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Fried Polenta question


Paul Fink

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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 by gfweb (log)
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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. 

 

spezzatinogrilledpolenta1.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

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?

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> ^ . . ^ <

 

 

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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 by andiesenji (log)
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"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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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.

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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.) :D

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> ^ . . ^ <

 

 

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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.) :D

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.

 

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"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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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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Don't ask. Eat it.

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My long-ago best friend in Vancouver, a first-generation Italian-Canadian from Friuli, insisted on fine-to-medium white cornmeal for polenta. Coarse yellow cornmeal, he sniffed, was fine for the coarse peasants of more southerly climes. :P

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“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

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6 hours ago, chromedome said:

My long-ago best friend in Vancouver, a first-generation Italian-Canadian from Friuli, insisted on fine-to-medium white cornmeal for polenta. Coarse yellow cornmeal, he sniffed, was fine for the coarse peasants of more southerly climes. :P

White "dent" corn was the preferred variety where I grew up.  Yellow corn was "horse corn" or feed corn, not for human consumption.

Although a lot of farmers brought plenty of yellow corn to the mill to be ground into coarse meal - this was for an "alternative" use which involved some sugar, water and heat...

 

 

 

 

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"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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7 hours ago, kayb said:

 

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.

 

 

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.

Don't forget the Atlantic seaboard and Gulf coast specialty - Shrimp and Grits. 

I can't eat seafood but I know some folks here on eG who are "enthusiastic" about this dish.

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"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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