A HARTE APPETITE: TRUE GRITS

Stone-ground grits like Fiddlehead's are neutral in flavor, but that lets them soak up other flavors and serve as a foil to other ingredients.

"On every breakfast plate in the South there always appears a little white mound of food. Sometimes it's ignored. Sometimes insulted. But without it, the sun wouldn't come up, the crops wouldn't grow, and most of us would lose our drawl."

That's what Bill Neal and David Perry said in a little cookbook published a few years ago. They were talking, of course, about grits. And, at least from a Southerner's point of view, they didn't overstate the case by much.

The standing which grits have in the South (where they are even served at some McDonald's) was first driven home to me some 25 years ago on one of our family's first visits to Memphis. Breakfast and brunch buffets were our choice of dining experiences back then, and at every food line we went through we spotted what we thought was Cream of Wheat. We fed our son, who was but an infant at the time, bowl after bowl of it before we discovered much later in the week that the substance was really grits. In retrospect, I realize how much luckier he is than I. As a Northerner I had to wait until adulthood to taste my first serving of this uniquely American food.

It's a shame that, despite an occasional upsurge of interest in them, grits have not traveled much outside the South. Though often the object of wisecracks (The New York Times says grits may be the third-longest running joke in food, right behind Vegemite and chitterlings) and frequently scorned as bland peasant food (no less an authority than the great gourmand, the late James Beard, pronounced the breakfast version "revolting"), grits are deserving of the attentions of any gourmet.

It's ironic that grits get so little respect while polenta, a slightly more refined (that is, less coarsely ground) cousin is all the rage. Maybe the name has something to do with it. Polenta, after all, is really just cornmeal mush, but the name and the fact that it is associated with fashionable Italian cooking confer upon it a certain degree of status. Yet grits, though possessing less prestige, have just as many possibilities for dressing up.

Grits also have greater historical significance. As Tim Warren writing in the Smithsonian magazine points out, they were arguably America's first food. The Powhatan Indians of Virginia introduced grits to the early settlers, and Captain John Smith took note of them in his journal as early as 1629. Corn, the New World food which forms the basis of grits, was domesticated at least as far back as 5,000 years ago in central Mexico and by the time of the arrival of the American colonists the Indians were cultivating the crop as far north as what is now the state of Maine. As Warren observes, Pocahontas would have been no stranger to what Smith called "bruized Indian corne pounded, and boiled thicke." The term grits, by the way, comes from the Old English word for the bran and chaff of grain.

Warren explains that grits became the signature staple of the South primarily because of necessity.

Corn, unlike wheat, the dominant starch of the North, was a crop that could withstand the heat of Southern summers and be planted almost regardless of terrain. Economic restrictions following the Civil War made grits, an exceedingly cheap food to prepare, even more popular than they had been before. Soon they became, to borrow an image from Professor John Shelton Reed of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the glue that held the South together.

Reed's choice of words is unfortunate, or apt if you think grits resemble library paste. But if you think that, you obviously have never tried the real thing true grits, if you will. Authentic grits require stone-ground grain. Experts point out that when corn is ground using steel rollers, flavor-sapping heat is produced. Stone ground grits are the consistency of coarse sand, not at all like the instant grits which most Southerners find absolutely resistible. They take much longer to cook, of course, but aficionados say they are worth the extra time.

Whether you start with stone-ground or instant grits, the important thing to remember is that grits should rarely be eaten by themselves (though I think the stone-ground variety is delicious on its own). That's because they're relatively neutral in flavor. But that neutrality is a blessing. It allows them to soak up other flavors and serve as a foil for other ingredients. The classic example of this principle is Carolina shrimp and grits, but there are plenty of other complex dishes in which simple but versatile grits can play a major role.

And increasingly restaurants around the country, not just in the South, are discovering this fact. In New York they're serving grits with wild mushrooms, truffle oil and smoked duck. In Washington, D.C. they're offering fried grits cakes with portobellos and goat cheese. In Chicago they're doing grits with andouille sausage or jalapenos and cheddar cheese. In Atlanta they're making smoked tomato grits. In Louisville they're marrying grits and Mediterranean veal shanks.

So perhaps there is hope that one day grits will get the same level of respect above the Mason-Dixon Line that they now get below it. It's doubtful, though, that any Northern city will hold a grits festival like the one in St. George, S.C., where participants consume nearly 3,000 pounds of grits as they engage in grits-eating contests, plunge into a pool of grits to see who can coat themselves with the greatest amount of the stuff, and cheer on the Grits Queen and Baby Miss Grits as they ride down the parade route. Another favorite of parade goers is a crew called the Grits Sisters, nine women who from atop their float toss sample packets of instant grits to the crowd.

On the other hand, if Northerners were to try some of the following recipes, they might very well feel like engaging in such shenanigans.

Jimmy Carter's Baked Cheese Grits

Grits experienced something of a resurgence during the administration of President Jimmy Carter, who was known to serve them even to foreign dignitaries. Alas, their popularity, along with that of Mr. Carter (who, most would agree, is a far better ex-president than he was a president) faded before long. Nonetheless, this recipe, from Henry Haller's White House Family Cookbook, deserves another term.

Ingredients:

4 cups chicken stock

1 cup enriched white hominy grits

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 stick butter

2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese

4 eggs, separated

1/4 to 1/2 cup cold milk

Directions:

Bring stock to a boil and whisk in grits gradually. Reduce heat, stir and cook until mixture thickens. Cover and cook another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and add Worcestershire sauce, butter and 1 and 1/2 cups of the cheese. Stir until blended. Blend egg yolks with 1/4 cup milk and mix into grits, adding more milk if needed to thin to consistency of Cream of Wheat. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into grits. Place mixture into a greased 2-quart dish, sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees until browned. Serves 6.

Grits Milanese

This inventive recipe adapted from "Blue Corn and Chocolate" by Elisabeth Rozin, a cookbook which concentrates on New World foods, calls for preparing grits in the style of Italian risotto. The dish, which is excellent by itself, goes especially well with chicken.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cups chicken stock

black pepper to taste

1/2 teaspoon sage

1/2 teaspoon rosemary

1/2 cup grits

1/3 cup frozen peas

2-3 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley

1/2 cup chopped mushrooms, sauted

1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Saut the onion in the butter and oil over moderate heat until golden. Add the stock, pepper, sage and rosemary and bring to a boil. Gradually whisk in grits. Reduce heat, cover and cook 15-20 minutes (12-14 minutes if using quick grits), stirring occasionally, adding peas during last 5 minutes of cooking. Remove from heat, stir in parsley, mushrooms and cheese. Cover and let stand 10 minutes before serving. Serves 4.

Baked Grits with Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Though on the trendy side, this dish goes over well in the Mecca of Low Country Cooking: Charleston, S.C. The recipe, adapted from the New York Times, is a favorite at the Charleston Grill. You can speed up the preparation by using quick grits, but at the sacrifice of some flavor.

Ingredients:

2 cups chicken stock

1 cup water

4 tablespoons butter

1 cup stone-ground grits

1 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

2 teaspoons thyme

1/2 cup diced sun-dried tomatoes

white pepper

1/2 cup goat cheese

chopped chives

Directions:

Bring stock, water and butter to a boil. Whisk in grits, return to the boil and simmer 35 minutes, stirring occasionally. (Add more water if mixture becomes too stiff.) Stir in cream and continue to cook at low heat for another 25 minutes until mixture becomes very thick. Fold in garlic, thyme, tomatoes and white pepper to taste. Spoon mixture into greased 8-inch square baking dish, crumble cheese on top, and bake 15 minutes at 375 degrees. Garnish with chives. Serves 4.

Listen to A Harte Appetite every Saturday at 11:59 a.m. following "Whad'ya Know" on KRCU, 90.9 on your FM dial. Send suggestions for this column to A Harte Appetite, c/o The Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0699 or by e-mail to tharte@semovm.semo.edu.