As a child at the family table, rice was anathema to my foodpreferences. Yet my mother served it often as the side dish to a main course. That box of Uncle Ben’s held a prominent place in the cupboard. But the best I could do was grit my teeth and roll it around my fork soaking up its starchy blandness. In fact, the only way I would eat it was with a good pour of maple syrup over it, presaging my sweet-tooth proclivities.
Rice grits (photos courtesy of Anson Mills)
Now, however, after discovering the goodness of grains milled by the Anson Mills granary in South Carolina, rice, which is sold as Carolina Gold Rice on company’s website, has become a staple starch that stands in for my favorite mashed or baked potatoes. The rice is a special product from Anson Mills, the heritage long-grain rice that grows so prolifically in the bogs of the Carolinas and Georgia. It’s an exquisite rice, full of texture and subtle flavors. I keep a bag of it, as instructed, in my freezer, sealed in a freezer pouch.
Then I discovered rice grits, another Anson Mills product. On their website it’s described as “Plumper, rounder, meatier than the term ‘grits’ suggests; rice grits are also more elemental, more satisfying than almost any dish on this website.”
It’s also called brokens or shorts having come from the broken bits of long-grain rice that occurs in the milling process. It has the qualities of the best Carolina gold long-grain rice and the creaminess of risotto.
I served it as a side dish to accompany that great party dish, Chicken Marbella, a hallmark recipe featured in the first edition of the Silver Palate Cookbook. In its day, chicken Marbella was the go-to company dish in the 1980s. That’s it’s gone out of favor is a shame. You can easily find the recipe by doing an internet search or dig out your old copy of the Silver Palate Cookbook.
Chicken Marbella, marinated in wine and baked with with prunes, capers, aromatics, herbs and brown sugar
Here is the recipe adapted from Anson Mills for their simply buttered rice grits. You can mail order the product from the Anson Mill website. As they suggest, store it in the freezer since like so many of their heritage grains it’s highly perishable.
Ingredients
- 6 cups filtered or spring water
- Freshly ground coarse sea salt, ground to medium fine
- 7 ounces (1 cup) rice grits
- 3 tablespoons butter, in bits
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Bring the water and 1 tablespoon of salt to a boil in a heavy-bottomed 3- to 4-quart saucepan. Add the grits, stir once, and return to a boil. As soon as the water boils, reduce the heat. Simmer gently, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the rice is just tender with no hard starch at its center, about 15 minutes. Drain the grits in a fine-holed footed colander and rinse well with cool water. Shake the colander to drain off excess water.
- Heat the oven to 300 degrees. Evenly distribute the rice in a rimmed baking sheet. Place it in the oven to dry for about 5 minutes, gently turning the rice a few times with a spatula. Dot with the butter and sprinkle with the pepper and salt to taste. Continue turning the rice until the butter has melted and the rice is hot, about 5 minutes more. Transfer to a warmed serving bowl and serve immediately.
Notes
Note that the recipe suggests using filtered or spring water in which to simmer the grits; regular tap water with its fluoridation would hinder the purity of flavor here. I use the water from my Brita pitcher or bottled spring water. It’s worth the effort.
