26 March 2015
Welcome friends. I know from the calendar that we have moved into Spring, but I'm just not feeling it. That is not to say that I am not optimistic about Spring. I am the guy with the wrong coat. I want it to be warmer than it is. I grab a jacket, but when I get outside, wish that I had worn something warmer. I feel like I am in a corridor and Spring is just at the end of it, like the garden in the image above.
When I was very young, my parents would occasionally make something for breakfast that they called "mush". This was something that they were crazy about, but I never enjoyed. They would cook finely ground cornmeal with water and allow it to firm up in a baking dish overnight. In the morning they would fry pieces, about 2 inch squares, in butter, and pour maple syrup over them.
Recently, I have noticed that a couple of the neighborhood restaurants offer shrimp and grits. I have tried them at both places and loved them. They remind me of polenta because they are both made from corn. I am not from the South, so I am not that familiar with grits, but I have been making a hard polenta for years. Polenta is made by cooking coarsely ground bits of corn with broth or water until the grains expand and the mixture thickens. There are two kinds of polenta: soft and hard. The soft polenta is less firm. It is fairly runny when it is hot and thickens as it cools to a consistency similar to mashed potatoes. Soft polenta is similar to the grits that I have enjoyed. The hard polenta becomes firm as it cools. The hard polenta is similar to the breakfast dish that my parents made, but is made with larger bits of corn and has a stronger flavor.
I tinkered with my polenta recipe to make something softer and more like grits. At first, I tried using water and broth but the texture was too coarse. This recipe uses milk and it softens the corn, so there isn't a grittiness to this dish. I decided that I couldn't call them grits because they were not gritty.
Finding a good corn meal to use in this dish is essential. There are two that I like to use. The first is Corn Grits from Bob's Red Mill (I usually find this at the grocery store, in the organic section). The second is Stone-Ground Polenta from Wild Hive Farm Micro Mill (I get this at
I don't often eat polenta by itself. I like to serve soft polenta with a tomato-based sauce (usually whatever left-over I have) or warmed diced tomatoes and herbs.
Soft Polenta
35 min. prep time
Ingredients
serves 4
- 1 Tbl butter
- 1 Tbl olive oil
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- 1 Tbl fresh rosemary leaves, minced
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 2 1/2 cups broth (chicken or vegetable)
- 1 cup milk (whole or 2%)
- 3/4 cup polenta or corn grits
- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
Directions
mince the garlic and rosemary and set aside.
heat the butter and olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Once the butter has melted, add the garlic and rosemary and saute for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
add the broth, salt, pepper, and milk to the saucepan. Increase the heat to medium high and stir occasionally until the liquid comes to a boil. Gradually sprinkle in the polenta and whisk constantly until the mixture begins to thicken. This should take about 3 minutes. As the mixture begins to thicken, the rosemary will start to integrate into the corn mixture instead of floating on the top. Reduce the heat to medium low and cook for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently.
remove from heat and stir in the parmesan.
serve warm.