Fried Polenta

**andiesenji** · January 16, 2017

Pretty much the same as fried grits. A breakfast staple where I grew up. The grits were cooked the afternoon before, packed into loaf pans and chilled overnight, turned out, sliced and fried on a griddle, usually in bacon drippings.

During the last couple of years of WWII there were 2 and then 3 Italian POWs who worked on my grandpa's farm. One was a man who was a cook and tried to tell grandpa's cook about polenta. She was not impressed. Grits is grits - HOMINY GRITS - and none of that foreign po-lent-er.

He did not speak a lot of English but was usually able to make himself understood and I think he understood a lot more. He kept asking, what is "homerny" and finally my grandpa, who spoke Italian, explained how it was made and later took him to the grist mill and showed him where the corn was soaked then dried before being ground. He seemed to get a big kick out of it and made a little song about hominy "greets," which he delighted in singing to cook. I think he was sweet on her - he was fascinated with black people and liked to listen to their songs. He even went to church with them.

**andiesenji** · January 16, 2017

6 hours ago, kayb said:

H'mm. A thought. Could one do balls of polenta like one does arancini -- surrounding a lump of mozzarella?

Ever heard of hush puppies?

MetsFan5 · January 16, 2017

An Italian POW in the US? I'm confused.

Anna N · January 16, 2017

1 hour ago, MetsFan5 said:

An Italian POW in the US? I'm confused.

Why would that be confusing? The US was at war with, among others, Italy. The US army captured Italian fighters and they were imprisoned in the US for the duration of the war. One of my first toys was made by a German prisoner of war captured by British forces and imprisoned in Lincolnshire, U.K.

**andiesenji** · January 16, 2017

5 hours ago, Anna N said:

Why would that be confusing? The US was at war with, among others, Italy. The US army captured Italian fighters and they were imprisoned in the US for the duration of the war. One of my first toys was made by a German prisoner of war captured by British forces and imprisoned in Lincolnshire, U.K.

Because so many men from farms were in our military, POWs were sent to work on farms to help food production. My grandfather had a very large farm and employed a lot of workers. Three of my uncles who worked the farm and at least 10 of the other men who worked for my grandpa on the farm or at the sawmill or gristmill were in the service so when the Army offered the POWs, my grandpa, who had contracts with the Army to supply meat, milk and other foods - as well as lumber, accepted. They were treated quite well - which was not always the case. They stayed until the end of the war. One was a pretty good mechanic and was able to fix an old tractor my uncle had been tinkering with for years - when he came home on furlough, I think he spent most of the time in the equipment barn with Lolo, fixing several things that had been waiting for him to come home.

Ashen · January 16, 2017

it sounds like you got it right. Frying is my second favourite way, brustolada (Trevisano dialect) is the way I like best. basically grilled under broiler, or you could do it on a fine grate over a heat source.

Lidia Bastianich is the only TV chef I have ever seen that does it the way my family does. Pour out the hot polenta onto a cookie sheet in a thin layer , then let cool and set. Cut squares or rectangles of the set thin polenta , and place on a preheated cookie sheet with the broiler on high. Let that side toast and colour, top of the pieces will most likely bubble a bit as well, flip and do the other side. Depending on how loose or firm you make the polenta and how close your rack is the broiler element it can usually take anywhere from 5 - 10 mins on a side.

sorry I don't have a picture of the process but you can sort of see what i mean about the bubbles on this picture.

Frying is similar in that you have to be sure the pan is preheated properly so it doesn't stick on you. . Brush with a high temp neutral oil or clarified butter, put the slices in and fry .

Martin Fisher · January 16, 2017

15 hours ago, andiesenji said:

...none of that foreign po-lent-er.

quiet1 · January 16, 2017

2 minutes ago, Ashen said:

it sounds like you got it right. Frying is my second favourite way, brustolada (Trevisano dialect) is the way I like best. basically grilled under broiler, or you could do it on a fine grate over a heat source.

Lidia Bastianich is the only TV chef I have ever seen that does it the way my family does. Pour out the hot polenta onto a cookie sheet in a thin layer , then let cool and set. Cut squares or rectangles of the set thin polenta , and place on a preheated cookie sheet with the broiler on high. Let that side toast and colour, top of the pieces will most likely bubble a bit as well, flip and do the other side. Depending on how loose or firm you make the polenta and how close your rack is the broiler element it can usually take anywhere from 5 - 10 mins on a side.

sorry I don't have a picture of the process but you can sort of see what i mean about the bubbles on this picture.

Frying is similar in that you have to be sure the pan is preheated properly so it doesn't stick on you. . Brush with a high temp neutral oil or clarified butter, put the slices in and fry .

The way Lidia does polenta is extremely tasty.

**andiesenji** · January 16, 2017

23 hours ago, kayb said:

H'mm. A thought. Could one do balls of polenta like one does arancini -- surrounding a lump of mozzarella?

Here's one recipe for stuffed hush puppies.

You can put the batter around anything that isn't too wet. Mozz should work just fine.

When I was little, cook made hushpuppies stuffed with chunks of apple or peach, even dried fruits in the winter.

I have made them with "poppers" jalapeno peppers stuffed with Mexican cheese inside the hushpuppy coating.

Edited January 16, 2017 by andiesenji (log)

scubadoo97 · January 17, 2017

On January 15, 2017 at 9:51 AM, Paul Fink said:

I made fried polenta for the first time. It seem to turn out OK.

The problem is I've never had polenta before. So that's my question.

What should fried polenta be like? Mine had a nice buttery crust and mushy inside.

If was like grits you were on the right track

Paul Fink · January 17, 2017

Just now, scubadoo97 said:

If was like grits you were on the right track

I'm from Minnesota .... what do grits taste like?

gfweb · January 17, 2017

11 minutes ago, Paul Fink said:

I'm from Minnesota .... what do grits taste like?

Corn meal mush

Paul Fink · January 17, 2017

5 minutes ago, gfweb said:

Corn meal mush

Isn't that a Texan thing?

gfweb · January 17, 2017

4 minutes ago, Paul Fink said:

Isn't that a Texan thing?

Nope. Its a Northern thing. Esp Penna germans/dutch.

Texans eat grits

Basically grits= polenta= mush. Polenta may be ground more finely and grits may be from hominy, but its all pretty similar.

Edited January 17, 2017 by gfweb (log)

cakewalk · January 17, 2017

13 minutes ago, gfweb said:

Corn meal mush

and a quiet old lady whispering "hush"

JoNorvelleWalker · January 17, 2017

1 hour ago, gfweb said:

Nope. Its a Northern thing. Esp Penna germans/dutch.

Texans eat grits

Basically grits= polenta= mush. Polenta may be ground more finely and grits may be from hominy, but its all pretty similar.

My favorite home ec memory growing up in Pennsylvania in the 1950's was corn meal mush with maple syrup. Education in this millennium has gone down hill.

gfweb · January 17, 2017

13 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

My favorite home ec memory growing up in Pennsylvania in the 1950's was corn meal mush with maple syrup. Education in this millennium has gone down hill.

Hey homie!

Fried mush with maple syrup. Never had it in school. Just at my grandparents at my father's request.

I thought my father was stuck on depression food. Who knew it was polenta we were eating?

Edited January 17, 2017 by gfweb (log)

gfweb · January 17, 2017

Of course my dad was known to say that pan-fried dogfood wasn't the worst thing he's eaten

Thanks for the Crepes · January 17, 2017

7 hours ago, Ashen said:

it sounds like you got it right. Frying is my second favourite way, brustolada (Trevisano dialect) is the way I like best. basically grilled under broiler, or you could do it on a fine grate over a heat source.

Lidia Bastianich is the only TV chef I have ever seen that does it the way my family does. Pour out the hot polenta onto a cookie sheet in a thin layer , then let cool and set. Cut squares or rectangles of the set thin polenta , and place on a preheated cookie sheet with the broiler on high. Let that side toast and colour, top of the pieces will most likely bubble a bit as well, flip and do the other side. Depending on how loose or firm you make the polenta and how close your rack is the broiler element it can usually take anywhere from 5 - 10 mins on a side.

sorry I don't have a picture of the process but you can sort of see what i mean about the bubbles on this picture.

Ashen, I love fried grits, but I hate making them because of the oil popping out, making a mess of the stove and doing it's best to burn me even with a splatter screen.

I had never heard of brustolada, but the next time I have leftover grits, I'm giving it a try. Do you brush your squares with oil or butter before broiling?

**andiesenji** · January 17, 2017

2 hours ago, Paul Fink said:

Isn't that a Texan thing?

Grits is a SOUTHERN thing, so yes to Texas but if you want to get into deep grits country, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and the next tier up are the heaviest consumers. Western Kentucky, where I was born and raised, was a major grits producer.

And it IS different from corn meal.

White dried corn (mostly white) was soaked in lye water - a tricky process - then washed and dried in "shaker" pans over a very low fire. These were rectangular "pans" about 6 inches deep and as I recall, about 3' wide and 4' long, hung on chains so they could be raised and lowered and shaken to agitate the hominy kernels. When dry, it was bagged in 50 pound burlap bags that were sold as is if people wanted to cook whole hominy, or some people would buy a bag and have it ground at the grist mill into grits, fine, medium or coarse, and then it was bagged in cloth bags.

That was the stuff that was cooked with water and salt to make the breakfast staple.

So now you know that when people tell you that cornmeal and polenta and grits are all the same, you can tell them that is not so.

Edited January 17, 2017 by andiesenji (log)

gfweb · January 17, 2017

3 minutes ago, andiesenji said:

So now you know that when people tell you that cornmeal and polenta and grits are all the same, you can tell them that is not so.

Ain't all that different either.

quiet1 · January 17, 2017

... now I want some cornmeal mush and maple syrup, darn you all.

Thanks for the Crepes · January 17, 2017

Our cornmeal for hushpuppies, corn bread and such is different that grits here in North Carolina for sure. I got corrected when I claimed in another thread that our hominy grits were treated with lime. Not caring to get into an argument and not in the mood to do a lot of research at the time, I let it pass. They are still labeled "hominy" grits, and taste a lot more like the whole hominy I use in polsole than they do the stoneground cornmeal I use in grits. I have a can of Juanita's Mexican-style hominy kernels in the pantry, and while it just claims hominy, water and salt on the ingredients label, these babies have clearly been treated with lime.

At this point, I am unsure if our grits are indeed treated with lime still. Doesn't really matter to me, as I love them just as they are. (I secretly think our local grits are treated with lime still or they'd be called corn grits and not hominy grits.)

**andiesenji** · January 17, 2017

12 hours ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:

Our cornmeal for hushpuppies, corn bread and such is different that grits here in North Carolina for sure. I got corrected when I claimed in another thread that our hominy grits were treated with lime. Not caring to get into an argument and not in the mood to do a lot of research at the time, I let it pass. They are still labeled "hominy" grits, and taste a lot more like the whole hominy I use in polsole than they do the stoneground cornmeal I use in grits. I have a can of Juanita's Mexican-style hominy kernels in the pantry, and while it just claims hominy, water and salt on the ingredients label, these babies have clearly been treated with lime.

At this point, I am unsure if our grits are indeed treated with lime still. Doesn't really matter to me, as I love them just as they are. (I secretly think our local grits are treated with lime still or they'd be called corn grits and not hominy grits.)

I don't think it can be called "hominy" unless it has been treated. I know there was one plant in Tennessee that had photos of the process on their web site a couple of years ago. I know that when the grist mill my grandpa owned was first built, just after the Civil War, they used wood ash to process the corn. When I was little the "ash house" a shed on the back of the building, was still there but only used for storing wood and coal for the "cookers" and the old balance beam scale was still there, to measure the amount of ash brought in by the local people who either got paid in coin or "laid up credit" to be used later when they needed to have corn ground.

The mill for grinding hominy was separate from the main mill for grinding regular corn. The millstones had deeper grooves that spiraled in. The regular mill had grooves that went strait in from perimeter to the center hole and were shallower at the outside and slightly deeper at the center.

They started using lye about the the turn of the century when "refined" lye became readily available and not as costly as before. The use of wood ash gradually declined, but some people still used it at home. This is the process.

We kids were fascinated with how it worked - it was actually 4 stories - the basement, where the drive shafts came in from the outside and hd to be constantly tended, to make sure the gears were lubricated. The main floor where the bagging was done as the finished meal came down into the hoppers. The mill floor and above that the floor we were forbidden to ever go, that contained the equipment that lifted and lowered the stones, the feed hoppers and kept the shafts aligned. There were holes in the floor in that room and all that machinery made it like a maze. And it was hot in the summer. Grandpa would not let any of the men work up there more than 2 hours then they had to trade off with another.

kayb · January 18, 2017

On 1/16/2017 at 2:39 PM, andiesenji said:

Here's one recipe for stuffed hush puppies.

You can put the batter around anything that isn't too wet. Mozz should work just fine.

When I was little, cook made hushpuppies stuffed with chunks of apple or peach, even dried fruits in the winter.

I have made them with "poppers" jalapeno peppers stuffed with Mexican cheese inside the hushpuppy coating.

Makes perfect sense. I always think of polenta/grits as being boiled, while I'm used to hushpuppy batter being raw when it's fried. Or broiled, as the case may be. Wheels are turning on potential recipes/methods.

On 1/16/2017 at 7:22 PM, Paul Fink said:

I'm from Minnesota .... what do grits taste like?

Polenta (if stone-ground, a bit coarser meal). Both derive their flavor mostly from what's added to/served with them. Traditional Southern breakfast grits are boiled with water or milk or a combo, and salt, finished with butter, salt and pepper, served with bacon, eggs and gravy. My personal preference is for an over-easy egg perched on top of a mound of grits.

The most common iteration is cheese grits, with any of multitudinous varieties of cheese added. Hot peppers of any description are a frequent addition. There are all sorts of grits-based casseroles.

My very favorite breakfast grits dish is a layer of cheese grits in the bottom of a ramekin, with a couple of eggs cracked on top, some chopped bacon, and a couple of tablespoons of cream. Into a 350 oven for 12 minutes or so. Ouefs en cocotte, on a bed of cheese grits.

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