The Ultimate Rice Cooker (44 page)
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic (preferred) or on/off
CYCLE: Porridge or regular
YIELD: Serves 4
1 cup coarse stone-ground grits
3 cups water
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
Ground white pepper
1. If you’d like to remove the husks, combine the grits and some cold tap water in a bowl or use the rice cooker bowl; the husks will rise to the top and can be skimmed off. Drain the grits.
2. Place the grits, water, and salt in the rice cooker bowl; stir for 15 seconds with a wooden spoon or wooden or plastic rice paddle. Close the cover and set for the Porridge or regular cycle. A few times during the cooking, open the cover and stir for 15 seconds, then close the cover.
3. At the end of the Porridge cycle, reset for a second Porridge cycle, giving the grits two full cycles to reach the optimum consistency.
4. At the end of the second Porridge cycle, or when the regular cycle completes, stir in the butter, season to taste with pepper, and serve hot. These grits will hold on Keep Warm for up to 2 hours.
creamy traditional grits:
Replace 1 cup of the water with 1 cup whole milk and omit the white pepper. Good served with pure maple syrup and chopped crisp bacon.
traditional grits with cheddar:
Add 1 cup coarsely shredded mild or sharp cheddar cheese 10 minutes before the end of cooking. Stir to distribute evenly.
traditional grits with hominy:
Add one 16-ounce can whole hominy, drained, rinsed, and coarsely chopped, 15 minutes into the second Porridge cycle or when the water comes to a boil in the regular cycle.
You can’t get a more traditional southern breakfast than one with a slice of hot fried grits. This is a great way to use up any leftover grits, but if you are having a few hungry folks in the morning, fried grits, a rasher of bacon, an egg over easy, juice, and hot coffee are a welcome treat.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic (preferred) or on/off
CYCLE: Porridge or regular
YIELD: Serves 6
1½ cups coarse stone-ground grits
4 cups water
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup unsalted butter, margarine, or bacon drippings, for frying
Pure maple syrup, for serving
1. Combine the grits and some cold tap water in a bowl or use the rice cooker bowl; the husks will rise to the top. Drain through a mesh strainer.
2. Place the grits, water, and salt in the rice cooker bowl; stir for 15 seconds with a wooden spoon or wooden or plastic rice paddle. Close the cover and set for the Porridge or regular cycle. A few times during the cooking, open the cover and stir for 15 seconds, then close the cover.
3. When the machine switches to the Keep Warm cycle or the regular cycle ends, pour the grits into a greased 9 x 5-inch loaf pan, filling it up to the top. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
4. The next morning, turn the loaf of grits out of the pan onto a cutting board. With a sharp chef’s knife, cut into ½-inch-thick slices. Heat a cast-iron or other heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Place a knob (about 1½ tablespoons) of the butter in the pan to melt. Lay the grits slices in the pan and cook until brown, about 8 minutes on each side, turning once. Add more butter for each new batch, as needed. Remove from the pan with a metal spatula to a serving plate. Serve with the maple syrup.
Adding a small amount of cream at the end of cooking makes these grits that little bit more special for a breakfast side dish with eggs or as a hot cereal.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic (preferred) or on/off
CYCLE: Porridge or regular
YIELD: Serves 4
1 cup coarse stone-ground grits
3 cups water
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
¼ cup heavy cream
1. Combine the grits and some cold tap water in a bowl or use the rice cooker bowl; the husks will rise to the top. Drain through a mesh strainer.
2. Place the grits, water, salt, and 1 tablespoon of the butter in the rice cooker bowl; stir for 15 seconds with a wooden spoon or wooden or plastic rice paddle. Close the cover and set for the Porridge or regular cycle. A few times during the cooking, open the cover and stir for 15 seconds, then close the cover.
3. At the end of the Porridge cycle, reset for a second Porridge cycle, giving the grits two full cycles to reach the optimum consistency.
4. At the end of the second Porridge cycle, or when the regular cycle completes, open the cover and stir in the remaining 1 tablespoon butter and the cream. Stir quickly, close the cover, and allow the grits to rest at least until the butter melts, about 10 minutes. These grits will hold on Keep Warm for up to 1 hour. Stir before serving.
Grits have become a fashionable side dish outside the South, so finally there are creative recipes floating around. Here mashed pumpkin puree, fresh if you can manage it, is added and you have a nice accompaniment to roast pork, turkey, duck, or chicken.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic (preferred) or on/off
CYCLE: Porridge or regular
YIELD: Serves 4
⅔ cup coarse stone-ground grits
1½ cups water
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup cooked mashed pumpkin or other winter squash, such as blue Hubbard or butternut
Freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter
½ cup (4 ounces) grated cheddar cheese
1. Combine the grits and some cold tap water in a bowl or use the rice cooker bowl; the husks will rise to the top. Drain through a mesh strainer.
2. Place the grits, water, milk, and salt in the rice cooker bowl; stir for 15 seconds with a wooden spoon or wooden or plastic rice paddle. Add the pumpkin and a few grinds of pepper and stir again. Close the cover and set for the Porridge or regular cycle. A few times during the cooking, open the cover, stir for 15 seconds, then close the cover.
3. At the end of the Porridge cycle, reset for a second Porridge cycle and cook until the grits reach the optimum consistency, thick like breakfast porridge.
4. When the right consistency is achieved or the regular cycle ends, stir in the butter and cheese. Stir quickly, close the cover, and allow the grits to rest at least until the butter melts, about 5 minutes, and up to 1 hour, if desired.
Beth’s Aunt Joan lives in Florence, South Carolina, the heart of grits country. Shrimp and grits is real southern coastal Atlantic country food, but can now be found served at lots of southern parties and in restaurants. Here is an authentic recipe, just the way they like it in the Carolinas, which we made with Old-Fashioned Stone-Ground Speckle Yellow Grits from Blackwell Mills (decorated with a line drawing of a smiling pig in a neckerchief holding a corncob with the saying “Pig Out”) that Aunt Joan sent Beth. The original recipe calls for the grits to be cooked for three hours, so run the grits through a third Porridge cycle, if you wish, for a softer consistency.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) or large
(10-cup) rice cooker; fuzzy logic
( p referred) or on/off
CYCLE: Porridge or regular
YIELD: Serves 6
2 cups coarse stone-ground grits
6 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter or margarine
¼ cup olive oil
¼ teaspoon Texas Pete hot sauce or Tabasco sauce
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon pressed garlic
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon minced fresh Italian parsley leaves
1 teaspoon minced fresh chives
½ teaspoon dried tarragon
½ teaspoon dried chervil
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 pound miniature shrimp (90/110 count), shelled and deveined (you can buy these already shelled; look for P&Ds)
Chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves, for garnish
Chopped fresh chives, for garnish
1. Combine the grits and some cold tap water in a bowl or use the rice cooker bowl; the husks will rise to the top. Drain through a mesh strainer.
2. Place the grits, water, and salt in the rice cooker bowl; stir for 15 seconds with a wooden spoon or wooden or plastic rice paddle. Close the cover and set for the Porridge or regular cycle. A few times during the cooking, open the cover and stir for 15 seconds, then close the cover.
3. At the end of the Porridge cycle, reset for a second Porridge cycle and cook until the grits reach the desired consistency, thick like breakfast porridge. When the right consistency is achieved or the regular cycle ends, hold on Keep Warm until the shrimp is ready.
4. Fifteen minutes before the grits are done, melt the butter in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil, hot sauce, bay leaf, garlic, lemon juice, minced parsley, minced chives, tarragon, chervil, pepper, and Worcestershire, bring to a simmer over medium heat, and add the shrimp. Cook, stirring, until the shrimp turn bright pink on both sides, 2 to 3 minutes.
5. Spoon the hot grits into a large serving bowl. Immediately spoon the shrimp over the grits and drizzle with the sauce from the pan. Sprinkle with the chopped parsley and chives and serve hot.
HOMINY
The premier gift from Native Americans to the colonists, hominy is dried whole corn kernels that are cooked in a solution of ashes or slaked lime in water to loosen the hulls. Hominy became a staple food for generations in the Appalachian backwoods, bayous of the Louisiana delta, and rural Deep South, made with wood ashes. While Mexican-Americans remember the large pot of beans always cooking on the back of the stove all day, southerners have the same memory about a pot of hominy.
Today commercial hominy is made by boiling the corn in a solution of sodium hydroxide, which acts the same way as the organic alkali ash bath. The germ and hulls are washed off, leaving a plump, soft kernel the size of a chickpea that is chewy in texture and earthy in flavor, as well as easy to digest. Also known by its Spanish name,
posole
, in the Latin community or the Indian name of
nixtamal
in the southwest United States, hominy is now chic peasant food. It is available dried, fresh or frozen ready-to-eat (both must be reconstituted), and canned.
Fresh or partially cooked frozen whole hominy needs to be cooked before using. Fresh is usually available in the meat department of supermarkets, especially around the holidays. Do not add any salt while cooking, or the kernels will never soften properly. You can use fresh hominy instead of canned in soups and stews. If you happen to use dried hominy, you will need to double the amount of water and double the cooking time. You can double this recipe in the large-capacity rice cooker.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) or large (10 cup) rice cooker; fuzzy logic or on/off
CYCLE: Re gular
YIELD: About 4 cups
1 pound fresh or frozen hominy, thawed overnight in the refrigerator
1. Place the hominy in the rice cooker bowl and cover with 2 inches of cold water. Close the cover and set for the regular cycle. Cook until it is tender and the kernels burst open, but are still slightly firm to the bite, 1 hour or more.
2. Remove the bowl from the rice cooker, drain off most of the liquid by pouring through a colander, and let cool to room temperature. Store in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 2 days.