POLENTA - MAMALIGA

7 cups water
1 cup coarse - or medium-ground corn meal.
3 T butter
salt & pepper to taste

1.
In a heavy pot, bring 4 cups of water to a rolling boil.
In the meantime, keep the rest of the water warm on second
burner. With a wooden spoon, start stirring the water until
you create a little eddy, into which you will now pour the
corn meal slowly but steadily (keep stirring constantly
while you are pouring, in order to minimize the formation
of lumps.) Creating a good polenta is directly related to
the way you perform this step. There isn't really that much
more to it. Just lower the heat, and simmer while stirring
slowly for 15-20 minutes - if you come across any lumps,
you just try to eliminate them by squishing them against
the side of the pot with your spoon. If the mixture seems
too dry, add some more hot water from your reserve pot.
After 15 minutes, taste your concoction (careful, corn meal
tends to get very-very hot.) If the grains feel soft, it's
about done, so stir in the butter,
add salt and pepper to taste, any other herbs and/or spices
you like and simmer for 5 more minutes.

2.
You're done with the polenta so you may now serve it, and
it will make an excellent side to just about any entree.
Just get a layer of it on your plate, and then spoon some
stew on top. Or beans, be they Spanish style or Egyptian,
it doesn't matter. This polenta works best with anything
that has a sauce of some sort.

3.
You may of course make a great polenta casserole if you
choose. In that case, just layer a casserole dish
alternating thin layers, of polenta and grated cheese
(Cheddar, Gruyere, Swiss, Jarlsberg, etc.) Any good
grating cheese will do, follow your instincts.
Bake in 375 degree oven until you see the cheese layers
melting (about 15 minutes) and serve.

Some people will argue that polenta is Italian - as
indeed the name of if is. That may even be true, however,
I ate in a lot of Italian restaurants but only a few have
polenta on any of their menus. On the other hand, I have
yet to find a Romanian restaurant that does not have it
on their menu. They do not however call it polenta - the
name is "Mamaliga." Mamaliga is pretty much the Romanian
national dish and when I was growing up in Romania my
mother would serve it with cheese, with beef stew, with
chicken fricassee or just plain milk with a couple of
raisins in it. Whichever way. it always seemed to work so
just experiment. I mean add finely chopped herbs like:
dill, parsley, basil, cilantro in the last 5 minutes or
so of boiling your polenta. Also, crushed garlic, crushed
pepper flakes, or finely chopped, jalapeños, chili
peppers and so on. With mamaliga, anything goes, and it
goes real well.

Bon Apetit!

T = Tablespoon

Copyright © 2006 by Ernest Samuel Leibovitz