ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Weston Ochse is a former intelligence officer and special operations soldier who has engaged enemy combatants, terrorists, narco smugglers, and human traffickers. His personal war stories include performing humanitarian operations over Bangladesh, being deployed to Afghanistan, and a near miss being cannibalized in Papua New Guinea. His fiction and non-fiction has been praised by USA Today, The Atlantic, The New York Post, The Financial Times of London, and Publishers Weekly. The American Library Association labeled him one of the Major Horror Authors of the 21st Century. His work has also won the Bram Stoker Award, been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and won multiple New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. A writer of more than 26 books in multiple genres, his military supernatural series SEAL Team 666 has been optioned to be a movie starring Dwayne Johnson. His military sci fi series, which starts with Grunt Life, has been praised for its PTSD-positive depiction of soldiers at peace and at war. Weston likes to be called a chaotic good paladin and challenges anyone to disagree. After all, no one can really stand a goody two-shoes lawful good character. They can be so annoying. It's so much more fun to be chaotic, even when you're striving to save the world. You can argue with him about this and other things online at Living Dangerously or on Facebook at Badasswriter. All content of this blog is copywrited by Weston Ochse.

Thursday, July 23, 2020

BBQ Low Country Shrimp and Cheddar Jalapeno Grits with Peaches - Recipe


BBQ Low Country Shrimp and Cheddar Jalapeno Grits with Peaches

Low Country cuisine usually is reserved for South Carolina and Georgia coastal cuisines. The landscape was particular for its inhospitable geography with clogged estuaries and deadly swamps, and if it wasn’t for the African slaves brought from Western Africa, the land would still be untamed. With their arrival in the region, swamps were turned into rice fields and every piece and morsel of animal, amphibian, and fish were scienced until they became the delectable details of a very particular American cuisine. Now, low country cuisine lives on from the Gullah peoples and others in the region who broke ground and created something great out of virtually nothing.

Hats off and forever props to them!

My recipe came from an eating experience at Tautog’s Restaurant in Virginia Beach. Unlike many of the establishments in VaBeach, this place is slightly off the tourist map and is a major local hangout. Lucky for me, I have been to VaBeach so many times that I get invited to many a dinner when I’m there, usually at Tautogs. When I had their version of low country shrimp and grits with BBQ sauce and peaches, I knew this was something I could remake.

And remake it I did with 1000% success on the first try.

I’ve since made it about a dozen times tweaking it here and there. Like most southern recipes, it’s not about physical measurement, but about the eyeball and the taste test. I’ll provide the recipe, but use your own judgement. This recipe is hard to mess up, but if you do mess it up, do it spectacularly.

Here’s my recipe.

BBQ Low Country Shrimp and Cheddar Jalapeno Grits with Peaches
Author: Living Dangerously
Duration: 50 minutes
Average Cost PP: $7.00 US
Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Olive oil
Salt
12 Medium Shrimp (raw)
2 Cups Bob’s Red Mill Grits
1 cup shredded cheddar
Bunch green onions
5 Ounces favorite BBQ Sauce (10 tbs)
2 fresh peaches (or can of peaches if not in season) Cut into slices.
2 pieces cooked and diced bacon, prosciutto, or Spanish Chorizo (Optional)
4 pickled jalapeno slices and 3 tablespoons of juice (optional)

Directions:

Shell shrimp and devein. Place shells in two cups of water and simmer for 30 minutes to create a stock. Do not add Old Bay seasoning, but do add salt to taste.

Chop green onions, separating white pieces from green pieces.

Once shrimp stock is cooked, remove shells, add water as needed for directions and begin cooking grits. Stir several times a minute to ensure that the grits will become creamy. Add butter if necessary, but the BBQ sauce might make it unnecessary. Still, butter is a food group so do what you feel is right.

On ridged grill pan or on grill, (I prefer a grill pan on the stove so I can see everything at once) cook peaches until wilted and char marks on both sides. Set aside. If using canned peaches, reserve some of the juice and add to the BBQ sauce.

Butterfly shrimp and begin cooking in pan with olive oil over low heat. When half cooked, turn over and add peaches, white parts of onions, and BBQ sauce. Continue cooking on low. The BBQ sauce should begin to caramelize.

When grits are almost done by directions, add cheddar cheese and stir frequently. Add optional jalapeno juice now if desired. Ensure that there is enough liquid for the grits to create the requisite delicate texture.

Once grits are finished, serve into four bowls. Add 4 pieces of shrimp per bowl along with an equal amount of peaches, and white parts of cooked onions and BBQ sauce.

Serve each dish with a handful of chives (green parts of green onions), a single pickled jalapeno on top, and optional diced pork products.

When eating, after photographing, Facebooking, Instagramming, and Tweeting, dig fork through the middle to combine all ingredients for each taste.

I’ve had this with and without the pork. I honestly like it without the pork, only because chorizo and other products can so overwhelm the relative delicate taste of the shrimp. The best flavor is when the shrimp is the king, with everything else as an accompaniment.







Thursday, April 9, 2020

The Only Good Indians - Review

I started reading Stephen Graham Jones when I read Mongrels. I thought it a powerful piece of a family living on the precipice of a society to which they didn't really belong. I enjoyed the understatement and appreciated the coming-of-age narrative. That set me up for pretty much anything SGJ. More than anything, I think it's his voice which is as unique as his POV. 

So, it was with a little glee that I was able to arrange for an advanced copy of The Only Good Indians. I had no idea what it was about. If you were to believe Paul Tremblay in his cover blurb the book is a masterpiece. When I saw that, I decided to reserve that opinion until I finished the book. Well, I finished the book and Paul is as right as he always is. 

The Only Good Indians takes place in and along the BlackFeet Reservation in Montana. Four young American Indian men are chased by a ghost who is as implacable and cunning as any ghost in fiction. The reader isn't exactly sure who the protagonists and the antagonists are until they learn the backstory, and once learned, it's an interesting morality dance to see which side the reader comes out on.

Without giving any spoilers, ultimate survival hinges on a sixteen-year-old basketball phenom's ability to play res basketball in an epic game of 21 that will resonate through modern fiction for dozens of years.

The point of view is from those who live on an American Indian reservation. The narrative is so authentic, no Custer like me could have ever written it. Like Jordan Peele, Stephen Graham Jones shows us life through an uncomfortable but real morale lens, then dares us to inhabit it, and upon doing so, slams our heads back and forth into the harsh reality of it all. I've never been on a reservation, but I never doubted the authenticity. SGJ brought as much realness to the narrative as a scientist would to a textbook.

In the end, the book is about humanity. It's about love and friendship and regret and acceptance and the hardscrabble to accept or not accept a predetermined fate, all things that transcend race, religion, or economic circumstance. I read through The Only Good Indians in two days and in those two days I was ensconced in a way of life so unlike my own, but with people who I almost knew, that I regretted sliding past the last page.

But what I remembered throughout was that there's another part to the saying, The Only Good Indians are dead indians - said by too many white men over too long a span.

Order this book now so you can read it the moment it comes out.