Designer grits

[dianeduane]

An idea whose time has come.

Don't think I'm making fun of this. I like grits. (The voice from the next room says, "And I married you anyway...!") My mother was a Maryland woman, and passed on to me her great fondness for them. (Before the inevitable question arises: I am a butter-salt-and-pepper-on-my-grits person. I've never understood the sugar-and-milk-on-breakfast-grits school of thought, but in the interests of human diversity, and in a world this size, I'm sure we can all agree to Just Get Along.)

Yes, most commercially-marketed grits have tasted mostly like wallpaper paste for a long time. And forget the "instant" stuff: you could use it for spackle. I prefer the rougher texture of the grits of my childhood...but for a long time they've been nowhere to be found. However, it looks like they're having a renaissance. Something else to add to my next order at Albertsons...

By the way, there's a strange resonance in this issue to something that's been going on in Irish cuisine. There's a dish called champ which was often a kids' suppertime dish here in older days: essentially mashed potatoes with chopped-up scallions or green onions in it. It tends to have been cordially hated by Irish kids whose parents made them eat it. However, it's been having a renaissance as a "cool food": you run into designer champ now in quite pricey restaurants on both sides of the Irish Sea. (Our own St. Patrick's day menu for our restaurateur friend in Basel, when we go over there to cook it next year, includes crown roast of rowanberry-and-red-wine-glazed Wicklow lamb with three champs -- roasted garlic/clotted cream, spinach/nutmeg, and saffron/sweet potato: an edible Irish tricolor.) Yet another manifestation of the way food people keep searching for older, often peasant-based food styles and cuisines that have fallen by the wayside, and revive them as The Cool New Thing. Remember when rocket/aragula was a weed? Remember when people thought corn fungus was icky? Remember when no one would touch a pig cheek, let alone think about eating it?

I have to laugh sometimes at the upmarket pretensions that get heaped on what are often peasant-originated dishes or poor people's food long rejected by those who didn't have to eat "that stuff" any more. But it's nonetheless great to see these solid, tasty foods rediscovered after having been dumped or forgotten for so long. Once the designer madness dies down, we can then get back to eating them just plain the way they are.

Tags: food, grits, peasant cuisine, designer food, fancy restaurants, hmm, do we have any grits left in the cupboard?

Comments

[akicif.livejournal.com]

I'm hungry now - I used to love champ, and I've not made it in simply ages.

I was less fond of mashed potatoes with a beaten egg or two added so the heat of the potato would cook them, or of the mixed turnip and potato mash we had far too often, but champ was something to look forward to.

Actually, checking your recipe, I notice a couple of differences from what we had: the chopped scallions were added raw, and we never did the "well of butter" thing. I like the texture of the raw scallions, so I don't think I'll change that, but the butter thing sounds delightfully and dangerously excessive, so I may just give that a go!

[pariyal.livejournal.com]

Celery and potato mash, on the other hand, is simply delicious. Root celery, I mean, is that called 'celeriac' or am I hallucinating?

[uitlander]

As a Brit, the concept of "grits" brings to mind a light soufflé of floor sweepings. I ordered them once out of curiosity in a diner in Florida, and (quite possibly like Marmite) this may well be a tatse of childhood that can't be acquired later. What exactly are they made of?

[dduane.livejournal.com]

They're coarse-ground corn -- either white or yellow (there are vociferous proponents of each sort). This can mean that (if mass-produced, like the Quaker grits) they can be mind-numbingly bland, or (if made from heirloom corn and correctly dried and ground) can have a nice nutty al-dente quality.

Here's the link to Anson Mills, (http://www.ansonmills.com/) one of the places that makes them. (They seem to have a lot of other nice stuff too.)

[von-krag.livejournal.com]

In my own restuarant I've used grits both for savory and deserts. I give Anson a 100% rating in both quality and service. Now that I'm semi-retired I keep 2-5 kg on hand just for my use, grits w/a good andouille and very soft scrambles is a wonderful start to a day.

PS: BTW I found some of your Op-Centers through dd_b IMO better than the last few of Clancey's own.

PPS: Harlan will be GOH at this years Minicon, sure you and Peter won't come? Please!!!!!

[dduane.livejournal.com]

Re the (not OpCenter -- NetForce): aw, thanks!

Re Minicon: we would really, really love to be there. It's going to depend on whether some funds come in between now and then. (looks at sky, expects miracle...)

[janeway216.livejournal.com]

Apparently, it depends. I suspect the storebought grits that DD refers to are simply a very coarsely ground cornmeal. Where I was brought up, grits were ground hominy (corn that has been soaked/cooked in a mixture of lye and water) and this is far superior.

I prefer mine with a great deal of butter and salt, but my mother is from Georgia and occasionally gets a hankering to eat hers with redeye gravy ("a gravy made from the drippings of ham fried in a skillet," says Wikipedia.) I think this is extremely gross.

Yum!

[cjmr.livejournal.com]

Yet another dish one of my grandmas used to make that I never knew what it was called! I think you are up to reminding me of three, now. *mentally puts champ on menu for next St. Patrick's day*

The spinach/nutmeg and saffron/sweet potato versions sound intriguing. I don't suppose you've shared those recipes anywhere? Or am I left to make it up as I go along?

Unfortunately, I think you'd be disappointed in the grits that you can get in supermarkets in Maryland these days. Mostly just Quaker is available. I'm sure there are mom-and-pop stores that sell the 'real stuff' but I don't know where to find one. (I'm a butter and salt person myself. But I don't do pepper at breakfast.)

Re: Yum!

[dduane.livejournal.com]

I've never written the recipes down: this is one of those "wing it" things. Partly because the amount of additive ingredients depends on the variety of potatoes you're using. If it's a waxy variety like Cultra or Nicola, you may need more additives to make it all hang together. A floury variety like Kerr's Pink or Rooster might need less.

How is the potato variety situation in the US these days? I can remember it being pretty desperate even just over the last few years, depending on where you were. I saw places where there were only three kinds of potatoes -- white, "red" (often dyed) and baker -- not even named by variety. Here there are at least forty or fifty main varieties available over the course of the year, either imported or local -- they cycle in and out, seasonally. (The local supermarket has a big chart in the produce department showing which ones are in season when, and what they're good for.)

Re: Yum!

[(Anonymous)]

There's only three kinds at the big grocery store, and I always buy the wrong kind.

- cjmr's husband

Re: Yum!

[cjmr.livejournal.com]

At the local supermarket we can reliably get russet, 'white' potatoes (both 'baby' and full-sized), 'red' potatoes (both 'baby' and full-sized, and at the prices they're charging they better not be dyed), and occasionally Yukon Gold (tasty, but expensive). My husband is only being slightly sarcastic when he says he usually brings home the wrong kind. I don't make specific enough shopping lists, apparently--I know from my menu plan at the top of the list which kind of potatoes 'potatoes' means, he needs more information. At harvest time they sometimes have the purple potatoes, too, but I'm not of the opinion that potatoes should be purple.

If I drive over to the gourmet food store (Whole Foods) they have several more varieties, and are usually pretty helpful about telling you what various ones are good for.

As far as sweet potatoes go, there are several varieties available in the fall, but by now all the ones that are left are of one variety, imported from elsewhere, and usually pretty sad-looking.

Re: Yum!

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

If you go to a farmer's market, not bad. However, I *like* high starch potatoes, so Idaho potatoes do perfectly well for me. Most of the "fancy" varieties seem to be lower starch, and thus require reworking the way one does a given potato dish. In some cases, you just can't get a result that I'd deem acceptable with low starch potatoes. With a lot of baked dishes, I want the potatoes to go golden and crispy, and with fried potoatoes, I want all the sides to be a deep golden brown. I'm not a fan of the soft melty potato :).

[pnh.livejournal.com]

Champ sounds pretty close to colcannon. Mashed potatos, some milk-like liquid, some onion-like thing, and a river of butter: what's not to like?

I like grits, too. Another excuse to eat melted butter. And, in the case of grits, hot sauce.

[dduane.livejournal.com]

There are similarities, but the colcannon mafia are pretty insistent on the use of curly kale. (The recipe is either just underneath or just above the champ recipe. Along with the song. At least one of the songs, anyway.)

All too agreed about the butter. I just got a little crazy and did another champ variant. New potatoes (Cultra) boiled, dried in their steam, and mashed with butter, buttermilk, and Boursin. Henceforth to be referred to as Pommes 3B.

Yum! Those lasted about thirty seconds.

[pariyal.livejournal.com]

Mmm, curly kale! Too bad that I'm the only one in our family (of five) to like it. It's almost impossible to make it in small quantities.

[ailbhe]

Spinach is an acceptable kale substitute in colcannon. But if colcannon isn't green, it's not colcannon.

[satismagic.livejournal.com]

roasted garlic/clotted cream, spinach/nutmeg, and saffron/sweet potato: an edible Irish tricolor.

That sounds great!

I think discovering old-timey-recipes is wonderful, even if it's only for a season. Often the most simple dishes are the most delicious, if well-prepared with fresh ingredients.

And now I'm hungry again, too!

[100wordspermin.livejournal.com]

Most heartily agreed that it's time for grits to make a comeback--I used to have them for breakfast at my grandparents' house in Birmingham as a kid (also with butter and salt, though my mom is a butter-and-sugar person (she refers to this as "Georgia ice cream")).

There are some upscale sorts of places in Atlanta serving grits now (often a shrimp-and-grits combo), so it's nice to see it being reclaimed and served with "serious" food.

[100wordspermin.livejournal.com]

Disambiguation: Birmingham, Alabama.

Though Delta did send Nana's luggage to the UK by mistake one time...

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Here in North Carolina, this hotel has grits on the breakfast menu. My colleague tried them out of curiosity this breakfast and gave up after one spoonful.

I tried them last week, and found them bland, like an overcooked porridge. (So not your al dente version.) I suspect there's room in the UK for one dish of that consistency, and porridge is already there.

[cjmr.livejournal.com]

Ugh! Hotel grits tend to be somewhere south of wallpaper paste as far as tastiness goes. And are usually far too soupy.

Ask a local for a recommendation. They should know where to get good grits.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Ah well. There are two possibilities - one, that I like them (in which case, it's going to be a difficult taste to keep up with), or two, that I don't, which could be expensive.

(We're a $20 taxi ride from Uptown, out near the end of Charlotte airport's east runway.)

[lady-autumnstar.livejournal.com]

Grits have cachet. They have character. Essentially, they are the William Hurt of starches: Give them a supporting role and they will steal the show.

Being from Atlanta, Georgia and thus raised on grits, I was curious when the big thing in Euro-cuisine was polenta. Grits were plebian, but polenta was chic, fashionable, and high-style. Polenta croquettes formed the base of many a "tall-food" entree. Imagine my amusement when I discovered that polenta was only finely ground grits!

BTW, to get creamy grits, replace half the water with milk when cooking them, and stir well. For breakfast, crumble your bacon into your grits. yummm!

And for supper, I prefer colcannon with kale. Saute the kale first, and it is beyond delicious.

"Oh, wasn't it the happy days when troubles we had not,
and our mothers made Colcannon in the little skillet pot."

Grits

[serenityfallen.livejournal.com]

I am very specific about how my grits taist.

But thats because I am a rather 'big' girl and dont like to add more butter to things than they come with, and because I was raised never to add extra salt and pepper to things. So they have to be really good.

[ateji.livejournal.com]

I dunno about designer grits, but I like 'em as breakfast with sugar, butter, and some jelly.