|
Polenta is a boiled, slow-cooked cornmeal "mush" -- typically made with coarsely ground yellow corn meal. In some regions of Italy (especially in the north), it's a beloved everyday dish and is topped with meat, fish, pasta sauce, cheese, or vegetables. Cooled and hardened, polenta can be sliced, sautéed, or grilled, and served sweet or savory. Or you can create a layered polenta torta, reminiscent of a lasagne. Recently, NPR's "Morning Edition" show celebrated the extraordinary history of polenta's close cousin, grits. The segment is titled Grits, Present at the Creation. Grits are "coarsely ground pieces of dried corn
moistened into a mealy paste" that have a mythic role in Southern culinary culture. Historians suggest that grits played an important role in early Southern agriculture, providing food for the first English settlers in Jamestown, Virginia, and later helping Southerners survive the Great Depression. At grits.com, we learned the difference between corn grits, which include the hull and the germ of the grain, and "true" hominy grits. To make hominy, you start with field corn. These traditional grits are produced by soaking dried corn kernels in a solution of baking soda, lime, or wood ash ("lye water") for a day or two. The kernel's shell pops off, and the kernel swells
to twice its size. Kernels are rinsed more than once, then dried, and finally ground into grits. The grind can be coarse, medium, or fine. This same process is used to make masa harina, the key ingredient in corn tortillas. The alkaline soaking treatment of corn also enhances its nutritional value, making it an important staple in the diets of many cultures. It's this alkaline treatment that makes grits different from polenta. Due to the altered chemistry of the corn, grits and tortillas both prevent pellagra, a niacin deficiency disease. Even if you didn't grow up with grits or polenta, they are tasty treats that you may learn to enjoy. If this corny family of versatile, inexpensive comfort foods appeals to your taste buds, you'll be glad to know that there are 39 grits recipes and 62 polenta recipes at RecipeSource. And if you don't fancy 20 minutes or more of slow stirring over a hot stove, you'll find plenty of recipes for microwave polenta and several varieties of quick grits.
|
