Featuring Grits

Since some of you may not be familiar with, I decided to feature GRITS today. This site tells you how grits are made (and much more, too) And this is how it looks. Grits (Hominy Grits) To make grits, you stir some into boiling water in a sauce pan (add salt) and cook for several minutes, stirring occasionally. Instant ones are much easier to make; all you have to do is empty packet into a bowl, pour boiling water and stir. Some people like it sweet and serve with brown sugar, cinnamon, etc. and others like it with butter, cheese and ham/bacon bits. I learned to eat grits when I was in Mississippi, U.S.A. My first experience was instant grits with bacon, and it was my late-night meal. It was something I’ve never tried before, and I loved it. Later I had a chance to eat grits at my friend’s house as breakfast, and that’s something I can’t forget. The combination of warm grits and cheese, scrambled eggs, salty sausage and black pepper…. I know, I know. It sounds pretty unhealthy, and it must be unhealthy if you eat it every single morning. Here in Japan now, I only indulge in that habit apx. once a month. As I commented once before, I’ve been (on and off) working on using grits in Japanese-style cooking. This is experiment #1 I did yesterday. I boiled and finely minced some of the spinach I got at the office, and mixed into pancake batter with some cooked grits. Then I folded the pancake in half with a little anko (sweet redbean paste) inside. Grits pancake Japanese-style It was OK, but the pancake was a bit too chewy, and tastewise, I didn’t see any benefit of adding grits. Could have been better without grits, maybe? Here’s experiment #2. Cheese Grits Casserole. This is a legitimate recipe printed on the package of Albers quick grits. The only experimental part was adding boiled spinach and bacon bits. (See, I’m trying hard to consume the green vegs.) I reduced the amount of cheddar cheese quite a bit, but other than that, I basically followed the recipe, and added spinach and bacon at the end. It was good. Much better than the pancake. But looks like some water came out from the spinach and it made the casserole rather soggy. On the other hand, I thought it’d taste definitely better if baked in a pie crust. So next time, I’ll try to improve on that. But the next time shouldn’t be anytime soon. Think about all the ingredients --- butter, cheese, egg, evaporated milk and bacon --- gee, I cannot have this combination too often. I’d better not.