0:00
we're back and i've got our pot ready
0:02
for our grits i've got water in here but
0:05
i've also got a secret ingredient that
0:07
the grits box won't tell you about and
0:11
and i'm going to add a little salt
0:12
because every southerner knows that if
0:15
you don't salt your grits at the very
0:17
beginning of cooking you'll never get
0:19
them salty and the next tip i want to
0:21
share with you on grit cooking is never
0:24
stop stirring until every one of those
0:27
grits is wet and thoroughly mixed in
0:31
because if i had just dumped those grits
0:33
in that pot and turned around to my sink
0:36
to do something when i turned back
0:38
around i would have big knots of grits
0:41
and once your grits not up you can't
0:44
now in the south we never use an instant
0:47
grit we use the quick cooking kind that
0:49
says cooks in five minutes
0:53
is we don't cook them for five minutes
0:55
we cook them anywhere from 25 to 30 to
0:59
now this is coming back to a bowl
1:01
i'm going to cut those down to the
1:04
and i'm not going to get too far from my
1:07
in the meantime i'm going to come over
1:09
here and i'm going to start our country
1:11
now i'm working with a whole country ham
1:13
today but in the grocery store you'll
1:15
find these little babies already sliced
1:18
very thin and crivacked for you so you
1:20
can buy one or two servings at the time
1:22
and i'm going to start
1:24
by cutting off just a little bit of fat
1:27
and i'm going to bring it over to my
1:29
and i'm starting with a hot clean
1:32
skillet there's no oil or anything in
1:35
this piece of fat will just grease up
1:38
our pan nicely so that when our slices
1:40
are added to it it won't stick very
1:42
badly but you can see my skillet is nice
1:45
and hot you can see that fat just
1:48
smoking in that skillet
1:50
look at that beautiful ham
1:55
and we're just going to kind of keep
1:56
them moving for a minute until they get
1:58
going while these are getting nice and
2:00
hot and beginning to cook i'm going to
2:02
move over here to our grit pot and see
2:05
i'm going to need to add water to these
2:08
because you can see how thick they've
2:13
so i'm slowly going to add some more
2:16
you should add hot water to these as you
2:21
down south you know we argue among
2:23
ourselves over the proper way to egrets
2:26
you'll have some people that like what
2:27
they call a fork grit and what that
2:30
means is when they put their fork in
2:31
their grits they're so thick their fork
2:33
will stand up and look at our ham it's
2:38
getting a nice little crispy crust on it
2:41
and we're far enough along with our
2:42
grits now i'm going to add a little
2:45
butter to them and that'll help make
2:47
them even more creamy when we're ready
2:49
to serve them grits come from ground
2:53
it looks very very much like cream of
2:57
but it has a totally different flavor
3:00
and a lot of people that are not from
3:02
the south that eat them for the first
3:03
time tell me that it reminds them of
3:05
polenta which polenta is ground corn
3:09
and i'm going to stick our little piece
3:10
of fat back into our pan along with our
3:13
to just keep it good and greased
3:16
and our ham's coming along nicely
3:19
as you can see it's getting little
3:21
beautiful little brown spots on it
3:24
down south we wouldn't dream of having
3:26
country ham in the morning without
3:28
red-eye gravy and actually it's not
3:31
really a gravy at all
3:33
it's coffee mixed with the brown
3:36
sediments that have come out of the ham
3:38
while you're cooking and it's a very
3:41
thin gravy and you just pour it over
3:43
your grits and it just kind of goes
3:46
everywhere all over your plate
3:48
and those are almost done so i'm going
3:49
to stick in another piece
3:51
i think i'm going to reach down here and
3:53
get one of these nice thin slices
3:55
i really do like my country ham
3:58
sliced thin and when you're cooking with
4:00
cast iron you have to really be careful
4:03
because once these bad boys are hot
4:05
they're hot as a firecracker
4:08
all right i'm ready to take our country
4:10
ham up and you know we argue about this
4:12
down in the south some people like their
4:17
and tender and some people like theirs
4:20
crispy so if you want it crispy you
4:22
would cook it in a skillet that's a
4:23
little hotter if you like it soft
4:26
and more of a light brown color then you
4:29
would cook it in a slower skillet but in
4:32
all right now our skillet is good and
4:34
hot and all i'm going to do at this
4:36
point is add some good strong coffee to
4:52
isn't that amazing that something so
4:54
good can be so simple all right i had
4:56
turned my fire down now i'm gonna turn
5:00
and i'm gonna just let that ball away
5:03
for just a minute or two look at that
5:05
rich brown sauce it's
5:08
gonna go over those hot buttery boiling
5:12
you know i think this red eye gravy
5:14
needs two more little things i think it
5:16
needs a little pat of butter and a
5:18
little beef bouillon and it'll be just
5:22
our grits are just perfect you know i
5:24
was telling you a while ago while i was
5:25
cooking them how we argue about
5:27
fork grit spoon grits
5:29
these are almost in the middle and even
5:32
though i've added butter to the pot
5:35
while i was cooking them
5:36
i'm still gonna put me a little bit more
5:39
butter to go on top of them
5:42
along with this red eye gravy
5:47
how good does that look on a cold
5:56
it's truly out of this world
6:01
hey y'all it's paula dean now if you
6:03
enjoyed this video be sure to like it
6:06
and click the subscribe button as well
6:09
as a notification bell to be alerted
6:14
love and best dishes y'all
