Polenta is not corn porridge, but a wonderful Italian dish made from it.
It can be used for breakfast, dinner or lunch, combined with a variety of products, but in any case, it will turn out delicious. Of course, if you do it right.
Polenta - General Cooking Principles
Corn grits are used for polenta. Some recipes contain flour, but this is not correct. Brew flour until uniformity fails. It is necessary to grits, if the grinding is fine, then the porridge will cook faster. On average, 250 g of cereal is a liter of water, which must be salted immediately. Cook porridge in a saucepan with a thick bottom until it begins to lag behind the walls and “splash”.
Then you can add cheese or butter, then the mass is laid out on a flat surface in an even layer, left to solidify. Usually, the porridge is put on the parchment, the silicone surface, immediately oiled. You can also cover the top with parchment, roll it over with a rolling pin so that the layer is perfectly even. Next, from the frozen mass cut portions or blanks for various dishes.
What is polenta made with?
• cheese;
• vegetables;
• seafood;
• meat, poultry.
The classic dish is simply watered with butter and sprinkled with cheese. It can be used as a side dish, combined with any other products. Often, polenta is baked in the oven, and various Italian dishes are prepared on its basis. For a variety of taste, use aromatic Provencal herbs or simply dried basil.
Classic Polenta
The easiest recipe for classic polenta from ordinary corn grits. This dish can help out if there is nothing at home for tea, for afternoon tea, or if you want to cook something interesting for a side dish.
Ingredients
• 250 g of corn grits;
• salt;
• some oil;
• 50 g of cheese (parmesan, cheese);
• litere of water.
Cooking
1. Pour the water into a saucepan, salt, put on the stove and bring to a boil. 2. Add the rump, pour it in a thin stream, quickly stirring in a circle so as not to form lumps. Cook porridge until cooked for about 35-40 minutes.
3. Cool the polenta, but not until the very end. As soon as the mass becomes warm, we spread it on a silicone board, a rug, parchment, or just a surface covered with food-grade film. Level the layer, the thickness is from 1 to 3 cm. We leave the dish for a while.
4. As soon as the cornmeal crust “grasps”, it can be cut into portions. We spread on plates.
5. Melt the butter, smear the top, sprinkle with grated cheese. But you can just smear the pieces with cream cheese. Preheat a little on request.
Polenta with Tomatoes and Mozzarella
Cook the porridge for this dish according to the classic recipe above, that is, take 250–270 g of cereals per liter of liquid and salt them.
Ingredients
• 50 g Parmesan;
• 0.2 kg mozzarella;
• 70 g butter;
• 3 tomatoes;
• 1 liter of water for cereal;
• 250 g of cereals;
• dried basil or Provencal herbs.
Cooking
1. Remove cooked porridge from heat, add grated Parmesan, mix well and lay out a layer of about half a centimeter on a flat surface, smooth, grease with butter, cool.
2. Cut mozzarella and tomatoes into slices.
3. Take a glass, cut out porridge circles, as usual squeeze cookies.
4. Collect all trim.
5. Lubricate the baking dish with oil, lay out soy from the scraps, distributing as evenly as possible. Grease with oil trim, sprinkle with basil or a mixture of Provencal herbs.
6. Now we are collecting polenta: we lay out the food circles under the slope, alternating rows of corn tortillas, which we squeezed out with a glass, with tomatoes and mozzarella.
7. Sprinkle with aromatic herbs on top, but a little, otherwise they will burn.
8. We put in the oven, bake for 15-20 minutes, the temperature is about 200 degrees.
Polenta with chicken and cheese
In fact, there are many recipes for polenta with chicken. The dish is used as a side dish, the basis for sandwiches, it is poured with sauces and spread the bird on top, but the options from the oven are especially interesting. Ingredients
• 0.6 kg of chicken (fillet);
• 1 onion;
• 3 tomatoes;
• 80 g sour cream;
• 250 g of corn grits;
• 170 g cheese;
• spices, oil (approximately 50-60 g).
Cooking
1. Prepare a classic corn porridge from cereals with water, cook until the mass starts to lag behind the walls of the pan.
2. While porridge is cooked, we are engaged in chicken. Cut into pieces, lay out in a pan with any oil. Fry to a crust.
3. Onions cut. Add to the bird, mix and fry together, pepper and salt to taste, at the end put the sour cream or mayonnaise, turn it off.
4. Spread the cooked porridge evenly on a baking sheet laid with a rug or baking paper. Or use a suitable size.
5. Spread prepared porridge on porridge.
6. Cut the tomatoes into circles, spread on top of an even layer.
7. Cover the dish with grated cheese, bake until golden brown in the oven.
Polenta with mushrooms (mushrooms) and cheese
Another version of a terrific dish, which after assembly can be baked in the oven or simply heated in a microwave, it all depends on personal abilities. Cook porridge in the usual way for 250 g of cereals.
Ingredients
• 400 g of champignons;
• 2 onions;
• 1 Bulgarian pepper;
• 120 g of hard cheese;
• 60 g of oil;
• spices;
• 2 tablespoons sour cream.
Cooking
1. Prepare the corn porridge, lay a layer of about a centimeter on the board or silicone mat, leave for a while until a good solidification. Lubricate with half the oil.
2. Cut the mushrooms, peeled onions and sweet pepper.
3. Put the remaining oil in the pan, add to it the chopped champignons. Cook for about five minutes, then fill in the onion, fry for another two minutes, add pepper.
4. Now you can season with salt, add garlic if desired, warm it and fill with two full spoons of sour cream to make the filling juicy. Turn off.
5. Corn polenta can be completely shifted to a baking sheet, cooked in a single layer, like a pizza, or cut into portions and each collected separately. We do as it is more convenient. 6. We spread the mushroom mass with sour cream. Sprinkle with grated cheese on top. We put in the oven, bake an Italian dish at 200 degrees for 10-15 minutes.
7. Either we shift them to portions, we warm them up in a microwave for 2-3 minutes.
Polenta with vegetables inside
Another way to assemble italian polenta. It can be used for different fillings, vegetables are used here, the quantity and type can be changed at your discretion.
Ingredients
• 250 g of corn grits;
• 1 liter of water;
• 1 onion;
• 1 small zucchini;
• 1 eggplant;
• 60 g of oil;
• 3-4 tablespoons of grated cheese;
• 1 carrot;
• spices;
• 1 tablespoon of tomato paste or 2 spoons of ketchup.
Cooking
1. We put boiled porridge from corn grits on the stove, we must add some water.
2. We draw onions, three carrots, fry in half the butter for a couple of minutes. We clean the zucchini or a piece of the usual zucchini, cut it into cubes, pour it over the rest of the vegetables, turn on the maximum heat and evaporate all the water.
3. As soon as the zucchini stops making juice, you can add eggplant. Fry together for about ten minutes, fill with tomato paste, at the very end we will add salt and pepper.
4. Ready porridge, while it is hot, visually divide in half, one part is poured into a parchment-shaped form. Quickly level, while the mass is ductile.
5. We spread the vegetables in an even layer.
6. Cover the filling with the second layer of porridge. We grease with oil residues, lightly sprinkle cheese on top, so that a light crust appears. By the way, grated cheese can be mixed with 1-2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs or crushed breadcrumbs
7. We send polenta to bake for 20 minutes, the temperature is 180 degrees.
Polenta with shrimps and olives
A true Italian dish for which peeled shrimps are needed. As an alternative - crab sticks, with them, too, is delicious.
Ingredients
• porridge of 250 g of cereals;
• 400 g shrimp;
• 2 large tomatoes;
• 2 cloves of garlic;
• 120 g of mozzarella;
• 120 g of olives;
• Provencal herbs;
• 40 g of olive oil.
Cooking
1. Prepare porridge for polenta, lay out evenly to one centimeter, cool, cut out circles with a glass. 2. Shrimp peel.
3. Pour the oil into the pan, crush the garlic, but do not chop, fry the cloves to a ruddy color, remove, discard.
4. Put the shrimp in this oil, warm it up for a moment, take it out.
5. Put scraps of corn porridge on the bottom of the form, grease with residues of oil from the pan.
6. Cut tomatoes and mozzarella.
7. Put polenta, tomatoes, cheese in a reclining form. Lay prepared shrimps and olives between pieces in a chaotic manner.
8. Sprinkle the dish with Provencal herbs, bake for 10-15 minutes at 220 degrees.
Polenta - useful tips and tricks
• It is convenient to cut polenta with a roller pizza knife. By the way, if the cake is thin, you can use curly cutters for dough, the pieces will be more beautiful.
• If polenta remains, do not worry! The pieces can be fried in butter, you can dip in the egg and breadcrumbs before this and the new dish is ready!
• From the polenta you can prepare a lot of dishes with vegetables, mushrooms, legumes, which diversify vegetarian or lenten table, the main thing - do not forget to replace the olive oil with olive oil.
• Porridge burned? Immediately remove the pan from the heat, remove the flight with a spoon, without touching the burnt layer. Transfer to another saucepan, add a little boiling water and continue cooking.
• Porridge does not want to freeze? Transfer it to a baking sheet with baking paper or a silicone mat, heat it in the oven, sprinkle with cheese and bake to a beautiful crust.
• It is not necessary to spread porridge with a flat layer, you can immediately distribute it on silicone molds, from which the dish is perfectly removed.
