Polenta or Corn Grits truly must be one of the best comfort foods on the planet! Warm, creamy, filling, versatile, and easy, not to mention gluten free, polenta is one of my favorite foods. Alone, as a side dish, or a starchy base for something else equally wonderful, why don't I make this more often?
6 cups of water
2 teaspoons, or less, salt
1 3/4 cup corn meal
*3 Tablespoons butter
Bring the water to a boil, add the salt and reduce the heat to a low simmer. Whisk in the corn meal till all dissolved, don't worry about the lumps-they're the best part, right? Keep at the lowest simmer possible and stir every minute for 15 minutes. Stir in the butter till melted. Serve immediately or pour into a greased 9 x 5 loaf pan, cover and refrigerate overnight. Serves 5, 200 calories per serving.
*If making Vegan simply omit the butter.
Once chilled, you can slice and skillet fry the polenta. Serve it sweet with maple syrup, or savory.
Before we get into skillet frying polenta, view my post on stove top ranges and cookware.
Skillet Frying Polenta:
First attempt, starting with Polenta that had rested for only a couple of hours, I used cooking oil in a metal pan. What I call our meat skillet because it gets hot enough to sear meat and retains heat for even cooking. Not only did it stick and fall apart, but the oil took away from the creamy flavor of the Polenta.
Second attempt, I waited the traditional 24 hours. I used our enameled iron skillet (egg skillet) with butter. It worked really well, and used far less fat to fry. I did still have trouble with the crispy outer layer scraping off when I tried to flip it. Perhaps my polenta needs less water?
Next corn meal recipe-Indian Pudding
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