Garlicy Grits

We've gotten our fish

Now the most wonderful side dish with fish is grits. Southerners would never dream of eating a fish without grits

So that's what we're gonna start with. Remember, fish only takes a second to fry

This has to bake for about 35 minutes, has to cook for 10 or 15 minutes on top of the stove

So we're gonna start with our grits dish. Now in this pot, I've got milk and water

And I'm gonna add about a teaspoon of salt. I want to tell you a couple of things about cooking grits. First, I never, ever, ever touch

an instant grit. That's against the law. I don't use the long cooking. I use the quick

cook grits that says they cook in five minutes, but that's not true. No grit can cook in five

minutes. So we take a quick cook grit and we actually cook it for 30, 45 minutes or an

hour. And the most important step in cooking grits is stirring it from the very start until

each one of those grains are individually wet and moist. But now we've got these going

really really good So we going to put the lid on them and let those cook for a few minutes And I going to turn them down low You want to cook your grits on a fairly low temperature And you know what I think I going to do

Just to make sure they don't lump up, I think I'm going to go ahead and add the butter to the pot

And I'm going to take a stick of real butter. Is there any other kind of butter besides real butter

I'm going to add a little bit more salt to them. So we're going to let those cook for a few minutes

And we're going to grate a little cheese to go on top. We're going to put plenty of cheese in the middle of them

but we're going to get up some cheddar to spread on top at the last minute of cooking

You know, there's no such thing as too much butter or too much cheese

There we go. All right, let's look at our pot one more time and see if they're getting close

And they are. Look how they've already thickened up. They're going to be out of this world

All right, our grits are ready. I've cut the heat off and put the lid on so they won't dry out

And I'm going to quickly saute some green onions in about a tablespoon of butter

And we don't have to saute these, but just a second. In fact if you wanted to omit this step you could You could just throw them into your grits because they going to have about 35 minutes in the oven so they be very soft anyway But what the heck it gives me a chance

to use a little bit more butter. Sounds like a good excuse to me

How about y'all? I'll just have to share this story with you

One night I was home, and I said, you know, I just want something a little different

from the normal grits casserole that's been around forever. So I went through my cabinets, and I started searching for just anything that would give me a little different look

Well, I ran up on a can of Rotel tomatoes, and they're a hot, crushed tomato, and they're just wonderful

Down south, we make what we call a Rotel dip with a processed cheese and a can of these little tomatoes

and they're hot and spicy and got a nice kick to them. So I said, I'm going to try that in the grits and see what happens

Well, when I got through, I had the most wonderful grit casserole I had ever put in my mouth

So you can see, they're already losing their grit look, kinda. Normally I would put a garlic cheese

You can find it using your grocery stores in the dairy section and it cheese that has been seasoned with garlic Well I didn have that today so I just going to make a substitute And I used a processed cheese and I going to use about a fourth of a teaspoon of garlic

which will give us the same flavor. And we're going to stir that cheese up in there until it starts melting

See how yummy that's looking? Oh, I can smell the tomatoes in there now getting in there

It's going to be delicious. Our first cheese is starting to melt

And now I'm gonna go ahead and add my cheddar. Doesn't look like grits, does it

All right, all we're gonna do is pour these into our casserole dish

And we're just gonna put these in the oven and bake them for about 35 minutes

And then right before we take them out and are ready to serve, we're gonna put some extra cheese on them

And aren't they beautiful? Now, I've got one in the other oven that I started earlier

So let's see if that one's ready. Oh, and it is. I'm going to let this one cool just a few minutes before I can test it

And when we come back, I'm going to be frying up catfish and calling the puppies to the house