by: Marceline Donaldson
Being from New Orleans, one of my joys growing up was to have grits for breakfast.
When my eyes opened enough to speak I called downstairs to say – “grits momma, grits.”
In those days, my favorite breakfast was “drits and liba.” However, unbeknownst to be as to why – for years after I left home I couldn’t stand to eat liver. My grandmother made grits with chicken livers for breakfast when I insisted and it is only today that I have begun to be able to again eat that combination. Don’t know why, it just happened.
We don’t have liver very often, however, because grits in the Greater Boston food stores is practically non-existent, especially if you eat only organic foods. You can sometimes find grits, but it is guaranteed to be the ugly white mushy kind and it is usually labeled “polenta.”.
Looking for the grits of my youth, I came across The Congaree Milling Company in Columbia, South Carolina. Their grits is made with whole kernel organic corn and it is exceptional.
When I discovered them I also discovered the farming communities around the country, which are taking growing foods which are nutritionally excellent, with the taste still intact, which have not been poisoned by the sprays and are not near tasteless because they are grown in depleted soil.
What is special about these farming communities is the way they interact with and help one another. One grows the food; another will have uses for the food tied to a restaurant; or they produce foods for sale which are not overly processed and bland combining basic ingredients together in new ways. All organic – all grown in very rich soil – all making delicious meals and contributing to long-lived and healthy people.
I am still, however, working on that chicken liver. Although some mornings when she didn’t feel flush with money it was beef liver and occasionally calves liver. Can’t cook it the way my grandmother did – and since I didn’t pay attention to the cooking but only to the eating, with my grandmother dead for many years I have no way to recover that breakfast.
The hangover I have from her upbringing is waking up at 3:30 to 4am in the mornings needing that cup of coffee one can only get in New Orleans. I was up at that hour because she woke with the birds and went to bed with the birds and would bring me a cup of warm milk and while sitting on the side of the bed would deliberately pour a little coffee into the milk so we shared a cup of coffee (however mine was ‘sort of” coffee), but I still I became addicted even without the caffeine.
With grits there are all kinds of combinations. Grits and sausages is one substitute. Grits and shrimp is also good. A concoction I discovered needing a quick meal and not having the energy to do substantial cooking follows: (it has no name)
Put one cup of Congaree Coarse Yellow Grits into a sauce pan to which you add two cups organic milk, salt to taste and butter to taste. Let this cook, stirring occasionally until it has that consistency like nothing else.
To accompany the grits:
Put butter in a sauce pan to melt; add mushrooms; crab meat; turmeric; thyme; tabasco sauce; soy sauce; and cook for a few minutes. To this add a packet of organic cream cheese and stir until the cream cheese melts. Add three well beaten eggs and stir to incorporate the eggs. Add milk to get the taste and consistency you like best. The Cream Cheese will thicken this dish and the milk will help thin it out to the consistency you like best. The milk and eggs will mitigate the strong taste from the seasonings. We like that strong taste, however, many are accustomed to a more bland concoction.
The above on one side of the plate with grits on the other makes a fantastic breakfast.
If your budget is tight you might find “imitation crab meat (the kind cut into squares and add that instead of the real crab meat.) The cost difference is dramatic. $30.00 for the crab meat and $3.99 for the imitation. Unlike grits, you can find the imitation crab meat in just about every grocery store in a plastic bag screaming with its colors as to what the bag contains.
Served with your homemade biscuits you have a breakfast to keep you going for days.
To find The Congaree Milling Company – 1629 Bluff Road – Columbia, South Carolina 29201 –
orders via email to – sales@TheCongareeMillingCompany.com
questions at – info@The Congaree Milling Company.com
Their produce is certified organic by Clemson University
