go by the opaqueness of the shrimp and not the spice color to tell doneness.
To serve, add grits on the bottom of a plate. Add the cooked shrimp on top and sprinkle sliced green onions on top of the grits and shrimp.
Notes
Paprika is extremely mild in flavor. I usually omit it or add red chile in its place. In this application, the paprika allows for the darkening of color which leads to flavor development while the shrimp cooks so make sure you use it.
