Polenta. The realm of real Italians. Aussies might cook Italian without knowing it, but they never cook polenta without knowing it. I mean, who does. When I started out I thought I would cook it the 'proper way' ie by stirring for the whole time.
First step was to stir like a madman while letting the grains run in.
The whole thing bogged up then and there. Perhaps it was meant to. Anyway, stirring it was a bitch. Marcella wanted me to stir for 40 minutes. Was she kidding? I immediately looked for the no-stir method.
No stir my arse! I still had to stir for a minute every 10 minutes. That's still a lot of stirring. And I couldn't seem to get the stuff to simmer as she wanted, so I just whacked it on low.
Eventually the time ran out - I'm not sure it was coming cleanly away from the walls as it was meant to. But I put it in a bowl anyway. And no, it wasn't metal.
And this is what it looked like when I plunked it over.
So how did it taste? Well, pretty ordinary. I wonder if it is because I didn't cook it right, or if the truth is, it never does, and its use is historical only ie if you didn't grow up on the stuff you wouldn't actually eat it. Marcella says you can eat it if you put butter and cheese in it, but that's true of anything isn't it?
I ate it with Chicken Fricasseed with Red Cabbage, which was delicious. But the sauce didn't save the polenta. Next time I'll make mash.
It's kind of like in the good ol' US, those southerners just have to have their "grits." Same basic thing. Gluey bits of corn one wouldn't eat unless one had no other way to keep fed. Apparently it's a regional "corn" dish. I wish I knew!
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