Campstove Shrimp and Grits

Shrimp and grits is a dish that hails from America’s “low country”. It’s filling, delicious, wholesome, and easy to make with a camp stove. This is perfect comfort food after a long day’s hike when all you want is something hot, tasty and substantial.
I first discovered shrimp and grits during a summer I spent in New Orleans – I was instantly hooked! Grits are a corn-based grain similar to polenta (a perfectly good substitute, particularly as grits are hard to find in the UK). Shrimp and grits is traditionally served for breakfast but equally make for a nourishing wild camping supper.

You’ll need a skillet for the prawns and a pot for the grits. I use the Jetboil Flash system with the Summit Skillet which work well together here.
My approach with the prawns: carry in pre-cooked frozen prawns and have this for dinner on day one of the wild camping expedition. The prawns thaw over the course of the walk and are ready to go by dinner time. As an alternative you can use dehydrated prawns – I haven’t tried this yet myself but backpackingchef.com has some instructions for dehydrating prawns for shrimp and grits.
You can use Instant Grits to save a bit of time and fuel. With instant grits, all you have to do is put the grits in a bowl, add boiling water, and stir.
In the south, grits are often cooked with cheese, particularly cheddar. In a wild camping situation I don’t always (but sometimes!) have a cheese grater so usually just use my knife to make shards of cheese which I add at the end as a garnish.  I also like to add some chopped herbs – parsley and chives are especially good here and as a backpacking bonus, they don’t weigh very much and will keep for a few days.