I'm just storing this recipe here for future reference so no need to pay any attention, but I'll at least mention why I want to remember it.
Yesterday I made a southern style meal whose main features were home-smoked brisket, fried cabbage with fennel seed and garlic and cheese grits. Cheese grits is something I only get around to once every two or three years, and so each time I make the dish I start over, finding a recipe on the net to use as a guideline and going from there. Yesterday, the first recipe I chose to look at was from Emeril Lagasse: six cups whole milk, two cups cheese, no eggs. Ah yes, I remembered, I did use this one and it was over-the-top. Too rich, too guilt-inducing. Another credited to Emeril had a cup of sour cream thrown in, too. One from southernliving.com lost me at "processed cheese loaf" and the third recipe I looked at called for three six ounce garlic-cheddar cheese rolls and four eggs. I don't even know what garlic cheddar cheese rolls are, but that's not really the problem: it's all the fat.
Upshot: clearly, there's a great deal of latitude and no one right way to make this dish. (Chef, if you've got such a recipe in your first book, don't zap me for not mentioning it: I have the book, but it got packed up with the kitchen and I'm not done unpacking yet.)
So I winged it with:
2 cups 2% milk
2 cups water
1 cup grits
1 tsp salt, and
half cup Boxing Cheddar, a strong and tangy 3 yr old cheddar from Australia
I stirred it just until thickened, then blended in:
1 egg, tempered with a bit of the grits
The mixture was poured into a buttered 2 qt baking dish, garnished with an extra tablespoon of cheese and baked at 400 for about 45 minutes. I poked some holes in the top with a fork upon removing it from the oven, and drizzled it with the-real-deal white truffle oil.
Best cheese grits I've ever made. The one egg was just enough to lighten the texture, the strong, super-sharp cheddar made it rich without making it heavy or having loogies of cheese stretching between the serving spoon and the serving dish, and I didn't have to apologize to anyone's cardiologist. A keeper.
