Breakfast, Cooking In, LunchKerry Alaric CheeseboroAugust 03, 2012blue cheese, Breakfast, broth, butter, cheese, chicken, Cooking In, corn, creamy, grilled, grits, heavy cream, Lunch, milk, Orangeburg, Quick Post, sausage, smoked, south, South Carolina, southern, stockComment

Southern Transportation, Pt. 2

Grilled Smoked Chicken Sausage over Blue Cheese Grits | Chopped Red Onion, Hot Chicken Stock

IT IS ALWAYS VERY REWARDING when I hear from friends and readers of PHUDE-nyc tell me that I've inspired them to cook something or try some new dish. Equally rewarding, yet not as common, is when someone is kind enough to "hook me up" with some foods not readily available to me here on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Especially staple Southern foods.

When my dad came to visit just a few days ago, he brought a whole lot of goodies from his home state of South Carolina—including liver pudding—which went into a deliciously comforting and nostalgic southern-style breakfast.

My longtime friend and seemingly avid PHUDE follower, Michelle, who presently lives in North Carolina—sent me a Facebook message last week that she was sending her mother, Franny, back to New York City from North Carolina with a gift for me as well. And she did, showing up over the past weekend with a bag of stone ground, southern-style, unbleached grits.

Different and not nearly as "corn-tasting" as the bleached and process grits—only available up here in Yorkville at Fairway—these cook up a bit more slowly, and absorb flavor a lot better. I decided my first dish using these grits would highlight those properties, cooking them in chicken stock whole adding butter, heavy cream, crumbled blue cheese, and black pepper.

Once cooked to the perfect texturally pleasing consistency, I spooned them onto a hot plate, then topped them off with some sliced chunks of leftover smoked chicken sausage (from my dad) that I grilled as well as some chopped red onion to add some brightness and acidity to the earthy, creamy dish. A couple of extra spoonfuls of hot chicken stock around the grits was helpful to add a boost of flavor and moisture as I ate the grits—which would otherwise "seize up" while cooling down—making the last mouthful of the dish as hot, flavorful, and creamy as the first.

I was all of a sudden in the middle of a "Carolina Week" thanks to my dad and, now, Michelle and Franny. Michelle won't be back in New York City until October, she tells me (and she promises to bear even more gifts when she does), but looking very much forward to making some southern-style shrimp and grits for her sweet, fun, and charming mom for her efforts!

Bun Apple Tea!

KAC