You’ll probably find the usual quick-cooking grits in your grocery store near the oatmeal. Quick grits are degerminated, fortified, rather bland, and as the label says, quick to cook. They work fine in all kinds of applications, and I like them just fine. However, if you can find a bag of stone-ground grits (you can order them online), don’t pass up the chance to try them. They have triple the corn flavor, so much so that you won’t believe the difference. And they take about an hour to cook, well worth the extra time.
My trick for making either stone-ground or quick-cooking grits without tending to the pot is to load them up in a slow cooker. That way I don’t have to fret about them sticking to the pan or, worse, boiling over. Cook them on high an hour or two or three. Or you can cook them on low overnight. Add plenty of water, probably a cup or two more than called for. It doesn’t matter. You cannot overcook grits. The corn never breaks down into mush like rice. Start them early Sunday morning when you put your coffee on, check the water and stir occasionally before you head for church, and they’ll be ready when you are.
Makes 10 servings
Many of the folks who visit Miss Mary’s have never had the opportunity to try good Southern grits. The mere mention of this strange sounding word elicits jeers or fears from the uninitiated. Grits are nothing more than coarsely ground corn cooked in liquid and seasoned.
A good cheese grits casserole is as versatile as macaroni and cheese or potatoes au gratin. We love them for breakfast or dinner. Though the homely name often confines grits to country cooking, they can be quite sophisticated. Experiment with other good cheeses like Swiss, goat, or Parmesan and always add plenty of butter. Try serving these on the side with the Tennessee Barbecue Shrimp (page 158). Now you’ll have your own style of shrimp and grits!
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup quick-cooking grits
¼ cup (½ stick) butter
2 ½ cups grated Cheddar cheese, divided
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Dash of hot pepper sauce
Heat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 × 13-inch baking dish. Combine the water and salt in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Stir in the grits. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook until thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and 2 cups of the cheese until melted. Stir in the eggs, milk, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, and hot pepper sauce. Pour into the greased baking dish. Sprinkle with the remaining ½ cup of cheese. Bake 45 minutes or until golden brown.
Heard around the TABLE
A cautious gentleman from Australian agreed to try one grit.
Makes about 12 biscuits
Good biscuits are best when the dough is not handled too much. By that I mean just enough kneading for the dough to hold together and to ensure nice flakey layers. I roll out my biscuits quite thin, about ½-inch thick if I’m planning to make country ham biscuits. Big fluffy biscuits may be more to your liking for breakfast. Roll those out about ¾-inch thick. Make them with any size cutter you like, or cut the dough into rough squares. I prefer tiny, two-bite biscuits to serve with cocktails.
⅓ cup lard or vegetable shortening
2 cups self-rising flour
1 cup buttermilk
Melted butter
Heat the oven to 450ºF. Cut the shortening into the flour with a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Add the buttermilk and stir just until a soft dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board or pastry cloth. Knead gently just until smooth, about 10 times. Roll or pat out the dough with your fingers to about ½ to ¾-inch thickness. Cut into rounds with a floured (2-inch) biscuit cutter. Place on a baking sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Rub the melted butter on the tops right when they come out of the oven.
Makes 2 to 3 cups
Whenever meat is frying in a Southern skillet, chances are a gravy will be made in the drippings and biscuits will already be in the oven. Whether it’s pork chops, steak, chicken, sausage (or even squirrel), our skillet gravies are as important to country cooking as the Mother sauces are to French cuisine. The rule to remember is to use equal parts pan drippings to flour. The amount of liquid used depends on how thick you like your gravy. I use milk for sausage gravy and a combination of milk and broth for chicken gravy. Red Eye gravy made with country ham drippings isn’t thickened at all. We prefer all water, but some folks I know add a little black coffee.
¼ cup pan drippings and browned bits from frying meat or chicken
¼ cup all-purpose flour
2 to 3 cups liquid (milk or broth)
Salt and black pepper, to taste
Pour the pan drippings into a skillet. Whisk in the flour with a fork to blend well. Cook over medium heat for about 1 minute. Gradually stir in the liquid. Bring the mixture to a boil, whisking constantly. Cook until thickened, about 2 to 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Heard around the TABLE
I was bragging at the table that adding a little Jack improves everything. We’ve never added it to anything yet that it hasn’t made better. A man at my table said he agreed 100 percent. “Have you ever tried it on your cereal?”
A man across the table said he’d never tried that but he had brushed his teeth with it a few times. An eighty-yearold woman chimed in that it would be good on oatmeal with a little brown sugar.
Makes 1 ½ cups
Drippings from frying country ham
About 1 ½ cups water
Pinch of sugar
Remove the country ham from the skillet, add water to the skillet, and scrape up the browned bits from the bottom. Add a pinch of sugar. It’s supposed to be thin and watery. Some folks add a little coffee at this point.
Makes about 12 servings
Many of our guests request this simple potato bake recipe. Frozen hash browns and canned soup may not sound fancy, but you can’t argue with the results. Whether it’s dinner party-fancy, weeknight supper, or Sunday brunch, creamy, cheese potatoes are a great side to any chicken, red meat, or pork dish. For a little color stir in a small jar of pimientos. You can turn this into a main dish by adding chopped baked ham, country ham, cooked and crumbled pork sausage, Italian sausage, or Kielbasa. Cooked spinach, sautéed red and green peppers, and even a handful of corn kernels are colorful easy add-ins.
1 medium onion, chopped
½ cup (1 stick) butter
1 bag (30 ounces) frozen hash brown potatoes, thawed
1 ½ cups sour cream
2 cups (8 ounces) grated sharp Cheddar cheese
1 can (10 ¾ ounces) condensed cream of mushroom soup
Fresh parsley, for garnish
Heat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 × 13-inch baking dish. Cook the onion in the butter in a skillet over medium heat until tender, 7 to 8 minutes. Combine the hash brown potatoes, sour cream, Cheddar cheese, and mushroom soup in a large mixing bowl and blend well. Stir in the onions and butter. Pour the mixture into the greased baking dish. Bake about 1 hour or until golden brown and hot. Garnish with a sprinkling of fresh parsley.
Variations:
Pimiento Cheese—Add a jar of drained, chopped pimientos
Green chile—Add a can or two of chopped green chiles
Sausage—Add a pound of cooked and crumbled country sausage
Ham—Add a couple of cups of chopped cooked ham
Heard around the TABLE
A Swiss boy thought sausage biscuits were hamburgers.
Makes about 20 hushpuppies
Why anyone would take the time to fry fish without making a side of hushpuppies is beyond me. A good hushpuppy is always deep golden brown, crisp, light in the center, and never greasy. Here we break our own rule against sugar in cornbread by adding just a little brown sugar to the batter. Hushpuppies are best eaten right out of the fryer. Cold ones are only fit for the dogs! In fact, country lore suggests that small balls of dough were fed to the dogs to keep them from begging when other dishes were being prepared in the kitchen.
2 cups self-rising cornmeal mix
2 tablespoons self-rising flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons finely chopped green bell pepper
1 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
Vegetable oil for frying
Combine the cornmeal, flour, sugar, onion, and green pepper in a medium mixing bowl. Stir in the milk and eggs and blend well. Set aside for 5 minutes; do not stir. Pour about 3 inches of vegetable oil into a Dutch oven and heat to 365°F. Drop the dough by heaping teaspoonfuls into the hot oil. Fry until golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes, and drain on paper towels.
Heard around the TABLE
When I explained to my table how hard it is to get reservations sometimes, a funny gentleman from Rhode Island asked if anyone ever “scalped” reservations. He observed that he could have easily made some money by selling his seat to some folks on the front porch who were hoping for no-shows.