Though I’ve been to New Orleans every November for the past seven years, I discovered something new this time around – southern-style grits.
I’ve had grits before and not been impressed, but maybe that’s because they were the instant kind you put in a pan and heat up. My husband used to cook them with eggs for the kids when they were little. My reaction has always been a definite, “meh,” not impressed.
But this year, a local minister suggested we try “Phil’s Marina Café,” which sits right on the edge of Lake Pontchartrain. The café says it serves the “best seafood in Slidell, La.” We decided to take a chance. And since I love fresh shrimp, I decided to take an additional chance and ordered the shrimp and cheese grits with bacon. Oh, my goodness! It was delicious. I liked it so much that I persuaded my husband to go back to Phil’s so I could have it again before we left.
So, what’s the secret to making grits that delight the palette?
I decided to check in with Steve Tetrault, owner of Taytro’s Bar and Bistro and Petit Paree restaurants, both in Festus. Tetrault opened Taytros, a New-Orleans-themed restaurant in 2010, and purchased Petit Paree from the original owners several years ago.
Although grits aren’t a staple on the menu of either restaurant, Tetrault said he does serve them occasionally.
“We’ve done it a few times at Sunday brunches at Petit, and we’ve done it a couple of times at Taytros, but not on a daily basis,” he said.
That doesn’t mean Tetrault isn’t a fan. He said he developed a taste for grits when he lived in New Orleans for eight years in the 1980s and early 1990s, where he ran a trucking and warehouse company.
“My neighbor and I used to work on block parties and stuff like that,” Tetrault said. “I cooked with him and learned all the ins and outs of the Cajun recipes and stuff, and we kind of brought it back home with us.”
One of the recipes he mastered, while in New Orleans, was how to make a mean pan of grits.
“Probably the best grits I ever ate was in Little Rock, Ark., at a restaurant there, but I make pretty good ones myself,” Tetrault said. “I basically do cheese grits. They’ve got butter and cream and some cheese mixed in at the end, which basically kind of dolls it up a bit.”
Tetrault said the trick to making good grits is to just keep stirring.
“Once your water comes to a boil and you start pouring your grits in, you need to whisk them in and keep whisking, so that each one of the little kernels of the grits blooms,” Tetrault said. “You have to stay with it because it gets pretty thick, so if you’ve got high heat on the bottom and you don’t keep whisking it, you could burn the bottom.”
Patience pays off when making grits, he said. “It takes a little while to cook them, but if you do them right and whisk them in, they’re very good.”
Tetrault said he normally adds cheese to his grits. “You can use gruyere, you can do cheddar, just add any kind of cheese at the end. It blends in really good because the grits are nice and hot so basically once you put the cheese in, it’s almost like making a cheese sauce.”
Unlike risotto, which requires adding water a little at a time, making grits begins with a pot of boiling liquid. To add a little extra flavor, Tetrault said he uses a small amount of milk and some chicken broth to the water.
If you’re looking for grits in a grocery store that’s not in the South, the options are limited. However, Tetrault said the Quaker brand of grits is fine. He said he prefers the old-fashioned type, which are coarse-ground, and not instant.
So, what are grits? According to Wikipedia, grits are a food made from corn that is ground into a coarse meal and then boiled. Although they originated in the southern United States, they are now available across the country. Still, three-quarters of grits are bought in the South, where they are typically served with eggs, bacon, shrimp, catfish and/or country ham and instead of hash browns with breakfast dishes.
Tetrault said he would like to serve grits more often.
“We don’t have them enough, but I just retired from my regular job about three weeks ago, so all the Louisiana recipes that we’ve got now at Taytro’s are the ones that we created when we first started,” said Tetrault, who was working for a trucking and warehouse company in St. Louis. “But now that I’m retired, we’ll put grits back on the menu a little more often than in the past.”
He said grits themselves are basically a base for making a dish more flavorful.
“It’s almost like rice,” Tetrault said. “Plain rice doesn’t have a whole lot of flavor, unless you cook it with some broth or something that’s got flavor. Grits are kind of the same way. It’s just kind of a palette that you put your own colors and flavors in, so once you start cooking them, you can put in different types of cheeses that you like, you can put bacon in it, cream, some butter, so it’s kind of just down-home cooking. What you’ve got in the kitchen, you just make it with that.”
Shrimp and Cheesy Grits
3 cups chicken stock or low-sodium broth
3/4 cup quick grits
1/4 pound white cheddar cheese, shredded (1 cup)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 pound slab bacon, cut into 1/4-inch matchsticks
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound shelled and deveined large shrimp
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
In a medium saucepan, bring the stock to a boil. Whisk in the grits and cook over moderately high heat, stirring constantly, until thickened and the grains are tender, about 5 minutes. Add the cheese and butter, season with salt and pepper and whisk just until the cheese is melted. Cover and remove from the heat.
In a large, deep skillet, heat the olive oil until shimmering. Add the bacon and cook over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally, until the fat is rendered and the bacon is golden, about 8 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate to drain.
Pour off all but 4 tablespoons of the fat in the skillet. Add the garlic and cook over moderately high heat just until fragrant. Add the shrimp and cook until curled and pink, about 3 minutes. Stir in the parsley and bacon; season with salt and pepper.
Spoon the warm, cheesy grits into shallow bowls and top with the shrimp and bacon. Serve right away.
Southern Grits and Eggs
3/4 cup quick-cooking grits
½ cup shredded cheddar cheese (about 2 ounces)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 large eggs
2 tablespoons olive oil
8 ounces frozen cut okra, thawed
1 bunch scallions, chopped, white and green parts separated
1 green bell pepper, thinly sliced
Large pinch of cayenne pepper
Bring three cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add the grits, reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat. Stir in the cheese and season with salt and black pepper; cover to keep warm.
Crack the eggs into a large bowl. Heat the vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the okra, scallion whites, bell pepper, cayenne, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and black pepper to taste; cook, stirring, until the vegetables start to soften, 2 to 4 minutes. Carefully slide the eggs on top of the mixture, keeping the yolks intact. Reduce the heat to medium; cover and cook, rotating the skillet occasionally, until the eggs are just set, about 6 minutes.
Serve the grits with the vegetables and eggs. Top with the scallion greens.
