Anson Mills

[Robostyle]

Recently had some Anson Mills grits while out at a restaurant, which led me to their website to buy some. Bought 2 kinds of grits, some dried red peas and some "laurel-aged" carolina golden rice. Beans are soaking now, going to cook some rice in a few minutes. Recipe calls for a 1hr soak before cooking, never did that before. i hope it turns out OK. The rice totally smells of bay leaves, very interesting.

 

[Robostyle]

Rice turned out great! Really good texture & flavor. Best rice i've had in a while.
Was skeptical due to the strange (to me) cooking process but it worked out fine.
This is after the fluff-up.

Ate it in a bowl with a few shakes of this

Fantastic. I'm jazzed about the red peas too, they look kinda like black-eyed peas but reddish-brown color.
Can't wait to try them both together!

 

[Robostyle]

I made the peas today.
Smoked uncured bacon, onion, carrot, celery, garlic, bay leaf, chicken stock. Soaked overnight peas, rinsed.
Cooked for 1-1+1/2 hours. Pureed some of the peas & stock to thicken.

Absolutely delicious- smoky, savory, the "gravy" soaking into the rice- fantastic. I put a fried egg on top, wow!
This is a solid foundation for many meals, i'll post up some pics later on.
I call this a success.

 

[Robostyle]

I revisited these peas today. Didn't take pics of the process but made some sticky rice, some peas, and roasted maitake mushrooms at it was really good! I'll post up some pics maybe tomorrow.
The "gravy" from the peas is the sneaky part.
I didn't use the Knorr seasoning this time. Didn't need it,