Got my mind blown the other day, when my favorite chef, Kevin Belton broke out with an old favorite of my mothers, Fried Grits! http://kevinbelton.wyes.org/ Now this made my jaw drop, because until that day, outside of my moms family, i had never come across anyone who would admit to knowing a damn thing about fried grits Indeed, many a red blooded southerner called me crazy, a blasphemer, or worse, a liar when I tried to discuss this delicacy, said it didnt exist. Well... here ya go chuckleheads, suck it!! Especially you basic training rockboxes at Ft Bliss Texas back in 87-88! I told you fried grits ARE a thing! Now all mom did was made grits the way everybody else did. But then she would pour it in bread pans, and chill it in the fridge over night. Few hours would probably do, but overnight is what I did. Momma can throw shade from the grave, believe me! Next step is to slice them, and here is where my experimentation this week comes into play. 1/4 inch, or 1/2 inch? I found, it really depends on which surface you choose to cook with. My mom used about an half inch of oil or butter in a pan, so what I call pan fried. In this case, ya probably need to go with half inch here. Any overcooking at all, with a thinner cut and this method, and it will get rubberry, and eventually hard, to tough to eat later. Even at half inch you have to be careful not to over cook. Rubbery is the enemy Now, the real upside to my experiment, is that I tried doing them on a cast iron griddle, just a flat pan, a little lip. No oil dip, no dip frying. At first, i was worried about the sides not getting crispy like on the way my mom did them. Turns out, i like the griddle way better, sorry mom, mine is better. Yeah, cut it a little thinner, 1/4 inch, and crisp them like ya would pressed hashbrowns ya dont get the crispy sides, but turns out that is a good thing. Stops them from getting rubbery, and sometimes downright sharp. Now, full disclosure, i deviated from mamas recipe elsewhere as well. She never added anything to them, other than lots of butter. I on the other hand, added milk, diced purple onions and diced nopalitos, which are cactus pads(similar to those pictured in a previous post,http://wildnwoollywordsmith.com/2019/03/05/naked-cacti/), sliced and pickled. I think on a future batch, I will mix in some scrambled eggs and bacon or spam.... # #dadcancook #dadcookinaintbadcookin
