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Fried Grits: Out of Season
Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 1:44 am
by Blaise (imported)
but winter will come!
This is not recommended for that eccentric old man in California, unless his caretaker does the cooking.
I cook my grits slowly in a slow cooker. It takes about three hours but does not require constant stirring. A short recipe uses these components:
5 cups Warms Spring, Georgia bottled water
Sea salt to taste
1 cup Logan or Old Mill of Guilford stone ground grits.
½ cup King Arthur unbleached, unbromated all purpose flour (White Lily and Martha White are also good. Just use soft, not hard winter wheat)
Olive oil, standard grade
Small Vidalia onion diced
Sassafras to taste
Thyme to taste
Preparation:
Cook grits and bottled water about three hours in the slow cooker until the grits are cooked and thick like mush. Remove from slow cooker and blend in onion and spices while mush is still hot.
Pour hot grits mixture into a deep soufflé dish, cover, and put aside in refrigerator to chill thoroughly. The grits become firm because of the gelatinization of the starch in the grain.
When the grits are firm, remove from soufflé. Dredge the molded grits in flour, shaking off the excess flour. Heat the olive oil to cover about half the molded grits. Fry until the outside is golden brown on both sides, about 4 to 5 minutes. Drain on paper towels, sprinkle with the salt, and serve hot. Slice. Serve with turnip greens or rapini.
The secret is getting the Vidalia onion and the turnip grees fresh about the same time. The interval for this recipe is not brief, but I think that one cannot always get the onions. I do think that they have a long shelf life. .
These serves about four people.
Re: Fried Grits: Out of Season
Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 7:21 am
by Riverwind (imported)
By golly shucks gee but I dont think I can find any of those items up here except maybe the slow cooker. But I guess the same would be true for Mexican food like I got in California. They dont have it here. Up here we go for Pastys.
River well north of the Mason Dixon, close to the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field.
Now I am hungry for a plate of Huevos Ranchos or Albondigus Soup.
guess I will have another Pasty
River
Re: Fried Grits: Out of Season
Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 7:26 am
by Blaise (imported)
Riverwind (imported) wrote: Fri Aug 15, 2008 7:21 am
By golly shucks gee but I dont think I can find any of those items up here except maybe the slow cooker. But I guess the same would be true for Mexican food like I got in California. They dont have it here. Up here we go for Pastys.
River well north of the Mason Dixon, close to the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field.
Now I am hungry for a plate of Huevos Ranchos or Albondigus Soup.
guess I will have another Pasty
River Laugh out loud! You don't have rapini?
I remember French Silk pie in Minneapolis. Wonderful. We actually have that here. Pastries are important in Louisiana, at least in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. We enjoy several excellent shops in my neighborhood.
Our Latin fare is often influenced by Caribbean fare, like that celebrated in the series Dexter. We enjoy pulled chicken or pork. It is something that I think is fairly recent to our area.
I like something called corn pudding. Greens are good with a lot of hot sauce. One has to cook them well but not too well. A bit of vinger helps them. Grits are actually tasty. They are bland and need something added but they work on many levels. If you call them polenta, you can get people to eat them.
The old-fashioned way to fry grits is to pour the hot grits into a can (of whatever size) and then to let them congeal. They slip intact out of the can fairly easily. Then one slices them--thin is best--slightly breads them, and fries them. The traditional way to fry them is in bacon grease. They are then a substitute for bread with added fat.
Re: Fried Grits: Out of Season
Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 12:15 pm
by markle (imported)
-fried in bacon grease- ... OMG won't we just die eating that? (LOL)
Dad was a born in 1905 in the Deep South. Grits were common fare even tho i grew up in the Northern parts of Missouri. thanks for the memories Blaise
Re: Fried Grits: Out of Season
Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 1:12 pm
by jane_says (imported)
I like cheese grits with Frank's Red Hot sauce, a slice of lightly buttered pumpernickel rye toast, and a glass of orange juice for breakfast any time of year. As far as I'm concerned, grits are NEVER out of season. My favorite grits recipe is garlic cheddar grits with shrimp and Italian sausage, with Tobasco & tomato gravy. I first had it at a Southern / Italian fusion restaurant in Knoxville, and searched the internet for a recipe that sounded right. Damn, it's good. Goes awesome with deep-fried fresh asparagus spears, dry red wine and homemade cheesecake for dessert. <burp>
Re: Fried Grits: Out of Season
Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 1:59 pm
by Riverwind (imported)
Well all that may be true but do you have a good sushi restaurant?
Bagels, cream cheese and lox's? mmmm brings back memories when I was a kid and we would raid Less's house for them, its always pissed off his mother because of the sabbath rules. The only place you can find some of that stuff is in the store deli and its just not the same.
Food we can no longer get because of age or location to birth. Next time I am in the bay area I am going to Noah's. Or to SFV and to Cupids. sigh
Oh yes, and something I tried here at home a month or so ago,
wonderful.
River
Re: Fried Grits: Out of Season
Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 2:43 pm
by coinflipper_21 (imported)
Blaise (imported) wrote: Fri Aug 15, 2008 1:44 am
but winter will come!
This is not recommended for that eccentric old man in California, unless his caretaker does the cooking.
I cook my grits slowly in a slow cooker. It takes about three hours but does not require constant stirring. A short recipe uses these components:
5 cups Warms Spring, Georgia bottled water
Sea salt to taste
1 cup Logan or Old Mill of Guilford stone ground grits.
½ cup King Arthur unbleached, unbromated all purpose flour (White Lily and Martha White are also good. Just use soft, not hard winter wheat)
Olive oil, standard grade
Small Vidalia onion diced
Sassafras to taste
Thyme to taste
Preparation:
Cook grits and bottled water about three hours in the slow cooker until the grits are cooked and thick like mush. Remove from slow cooker and blend in onion and spices while mush is still hot.
Pour hot grits mixture into a deep soufflé dish, cover, and put aside in refrigerator to chill thoroughly. The grits become firm because of the gelatinization of the starch in the grain.
When the grits are firm, remove from soufflé. Dredge the molded grits in flour, shaking off the excess flour. Heat the olive oil to cover about half the molded grits. Fry until the outside is golden brown on both sides, about 4 to 5 minutes. Drain on paper towels, sprinkle with the salt, and serve hot. Slice. Serve with turnip greens or rapini.
The secret is getting the Vidalia onion and the turnip grees fresh about the same time. The interval for this recipe is not brief, but I think that one cannot always get the onions. I do think that they have a long shelf life. .
These serves about four people.
Sounds good, I'll have to try it. Grits were an non issue for me until I spent some time in Austin and was shown that there is such a thing as great grits.
Re: Fried Grits: Out of Season
Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 8:13 pm
by Blaise (imported)
jane_says (imported) wrote: Fri Aug 15, 2008 1:12 pm
I like cheese grits with Frank's Red Hot sauce, a slice of lightly buttered pumpernickel rye toast, and a glass of orange juice for breakfast any time of year. As far as I'm concerned, grits are NEVER out of season. My favorite grits recipe is garlic cheddar grits with shrimp and Italian sausage, with Tobasco & tomato gravy. I first had it at a Southern / Italian fusion restaurant in Knoxville, and searched the internet for a recipe that sounded right. Damn, it's good. Goes awesome with deep-fried fresh asparagus spears, dry red wine and homemade cheesecake for dessert. <burp>
That sounds wonderful. My father never ate grits much until late in his life. He loved instant grits. For awhile Quaker test marketed hot cheese grits. I enjoy hot sauce on my grits. There is or was a classy restaurant in Atlanta that served grits of many kinds as side dishes. Garli is great with grits. I will have to try them with shrimp or crawfish.
markle (imported) wrote: Fri Aug 15, 2008 12:15 pm
-fried in bacon grease- ... OMG won't we just die eating that? (LOL)
Dad was a born in 1905 in the Deep South. Grits were common fare even tho i grew up in the Northern parts of Missouri. thanks for the memories Blaise
My father was very poor when he was a teenager. He would smell bacon frying and just hope that someone would offer him some. No one ever did. He never gave up his love of fatbac
Riverwind (imported) wrote: Fri Aug 15, 2008 1:59 pm
k, but bacon was the rich man's food. I like breaking crisp bacon into grits. I also break sausage into them.
Well all that may be true but do you have a good sushi restaurant?
Bagels, cream cheese and lox's? mmmm brings back memories when I was a kid and we would raid Less's house for them, its always pissed off his mother because of the sabbath rules. The only place you can find some of that stuff is in the store deli and its just not the same.
Food we can no longer get because of age or location to birth. Next time I am in the bay area I am
going to Noah's. Or to SFV and to Cupids. sigh
Oh yes,
a month or so ago, deep-fried fresh asparagus spears, wonderful.
RiverWe had a great Jewish deli or two in Atanta. I cannot eat cream cheese unelss it is the fat free kind but I love begals. They have an interesting history. IT is not the same to buy Kosher foods at the grocery store. Sushi is good with grits
Baton Rouge does now have a great sushi restaurants There was decent one near New Orleans.
Re: Fried Grits: Out of Season
Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 10:19 am
by Arab Nights (imported)
I know of one guy that contoured the United States into an iso-grits map. At the center was where you get grits even if you very clearly state you do not want them on the plate (epicenter about Georgia and South Carolina) working out to the zones where you get them unless you specifically ask not to have them, the zone where you do not get them unless you ask but they are available and the "what the !@$!@$ are grits" zone where I grew up.
Re: Fried Grits: Out of Season
Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 11:22 am
by Blaise (imported)
Arab Nights (imported) wrote: Sat Aug 16, 2008 10:19 am
I know of one guy that contoured the United States into an iso-grits map. At the center was where you get grits even if you very clearly state you do not want them on the plate (epicenter about Georgia and South Carolina) working out to the zones where you get them unless you specifically ask not to have them, the zone where you do not get them unless you ask but they are available and the "what the !@$!@$ are grits" zone where I grew up.
I lived in Oregon. I know about worlds without grits. :-\ Tragic, isn't it? However, they do like crawfish! I liked dining in Portland, but one had to be careful to pick the right restaurants.