Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp with Grilled Corn & White Cheddar Cheese Poblano Grits
Prep Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
Serves: 6

Laura & I are obsessed with Top Chef – so much so that we bought the cookbook 2 weekends ago and immediately began playing with the recipes. If you recall my Chipotle Honey wings, those were my entry into our own Top Chef cookoff – versus her Bacon Wrapped Shrimp and Grits. Needless to say, so won – but any recipe with bacon is bound to be a winner.

For the Grits:
2qt chicken stock
1qt milk
1/4 stick unsalted butter
1qt instant grits
2 cups grilled corn kernels
1 cup poblano peppers, small diced
2 cups aged white cheddar cheese
3T chopped cilantro
2T Kosher salt
2T cracked black pepper

For the Chipotle-Tomato Butter:
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
2T chopped garlic
3 Roma tomatoes, chopped
3T chipotle peppers (in Adobo)
1t black peppercorns
2 cups chicken stock
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/2 bunch cilantro
1 lemon, juiced
2t Kosher salt

Shrimp Prep:
Season shrimp with a little Kosher salt. Using a hot grill, quickly mark each shrimp. Remove from grill and allow time to cool. Shrimp should still be uncooked. When cool enough to handle, wrap each shrimp with a half piece of bacon. Season with cracked black pepper. Sear each shrimp in grapeseed oil till crispy on both sides. Serve when rest of dish is ready.

Grits Prep:
Using a deep saucepot combine chicken stock and milk. Bring to a simmer, add butter, and allow time for it to dissolve. Slowly whisk in grits a little at a time. When grits begin to thicken, lower heat. Switch to a spatula and fold in the rest of the ingredients. Adjust for addition seasonings if needed. If grits are too thick, add more chicken stock.

For the Chipotle-Tomato Butter Sauce:
In a saucepot, sauté onions and garlic over medium heat. Next, add tomatoes, chipotle peppers and peppercorns. Continue to cook for another three minutes. Deglaze with chicken stock and lower heat. Cook for 5 minutes then place in a blender; blend till smooth. Place liquid back in saucepot and over low heat mount with butter, whisking in a little at a time. Add cilantro and season with lemon juice and salt. Turn off heat and allow 5 minutes to steep cilantro. Strain through fine mesh strainer and reserve warm till time to serve.

To Plate:
Place small amount of grits in the center of a large plate. Drizzle sauce around grits. Place three pieces of shrimp around grits. Serve.

Now ours didn’t turn out nearly as pretty as the one pictured at the top – but it was still very delicious. The hardest and most time consuming part of this entire recipe was the tomato butter sauce – a lot of ingredients and prep went into it and in the end all you get is the sauce. Didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, but next time we’ll make some recipe modifications and preserve a lot of those ingredients. All in all, it was fun to try something that was way outside our cooking comfort zone – and now it’s onto the next recipe!