Dinner Tonight - Shrimp & Grits, Grits Cooked in a Rice Cooker!

I love my rice cooker, I love it because it makes such good rice!  I recently started making Brown Rice and this rice cooker has a GABA setting which germinates the rice and makes it healthier for you.  I bought a Rice Cooker Cookbook for my Kindle and it has recipes to make grits, polenta, porridge, soups, beans, oatmeal and a ton of other stuff.  I hadn't cooked anything from it yet, so I thought it was time and decided to make grits tonight!  

 Zojirushi Induction Rice Cooker

I bought this rice cooker about 2 years ago.  My husband thought I was crazy when he saw how much it cost...lol  I told him that it's worth it because I'd use it so much, I use it at least 4 days a week.  He's a convert now seeing that a good rice cooker + good  raw rice = a good meal :o)  

 Stone Ground Grits

I found these grits at Surfas in Culver City.  They sell restaurant equipment and hard to find foods.  The last time I was able to buy good quality Stone Ground Grits was in Hilton Head a few years back.  I was excited then that I was able to get it there, so I was overjoyed that I was able to buy it locally.  I love grits!

 Finished Grits in Rice Cooker

The grits were very easy to make in the rice cooker, but they took forever!  The cookbook said that you need to cook the grits in 2 cycles in either the Porridge setting if you have it or the regular setting if you don't. On mine, the Porridge cycle is about 1 hr 20 mins and you have to do that twice!  You also need to stir it about every 20 mins.  The good thing is, if you forget to stir it, it won't stick to the bottom like it would on the stove top.  I tasted it after the first cycle and the texture seemed to be good, so if I make it again in the rice cooker I'd only cook it once.  It uses less liquid than on the stove top, 1 cup grits and 3 cups water, I added a little bit of chicken bouillon (I know, fake & salty, but good if you just use a tad) & pepper.  During the second cycle it seemed a little dry, so I added a little bit more water then at the end, butter was added.

 Voila!

I don't know what the problem was with the camera tonight, but I just couldn't get it to take good pictures...please excuse the low quality photos tonight:o)  

I thought I had frozen seafood stock, but I didn't.  I only had pork, beef & chicken, so I decided to use the chicken and put the shells from the shrimp in it to get the shrimpy flavor to it.  I make all my own stocks, so I always have some in the freezer.  I didn't have any fresh shrimp, but I had some frozen uncooked ones that work out in a pinch!  

To make the sauce I chopped up and cooked bacon then used the grease to saute onions, celery, seasonings & garlic then deglazed the pan with some white wine.  Flour was then added to thicken it with the shrimp infused stock, a bit of heavy cream, bay leaf, the bacon bits and some chopped tomatoes. I then cooked it for about 20 mins then added cut up shrimp the last 5 mins, but I saved one whole shrimp for each serving as a garnish and sauteed those.  Butter was added to finish it and then served over the grits with the rest of the bacon.