Some friends and I had dinner at The White Bull in Decatur. We had heard about their shrimp and grits and decided to give that a try. It was amazing! They lay out parchment paper along the length of the table. Then the wonderful chef, Pat Pascarella, comes to the table with a hot pot of grits and pours them along the paper. Next come the shrimp and some broccoli rabe and other things to complete the meal. Do you think Pat might be willing to share the recipe? Thank you so much for this column! —Keri Lubell, Decatur
Chef Pat Pascarella says, “I’ve always wanted to give this dish a shot, but haven’t had the opportunity because I was never at a restaurant where it would make sense. Now that I’m cooking in the South and we’re all about local here, I thought it would be a good idea to put this on the menu. We use beautiful Georgia red shrimp and Anson Mills grits for the dish.”
This dish is featured on the dinner menu when Georgia red shrimp are available. It’s also part of the restaurant’s “Grits Party” menu. A Grits Party is a shareable feast. Your table is spread with butcher paper and then Pascarella lays these grits down the center of the table and adds shrimp with tomato sauce and garlic, fried chicken, grilled broccoli rabe, poached eggs, roasted fingerling sweet potatoes and whatever else he’s inspired to add.
For those of us who don’t have lots of shrimp shells on hand for homemade shrimp stock, he says it’s ok to substitute either lobster or clam base (usually available in the soup section of your grocery store or at the DeKalb Farmers Market or Sprouts) or canned shrimp stock. But save up your shrimp shells (store them in the freezer until you have enough) because nothing will beat your homemade shrimp stock.
From the menu of … The White Bull, 123 E. Court Square, Decatur. 404-600-5649. whitebullatl.com
Is there a recipe from a metro Atlanta restaurant you’d like to make at home? Tell us and we’ll try to get it. We’ll also test it and adapt it for the home kitchen. Because of volume, we can’t answer all inquiries. Send your request, your address and phone number to fromthemenu@gmail.com and put “From the menu of” and the name of restaurant in the subject line.
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