How To Make Grits, For All The Yankees Out There

When I posted my cook for the T-Bone and Seafood Throwdown I had a couple of guys ask about the grits. Then a new thread was started to tell some of them how to make grits. Great idea, but the first post said "follow the instructions on the box." Uummm, what? Grits are like BBQ, you may be able to get pulled pork out of a crockpot but it's not BBQ,and you may be able to get something out of a box, but it AIN'T grits. 

Dawn is the grit maker of the house, so I let her be the star of this post (just wanted to mention that before I got a "I like your fingernails" comment. 

For the cheese grits with the T-Bone post. She actually did half water and half chicken stock, but for regular ol' breakfast grits she just uses water. 

This is our "recipe" to make grits for 2. 

Start off with 2/3 cup of corn meal and 2 cups of water. She does 1 part corn meal to 3 parts water. I've heard you can do milk instead of water, but this is how we make them. 

Pour the water in a pot and bring it to a boil.

She went ahead and added a little salt ... call it a teaspoon. 

Then added the corn meal while continuously stirring. 

I used this picture, because I thought the whisk looked cool.

Once it's all in and you've stirred it just enough to have it mixed, reduce the heat to Low-Medium. We have to physically move them since we have an electric stove. 

She let them sit for a minute and then added about a 1/2 of a cup of water to the pot. She said she does this to add the water back that might have evaporated during the boiling.

Every few minutes or so she would stir them up to keep them from clumping together.

Once it sat on Low-Medium for 12-14 minutes or so, it was time to pull them off. This is about the stage you will get them at a restaurant. They're grits, but they taste like blah (and probably why most non-Southerners don't like Grits). 

While it's hot add butter and pepper to your liking (remember, you've already added salt). 

They should be solid enough to hold together (not runny like water), but not clumpy and hard.

And that's how a breakfast in the South should look (of course you could have country ham, biscuits and gravy, etc etc). 

Now, there's no more excuses for our Northern and West Coast friends. Add sugar to your tea and grits to your breakfast and start to enjoy the greater things in life.