curried grits

[squeezebox]

I'm thinking of oatmeal in the morning ( The real stuff, not the cardboard instant stuff), with a honey bear or maple syrup, grits some evenings. Help me with some interesting grits recipes. I'm thinking of grits and poached eggs on top, grits and veggies, curried grits, cheezy garlic grits, Grits are pretty neutral flavor on their own, so will accept the flavors you add.
Any other ideas appreciated.

[Rocket Jones]

The only difference between "real" oatmeal and instant is that the instant is ground finer to cook quicker.

[LonghornAT]

Try adding bacon bits. Haven't done it personally, but real bacon in grits is tasty.

[Rain Man]

The only difference between "real" oatmeal and instant is that the instant is ground finer to cook quicker.

Sorry, but not true at all. "Instant" this and "Instant" that has most, if not all, of the good stuff processed out of it. Otherwise, it wouldn't be instant.

I'm thinking of oatmeal in the morning ( The real stuff, not the cardboard instant stuff), with a honey bear ...

Good start, but many "honey bears" are super-processed as instant oatmeal, removing many/most of the good nutrients. In fact, investigations have found that much of it from China contains some sort of processed sugar mix. Just a heads-up to read labels closely.

Help me with some interesting grits recipes.

I like cheesy grits on the trail, but am happy to add lots of margarine and salt/pepper to plain grits. Agree with the comment about bacon bits, but be careful some are real and some are processed artificial stuff. Just know what you are getting. I suppose you could take a small foil package of shrimp.

Enjoy!
RainMan

.

[Odd Man Out]

I like to make oatmeal like freezer bag cooking. Add boiling water and let steep, but don't boil. When you boil, you melt the starch granules and this is what makes oatmeal thick and sticky. When you steep (like FBC) the texture is completely different. Also if you do it a bowl, it's much easier to clean up as the cooled starch doesn't set up like glue. I just add Nido, cinnamon and maple syrup.

[Connie]

How do you make grits not thick and sticky?

Is it the same preparation technique as oatmeal?

I have had delicious grits. I would like to know how to do that.

Since grits are not available in grocery stores, here, I would like to know how to prepare basic grits before finding grits to purchase online.

[upstream]

I eat grits once or twice a week for dinner, when my family is at work. My favorite is a handful of shredded cheese and a handful of bacon bits. (added after the grits are cooked) But anything is good, leftover fish, porkchop, barbecue, sausage, chicken, roast beef or chinese food. Sometimes just butter, salt and pepper. Sometimes I add leftover veggies too, like cabbage, bok choy, or broccoli.

On the trail, bacon bits or jerky, or sometimes just cheese (white vermont extra sharp), and one time with dehydrated spinach.

I do NOT like instant grits though, and I haven't had any luck with freezer bagging the quick ones, so I have a pot to clean.

[rblackburn]

I love grits, but haven't tried them on the trail as I usually only do FBC, and don't like instant grits. I wonder how they would dehydrate?

[rblackburn]

found this:

http://www.backpackingchef.com/grits-recipes.html

[Connie]

I don't think grits and polenta are the same. I have had grits. I have had polenta: the texture is entirely different. I would say: polenta cakes, same texture as crab cakes I have had.

Grits and seafood?

Anyway:

Grits are white, perhaps from white "dessert" corn.

Polenta is yellow, perhaps from yellow "table" corn.

No?

[Rain Man]

How do you make grits not thick and sticky?

Mostly it's just a matter of practice. But the good thing is you can add water at almost any time during the process from box/bag to plate. The consistency is a matter of personal preference.

As a kid growing up in South Carolina, I complained one time too many to my older cousin who was our "nanny" at the time, that my grits were too thick. The next morning I got a few grit granules in a glass of hot water with a straw! LOL

This is the same cousin who put me off the school bus and made me walk the rest of the way home one day. She took lots of gruff off me, but did have a limit after all. LOL (In SC at that time, students drove the school buses. I did all through 11th and 12th grades to make spending money.)

Rain Man

[zelph]

google is my friend :-)

How Corn Grits are made at Falls Mill
The first step in the production of our whole corn grits is the purchase of hybrid white corn from a local farmer. We pull a small grain wagon to his storage bin and auger out about 125 bushels of corn at a time. We weigh the corn and then bring it to the mill for unloading and cleaning. We auger it from the wagon into the mill building, where it is deposited in a floor bin. An elevator, running off our water wheel, picks up the corn a bucket at a time and carries it to the second floor grain cleaner. The cleaner has two shaker screens and a bottom blast fan, which operate to remove stalk, cob, unwanted seeds, cockleburs, and other field trash from the corn. The cleaned corn then drops into a basement auger, which moves it to a second elevator, where it is again carried upstairs and may be conveyed to one of four grain storage bins (usually the grinding bin above the millstones). It takes about five hours for us to unload and clean the 125 bushels.

When ready to mill, we belt up the millstones, fan suction system, and grits separator, and step up the speed of the water wheel, which drives all the machinery through a series of gears, flats belts, line shafts, and pulleys. The millstones we use are a set of 42-inch horizontal granite buhrs manufactured by the R.D. Cole Company of Newnan, Georgia, around the turn of the century. The granite was quarried at the Esopus Quarry in New York state. The millstones rotate about 125 revolutions per minute, and the upper (runner) stone weighs more than 1,500 pounds. Corn is fed into the stones via the hopper and shoe, from the upstairs storage bin. The stones are separated wider than when milling pure corn meal to obtain a coarser product. However, the milled product is a mixture of cracked corn, grits, and corn meal, so must be separated in a sifter (grits separator). As it comes off the stones, it falls into a pipe where the fan suction carries it to the second floor and drops it into the sifter. The corn meal is first sifted through a #20 screen and drops into a bagging bin on the first floor. The coarser product travels over this screen and grits drop through a #12 screen next, into a second bin below. The cracked corn tails off the end of the sifting drum and we regrind it to obtain more grits. The final yield is roughly 55% corn meal, 40% grits, and 5% light bran. The grits, however, will still contain a little bran or chaff. This is usually skimmed off prior to cooking.

No lye products are used in the processing of Falls Mill's grits.

John and Jane Lovett, Owners, Falls Mill & Country Store, 1873We hope you learned a lot about grits from reading this!

[zelph]

Once you try steel cut oats you wont go back to the other mushy oats.

(quote)
Start your morning with the hearty texture and rich, nutty flavor of steel cut oats. Quaker® Quick 3-Minute Oats cooks in just 3 minutes. Try them with a drizzle of maple syrup, a splash of milk, or topped with fruit. It’s the delicious wholesomeness you expect from Quaker.

[Connie]

I do know that grits I had in The South in the 1950's I found delicious are made from ground dried hominy, referred to as hominy grits.

I also find I like whole hominy in a stew.

Hominy is processed with lye, a good thing, transforming the corn for digestibility.

For example, olives off the tree are transformed by processing with lye.

The only requirement for food safety is a good washing afterward.

All commercial corn is hybridized. However, there exists heritage seed corn of all colors corn kernels.

I know this, because we had white "desert corn" in our garden. There was also yellow "sweet corn" or referred to as "table corn".

I want to purchase authentic hominy grits processed with lye, dried and ground.

I do not know what brand to purchase.

[OCDave]

Once you try steel cut oats you wont go back to the other mushy oats.

+1, Love my steel cut oats.

[WingedMonkey]

The only difference between "real" oatmeal and instant is that the instant is ground finer to cook quicker.

You are correct. They are from the smaller grains, plus the are precooked a bit more (steamed, but so are "old fashioned" oats, just not as much).

Nothing is removed from instant that is in old-fashioned.

The problem comes when they add all that crap to the "flavored" instant oatmeal. There are some good quality instant ones out there.

I don't use instant anymore though, because pouring boiling water over the old-fashioned and letting them sit covered cooks them just fine. I bag up a serving with some raisins and some brown sugar and they are good to go.

[zelph]

googled again:

quote:
Rolled oats are traditionally oat groats that have been de-husked, steamed and then rolled into flat flakes under heavy rollers before being stabilized by being lightly toasted. The oat, like the other cereals, has a hard, inedible outer husk that must be removed before the grain can be eaten. After the outer husk (or chaff) has been removed from the still bran-covered oat grains, the remainder is called oat groats. Oat groats are a whole grain that can be used as a breakfast cereal; various forms of oatmeal and rolled oats, and pinhead oats are cooked to make porridge or porage.^[1] Steel-cut oats (pinhead oatmeal) are oat groats that have been chopped into smaller pieces before any steaming and thus retain bits of the bran layer. Since the bran layer, though nutritious, makes the grains tough to chew and contains an enzyme that can cause the oats to go rancid, raw oat groats are often further steam-treated to soften them for a quicker cooking time (modern "quick oats") and to denature the enzymes for a longer shelf life.
Rolled oats that are sold as oatmeal usually, but not always, have had the tough bran removed. They have often, but not always, been lightly baked or pressure-cooked or "processed" in some fashion. Thick-rolled oats are large whole flakes, and thin-rolled oats are smaller, fragmented flakes. Oat flakes that are simply rolled whole oats without further processing can be cooked and eaten as "old-fashioned" oatmeal, but more highly fragmented and processed rolled oats absorb water much more easily and therefore cook faster, so they are sometimes called "quick" or "instant" oatmeal. Oatmeal can be further processed into coarse powder, which, when cooked, becomes a thick broth. Finer oatmeal powder is often used as baby food. Rolled oats are also often the main ingredient in granola and muesli.

[Connie]

Huh? I gave my horse rolled oats.

Zelph, here is an article for you. http://www.thekitchn.com/polenta-ver...ference-187807

I would like to know what brand grits are, in fact, hominy grits.

Anyone?

[zelph]

Huh? I gave my horse rolled oats.

Zelph, here is an article for you. http://www.thekitchn.com/polenta-ver...ference-187807

I would like to know what brand grits are, in fact, hominy grits.

Anyone?

Your horse loves you more for it!!

Quaker: Quick Enriched White Hominy Grits, 24 Oz


http://www.walmart.com/ip/10312475?w...tRedirect=true

[upstream]

In the south, all the grits on the store shelves are hominy grits. Untreated grits require refrigeration.