Yes, posole means “hominy,” but can also be used to refer to a finished dish made with it. Hominy is corn that has gone under a nixtamalization process where its treated with limewater or lye (a very alkaline solution) which causes it to puff and swell and a bunch of chemical changes to happen that increases its nutritional value as well as allows it to be stored longer. That big box of Quaker grits (don’t hurt me, Southerners) that you see in the store, if you look at the ingredients label, those are made from hominy, not untreated corn, like polenta.
Now, here it gets confusing. Most cites I find do say hominy grits is made from, well, hominy. This cite, though, claims they are not hominy, just normal dried corn. All the other sources seem to say that they are, in fact, nixtamalized.
That said, I’m looking through a few videos now, and I think I’m mostly just seeing plain white (or sometimes yellow) corn used in the grit mills. I’m not sure I’m seeing any hominy.
At any rate, the texture of the final product is different. Grits have a, well, “grittier” texture than polenta. They seem to be ground a good bit coarser than the cornmeal used for polenta. So they still seem different enough to me.
I have this: cumin seed, dried basil, dried oregano, dried thyme, chilli powder, pepper, & salt. I mostly use it for blackened salmon.
I also have the Creole seasoning I posted in the jambalaya recipe thread: paprika, salt, garlic powder, black pepper, onion powder, cayenne pepper, oregano, & thyme.
Sorry. Where’s my morning coffee? Yeah, thinking about it more, I’ve certainly had polenta that is coarser than grits but, usually, it seems to be the other way around for me. So I guess it can go either way, depending on the mill. Maybe it’s the type of corn used, then. Certainly, the grits I’ve gotten in the south were different than the polenta I’ve had in Europe.
At any rate, you would not go wrong with using polenta for the dish. Even if they have subtle differences, both work fine as a base for the dish.
Given the nature of rustic cookery, I think that’s good advice. Or what Sunny Daze said:
Basically, just sauté shrimp (and red bell pepper, and green onions, and maybe some parsley) in bacon fat and put it on top of the grits. The dish Mrs. L.A. had seemed to have a thicker sauce than just bacon drippings; but by the time I tasted it, the grits and fat were a bit mixed.
My ad blocker is on, but from the glimpse I got it looks good. I’ve had Cajun pasta before, and it was delicious. I’ll turn off my ad blocker for that page later and have a closer look.
I read the link pulykamell posted. In the end, I just used it as a jumping-off point. I did render the bacon first, and then removed the bacon. I didn’t put the shrimp in until last. Instead, I sautéed the bell peppers and green onions; then added flour, a little milk, an undetermined amount of chicken stock, some of the Creole seasoning I have mixed up in a mason jar, and then the shrimp after it thickened. For the grits, I just used the recipe on the box of Albers Quick Grits and added medium cheddar.
Since Mardi Gras I’ve been craving red beans and rice, which the Ukulele Lady won’t eat because “pork fat.” The first night this week she wants something inedible to me, I’m makin’ me some red beans. I’ll keep you posted.
I had some grits at MSY back in the early-'90s. I wasn’t impressed. I might have tried grits one more time, but I don’t remember. Perhaps I didn’t. Then no grits until I had a taste of Mrs. L.A.'s last month. Those were good! I always feel a bit of trepidation when I’m cooking something new for the first time, especially when I don’t know what it’s supposed to taste like. I’m glad this experiment turned out well.
My mother-in-law (born and raised in Indiana though she has lived in the Carolinas since ca. 1974) asked me once if I (who has never lived anywhere that didn’t have Carolina in the name) grew up eating shrimp and grits.
I confessed to her that I had never even heard of it before 1992 or so. We ate bacon or sausage in our grits.
Interesting. Probably slightly before that same time frame for me (but our family didn’t go on vacations or even out to eat). Google Ngram shows it first starting to appear in the early 1980s. (And, yeah, we had sausage or bacon with ours, too.)
