This dish came from a thwarted mac n' cheese craving.
I had macaroni, I had cheese. What I didn't have was milk. Or cream. So I couldn't make mac n' cheese.
DAMMIT, I thought. How else can I use up this cheese?
Hmmm, cheese grits, I thought. Oh wait, I don't have any milk. How am I supposed to make grits?
So I went rooting around through the back of my cupboards, hoping for inspiration, and came upon a package of quick-cooking grits.
"Quick grits?" I thought. "How do I have these?" But I checked the directions, and it claimed I could make them with just water. Not milk. I was skeptical, but figured with enough cheese, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
And I was right. More to the point, my cheese grits were ready to go in under five minutes. (Granted, quick grits are not as toothsome as the original, long-cooking, with-milk kind. But whatever, there was cheese involved. In this case, a shredded mixture of smoked gouda and comte.)
In order to give my cheese grits some semblance of healthiness, I pulled out a head of collard greens from my produce drawer, sliced it into ribbons, and sauteed those for three or four minutes in some sesame oil, until they just started to wilt down.
I stirred about half into the cheese grits, and mounded the rest on top.
Tomorrow: more adventures with quick grits!
How do you cook grits with milk? I've lived in Georgia almost 60 years and am totally unfamiliar with this.
ReplyDeleteHi Mary! "Real" grits--that is, the old-fashioned, stone-ground, not-quick-or-instant grits, taste much better when cooked with milk. You cook them the same way you would cook grits with water, only, you know, with milk. Quick and instant grits call for water, but you get a lot more flavor when you use milk instead.
ReplyDeleteThanks, I'll have to give it a try - if I can persuade my SO :)
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