Rosemary Grits Souffle
One of the daily rituals while I was on chemo therapy was breakfast. I'm not a morning person , at least until after the second cup of coffee and I need to be up a few hours before I can eat anything and by then it's lunchtime. However the treatments got me up earlier, as it was hard to sleep with the pump connected all night, and so breakfast was a welcome repast.
Once the treatments were done, I ended up with a lot of grits left over in the freezer. What to do with them? Well they are corn so why not make some kind of evening vegetable, and they are loose and creamy so I thought, with a little help from some herbs, a souffle might work. It did and makes a interesting and rather impressive side dish, served in a large souffle dish or as individual ones
Directions
- Preheat oven to 425º Generously butter the souffle dish and coat the inside with the sugar.
- In a large sauce pan combine the water and milk and bring almost to a boil over medium heat( don't let it come to a full boil as it may boil over the pan).
- Stir in the grits and continue to stir until they are smooth and thick 12-14 minutes.
- Remove the grits from the heat.
- In a glass or ceramic bowl whisk the 4 egg yolks and temper by adding tablespoon fulls of grits while continuously whisking until you have added about 1/2 cup of grits.
- Add the tempered yolks back into the grits and stir thoroughly to combine.
- Pour the grits back into the glass bowl and allow to cool.
- Stir in the rosemary, Parmesan, salt and pepper.
- In a mixer beat the egg whites until they are stiff.
- Fold into the grits in thirds.
- Gently pour into the buttered souffle dish and bake in the middle of the oven for about 30 minutes until lightly brown on top and risen.
- Serve right away.
- If making individual souffles bake in a water bath to prevent over cooking.
- Serve with bechamel sauce; http://www.rantsravesandrecipes.com/category/sauces-and-gravies/bechamel-sauce .