All The Grits: Spicy Creole Sauce

I'll admit that I'm a little obsessed with Southern cooking; I have an ample collection of Southern-themed cookbooks, from the original Lee Brothers one that kicked this off, to ones that we've picked up on various trips (cookbooks make excellent souvenirs, btw). In the pandemic days, we received an inordinate amount of quick grits from my neighbor and while they're not as tasty as the real thing, they certainly enabled my desire to serve grits next to everything. 

During last year's trip to Charleston, I visited the local market before the once-in-a-century ice storm hit and purchased a large bag of grits - the real deal, according to the locals who felt the need to comment on my purchases (the grits and a cookbook titled "100 Ways to Cook Grits"). This amused the TSA agent at the airport (once we finally managed to escape the city), since he'd seen at least 3 other people from the same conference loading up their carry-ons with the same grits and the same bags of excellent coffee beans from the conference swag bags. 

No, no, NO! Use the good ones. 

I adore shrimp and grits and make a point of ordering it every time I'm far south enough to make it authentic. We have an excellent recipe for it as well, but past experience has resulted in very many dirty dishes and a grumbly tummy, because the (admittedly stellar) sauce takes forever to cook. David found the following substitute somewhere in his internet travels and it's become a weeknight staple. We even got ambitious and made an extra-large batch recently so we'd have some to freeze, which certainly came in handy one lazy Thursday night. We typically serve it with pork tenderloin and (of course) grits, but it's also very good on shrimp and I'm sure it would be equally tasty on chicken. Or you could skip the meat altogether and just ladle it over a big bowl of hot grits, and that would be just fine as well. 

All the Grits: Spicy Creole Sauce 

1 onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
4 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp kosher salt 
6 cloves garlic, minced 
2 roasted red peppers 
1 small can tomato paste
2 cans diced tomatoes (the fire-roasted ones, if you can find them)
2 cups beef stock
1 cup red wine 

In a large pan, heat 2 tablespoons of fat (oil, oil-and-butter, or oil-butter-and-bacon-fat, which is what you know you really want to use). Saute the onion, green pepper, celery, thyme, and salt for 8-10 minutes or until softened. 

Add the garlic and roasted red pepper and cook another 2 minutes. Add in the tomato paste and tomatoes, stirring well, and cook for another 5 minutes. 

Add the wine and beef broth. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook for 25 minutes. This will keep well on very low heat if you haven't nailed the timing of the meat and grits yet. This recipe makes about twice as much as you need, so freeze the extra for your own lazy Thursday night. 

BONUS: Creole Spice Blend (use as a meat rub) 

1 3/4 Tbsp celery salt 
1/2 tsp celery seed
1 Tbsp paprika
1 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp black pepper
1 Tbsp garlic powder
3/4 tsp dehydrated garlic flakes 
1 Tbsp onion powder
1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes 
1/2 tsp allspice 

Mix together and store in an airtight container. 

Cookbook Time Machine: Chicken with Soy Sauce and Lemon

It's always fun to go back to cookbooks I've had for a while but not used lately to see what we used to cook and what we liked. This is where my habit of writing in my cookbooks comes in handy, since I would never remember all the things we've tried. I can't always remember what I had for dinner yesterday, much less 8 years ago. Note that it's also fun to go back to a blog you haven't touched in A YEAR (seriously, how the hell did that happen?!) to see what we used to cook and what we liked. 

My well-loved copy of How to Cook Everything is literally falling apart. The binding has broken, large sections are no longer glued to the cover and risk falling out, and there are some individual pages that are simply free agents at this point. Nevertheless, it's one of my favorites and I have no intention of replacing it anytime soon. I just have to be a little more careful when I use it and avoid dropping it. We can page through and see a history of our kitchen adventures; many of our favorites have grease- and water-stained pages and copious notes in the margins. If I replaced it, I'd have to go through every page and re-create my notes - it's far easier to be a little gingerly as we use the one we have. 

This is a recipe I don't even vaguely remembering trying in the past - the title doesn't make it sound very appealing, to be honest. The main thing that recommended it this week is that it's fast and easy, which is always something I'm looking for on a weeknight when nobody actually wants to cook, and it had a big star next to the title. We clearly liked it at some point. 

It uses chicken thighs, which are great because they cook quickly and are almost impossible to dry out, even if somebody turns off the timer and you end up cooking them for quite a bit longer than planned. As stated in the original recipe, this recipe makes a good amount of a light, tangy sauce that goes well over plain white rice - clearly a bonus, as we are a huge rice-eating household. 

Chicken with Soy Sauce and Lemon

1 Tbsp neutral oil
2 pounds chicken thighs or cut-up chicken parts; I use boneless skinless since John hates eating meat off the bone 
1 tsp minced garlic 
1 Tbsp lemon zest 
1/4 tsp cayenne 
2 Tbsp soy sauce 
1 tsp sugar 
1/3 cup water 
Juice of 1 lemon 

Heat the oil in a frying pan large enough to hold all the chicken in one layer, then brown the chicken on both sides. When it's browned, remove the chicken and all but one tablespoon of the fat from the pan. If you're using boneless skinless thighs, you may not need to remove any fat. 

Reduce the heat to medium and add the garlic, stirring for a minute or two until it's softened. If you're cheating and using jarred garlic paste, this step takes about 30 seconds. Add everything except the lemon juice. Return the chicken to the pan, turning each piece once or twice in the liquid. 

Cover, turn the heat to medium-low, and simmer, turning once or twice, until the chicken is done. For boneless skinless thighs, this takes 15-20 minutes; bone-in thighs take about 20-25 minutes, and cut-up chicken parts about 30 minutes. 

Stir in the lemon juice and serve.