And speaking of grits, Liz asked what, exactly, are grits, since I spent a post raving about them. Grits, my friends, are like sausage - in that you don't wanna know how they're made.Most Southerners eat hominy grits . Hominy grits are made from regular old corn that's been soaked in - get this - lye water, for goodness' sake!, until the kernels swell up to more'n twice their size. These fat, lye-puffed corn kernels are dried and ground up into a sort of coarse meal-like substance that we in the South call - ta-da! - grits. Sure, you can buy organic stone-ground corn grits, but that takes some of the dangerous fun out of it.
Anyway, once you have your ground-up, dried-up, lyed-up corn girts, boil 'em up to whatever consistency you like - thick, runny, or something in between. Add butter, cheese, onion, jalepeno peppers - whatever floats your boat. (Here's a whole list of grits recipes, just in case you're interested.) A nice little cream of wheat-like breakfast dish, only not so wussy.
Grits - like 'em or lump 'em. I agree there's no accounting for taste (good or bad). I do love 'em, medium-runny with butter or with cheese and jalepenos. Yu-um!
Add sausage and you have a completely delicious but please-don't-tell-me-where-it-comes-from breakfast.
3 comments:
Mary- I'm so sorry that you are in a "Grits Deprived" area. Only people of fine social character can appreciate the finer points of grits eating. I too know of people who put sugar on their grits. As we say down south--
" A grit a day keeps the Dr. Away"
Personaly I eat them plain with a little smart balance butter.
Yep, I heard of a guy that put sugar on his grits. They say he's doing alright now over at the sanitarium. For me, it's fairly stiff (thick) with lots of melted real butter and then lots of salt and pepper, all stirred up real good and eaten while hot.
Also like a good grits casserole with cheese. And if you like, finely chopped country sausage, peppers, onion.
Lastly, there is an upscale restaurant around Nashville that has grits cakes as a side item. They are 3 to 4 in. diameter and about one-half inch thick, and look similar to fried cornbread. I have eaten them several times but am still not sure what spices or herbs they use. Probably fried on low griddle with olive oil? Good....!
Still open to sending you something you cannot find up there. Let me know. You've got my address...
So a bit like porridge - real Scots eat it with salt; I tke mine sweet and milky.
It's the name I think: grits. Just sounds so ... gritty!
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