This recipe aint for sissies. It’s real roadside diner/truck stop grub typically served south of the Mason-Dixon line. The coffee infused gravy is the perfect early morning breakfast concoction when you’ve been up all night traveling (the red eye),* or partying, or whatever.
Traditional red eye gravy uses the fat rendered from fried country ham as the gravy’s base. We’re going to use bacon instead which offers more fat than the ham – thus producing a beautiful silky gravy perfect for drizzling over buttery cooked, bacon speckled, hominy grits.
Add a buttermilk biscuit on the side and alert the undertaker.
Need This
8 strips of bacon
1/2 cup of black coffee
Hominy grits (quick cooking grits is fine)
4 tablespoons of butter
1 defibrillator
Do This
Cook 4 servings of grits according to the package instructions.
Place 8 strips of bacon onto a large fry pan and put a medium heat under it. Fry the bacon until crisp.
Remove the bacon from the pan and set it on a plate with paper towels and let cool for one minute.
Now crumble the bacon up into bits.
Drain the bacon fat off the pan into a bowl.
Place the pan back onto the active burner and let it come back to a sizzle.
Pour the coffee into the pan and reduce the heat a little so that the coffee comes to a gentle simmer.
Using a wooden or plastic spoon, deglaze the pan, scraping up any bits of bacon along the way. Continue to simmer the coffee another 3 minutes, stirring frequently, so that it reduces a little.
Now pour the coffee deglaze into the bowl with the bacon fat. Stir well. This is your Red Eye Gravy.
Dollop the cooked grits into serving bowls.
Add 1 tablespoon of butter to the center of each serving and fold it into the grits. Sprinkle bacon bits over the top of each serving.
Serve hot with hot red eye gravy on the side for drizzling.
Serves 4. My cost approx. $3.30 total – about 83 cents per serving.
*The origin of the name Red Eye Gravy is speculative. But given that coffee is involved, I’m betting that it originated in roadside truck stops for long-distance truckers pulling cross country all-nighters. Another hypothesis is that the fat and coffee, even when mixed well, will quickly separate which gives the appearance not unlike a giant red eye. GMN
