Holy Crap! I just looked up the calories in polenta! 100 calories per ounce! I just ate 500-600 calories of filler food! I . . . Wait a minute, is that 100 cal/ounce for uncooked corn grits? Or for cooked polenta? I'm still hyperventilating, but maybe there's hope . . . Okay, how caloric is an ounce, say, of cooked polenta? I'm reading 20 cal per ounce - can that be right?

I love this recipe. I don't know why, but I just do. Partly, because spinach has always been my favorite vegetable, and Swiss Chard is a close second, maybe even surpassing spinach. And I love polenta and I love garlic. Now, DH loathes garlicky greens, and I adore them. But since dh loathes them, I don't get to enjoy this recipe very often. However, here it goes. I've posted this before on this forum, but I'll do it again, since you asked. BTW, it's from a cook book I received on one of our swaps. I love this book. He has a whole chapter on polenta, so you may check this book out.

From The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook by Jack Bishop

Polenta with Garlicky Greens

2 cups medium-grind cornmeal (I use a product I buy that's labeled Polenta.)
salt
1 1/2 pounds chard, preferably with red veins
1 1/2 pounds flat-leaf spinach
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
6 medium garlic cloves, slivered
Freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1. Cook the cornmeal in 8 cups simmering water with 2 teaspoons salt, as described below

When the water comes to a boil, add the salt and lower the heat to medium. Whisk in the cornmeal in a slow, steady stream. This should take almost 1 minute. Make sure to whisk the cornmeal continuously to prevent lumps from forming. Continue whisking as the cornmeal comes back to a boil. Simmer, whisking constantly, until the polenta starts to thicken, 1 to 2 minutes.

Reduce the heat until the polenta is at the barest simmer. Cover the pot and cook very slowly, stirring with a long-handled wooden spoon every 10 minutes or so, until the cornmeal loses its raw flavor, 35 to 40 minutes. Stir in butter until melted and add more salt if needed.

2. While the polenta is cooking, remove and discard the stems from the chard and spinach. Tear off he green portions from either side of the rib that runs down the center of each chard leaf. Discard the ribs. Tear any large chard and spinach leaves in half. Wash the leaves in successive bowls of cold water until grit no longer appears in the bottom of the bowl. Shake the laves to remove excess water but do not dry them. Set aside. (I find that the spinach and chard I grow at home, or the pre-washed spinach at the grocery store to be much easier to clean than the non pre-washed spinach available at stores. I don't know why, but my home grown spinach isn't nearly as dirty as store bought.)

3. Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the onions and saute over medium heat until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until golden, about 2 minutes.

4. Add the greens to the pan. Stir to coat the leaves with the oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover and cook, stirring 2 or 3 times, until the greens are tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove the cover and simmer until some of the liquid evaporates, 2 to 3 minutes. The greens should be moist but not swimming in liquid.

5. When the polenta has finished cooking, stir in the butter and add more salt if needed. Divide the polenta among large individual bowls. Spoon some o the greens over each portion. Serve immediately.

This is just one of 15 recipes in this book for ways to serve polenta, not counting just with some butter and/or parmesan cheese. If you love grits or polenta on it's own, the sky's the limit for how to serve it with other foods.

Sally

Uh, first thought, polenta ain't grits

Start over.

The stuff I bought was labeled ''polenta grits'', so I thought they were the same thing? I don't know much of anything about Southern cooking.

Sally2, your polenta is soft, spoonable, right? When I've had it before, it's been slightly firm - about the consistency of soft or silken tofu.

Watch this for the difference (or not) between grits and polenta.

Here is a link that might be useful: Good Eats: True Grits

It can be served soft a bit like mashed potatoes, or it's often firmer, cut into squares and fried. I really don't like the stuff however it's served :(
Sadly, you get to eat a lot of it if you stay in hotels in mountanous regions of Italy!

I read a recipe last night where polenta was cut into thin slices and used in gluten-free lasagna.

As I studied grains I learned authentic polenta was milled from hard flint corn (which looks like popcorn) and cornmeal was typically made with dent corn - although you can make cornmeal from all varieties of corn - including popcorn. Flint corn is grown in Italy while most of the corn grown in the U.S. is dent corn. About the only true flint corn grown in the U.S. is the multi-colored corn we typically refer to as "Indian" corn, or blue corn they use for those blue corn chips, but there are white and yellow varieties as well of flint corn. Kansas State University (Manhattan, KS) developed a variety of flint corn that was K-State Purple.

It was flint corn, which has been both hulled and degermed, milled into a coarse texture that gives authentic polenta its soft, but not mushy, texture. There is less starch in flint corn than in those big nibs of dent corn. So if your polenta is mushy, you probably used cornmeal made from dent corn, rather than authentic polenta milled from flint corn. And as Alton Brown pointed out, polenta was baked while grits were slow-cooked over heat. There are no standards for these items made commercially in the U.S. and you are not likely to get authentic polenta milled from flint corn if it was made in the U.S. - even if the package says "polenta".

Grits - not only a cooked corn dish, but grits are also the size of the grind of corn, as well as other grains. Corn flour, cornmeal and corn grits only differ in the particle size and may be ground from whole or germinated (the germ removed) corn.

Once the germ is removed from the corn, the product has a longer shelf-life because the germ, where the oil is contained, is removed - as well as most of the nutrients. "Grits" can be milled into fine, medium and coarse grinds.

When you mill your own "grits" you sift out the fine particles or you will cook up a mess of paste (as in glue). The finer the grind, the quicker it cooks and the more delicate the texture. The finer the grind of cornmeal, the more cake-like and finer texture your cornbread, while coarse cornmeal will yield a more coarse texture. It's not about what's right or wrong, it's about what texture you like in the finished product. It's also a regional thing....

So what's hominy grits? More often a misnomer, however, grits were also milled from dried hominy and THEN you had hominy grits. Hominy is corn soaked in a weak lye solution and dried. Ancient people used the lye treatment to kill the germ, which prevents the corn from sprouting during storage. Sprouting was a problem for them and the lye treatment was the way to treat the wheat to prevent sprouting.

Now when it comes to Jimmy Crack Corn, that's a whole other story.... ;-)

-Grainlady

The one time I made polenta I cooked it firm, poured it into a pan, and chilled it to let it set up even firmer. Then I sliced it medium thin (not too thin), the slices cut on the diagonal to make triangles and grilled on a cast iron grill pan on top of the stove. It was topped with a nice homemade marinara sauce with cooked mushrooms and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. It was delicious and even my young boys liked it.

The cooked polenta can be done ahead, of course, but I think the sliced polenta should be allowed to come to room temp before grilling it so it won't be cold in the middle. For me, this form of polenta is more appealing since I won't think of it as Southern grits. But I wouldn't hesitate to order an entree of soft cooked polenta in a fine restaurant if it looked appealing to me.

Another reason to go to Eataly on Wednesday (to get some real polenta, they must have it). Thanks, grainlady and everyone. I'll make another stab at this.

I've done the sliced, firm polenta with leftover polenta. The recipe I posted above makes a soft polenta.

One of the few times I caught that Food Network Star's show about meals for under $10, she made polenta in a crock pot, cooked over low heat for a couple of hours. I haven't made her recipe yet, but maybe when I don't care about calories I will. She uses cream. I imagine the recipe could be adjusted to reduce the calories, but I bet it's quite good the way she does it.

Sally

Here is a link that might be useful: Melissa d'Arabian's polenta recipe

Polenta cooked like mush tastes like mush and is a pain to cook. Try this. Place one cup polenta (real polenta, which is coarse cornmeal) in a buttered, eight inch square pyrex dish with 3 1/4 cups water, one tsp. salt and one tbsp. butter. Bake for 50 minutes at 350. That's all. You can cut out pieces and serve it hot, or, much better, just let it cool and harden. Then flip the pan over, and the polenta should come out in one, nice piece. Cut the squares you want, and fry in olive oil and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. It is delicious this way, and bears little rememblance to the mush. It is great with braised lamb hocks or roast chicken or any meat witht there is a little extra sauce to spoon over the polenta.

Your friends will think you are a gourmet, yet this is a rustic, home, northern Italian recipe.
RB

We lived in Iowa for a time and there we had "Corn Meal Mush". I think it was made from medium or coarse cornmeal, cooked and eaten like oatmeal for breakfast with milk and sugar, and leftovers were chilled firm in a greased loaf pan, sliced and fried in butter, then slathered with maple syrup like pancakes and called "Fried Mush".

I haven't made it in years but I will today; good memories linger from my MIL making it. I do not remember it ever being called "polenta" though and with Grainlady's description, doubt that it was from Italy since we were surrounded with miles of dent corn and sweet corn there in Iowa. And I doubt if the Indian corn they grew was used to make cornmeal, it was just for decoration. I don't even know if they thought it as edible. They also grow lots of popcorn, which is also flint corn, but why would you want to make it into cornmeal when it tastes best for what it is grown for?

I dimly recall the recipe being that you brought 3 cups water to a boil, put in 1 cup cornmeal mixed with 1 cup cold water and a little salt. You let it cook until it boiled, covered the pan, lowered the heat, and cooked it for 10 minutes or so until really thick. Mixing the cold water with the cornmeal kept it from being lumpy.

Nancy

I made polenta for the first time in decades last Wednesday. It's not my DH's favorite so it isn't in my rotation.

I used my own chicken stock and a few tablespoons of butter/margarine, S&P as a savory side. My mom used to make it for me with milk, butter and a bit of sugar for breakfast. I don't think I've ever enjoyed it made with just water, too plain.

I love polenta and make it often.

It is really easy to make and I don't measure anything.

Just heat up a pot of chicken broth, seasoned with a minced garlic clove and then slowly sift in the cornmeal. Don't stop stirring.

Turn the heat down and stir until the polenta is cooked. Stir in butter and parmesan cheese and serve.

I like my polenta on the creamy side.

Wonderful served topped with oxtails or osso bucco. I sometime season it with fresh sage or rosemary depending on what I am serving it with.

Ann

Ooh, Ann, I like the idea of seasoning it with sage or rosemary. I like it creamy or firm. I just like it all ways, I guess.

"Fried Mush." Nancy, I love that name, it made me smile. Thanks for sharing your memories.

Sally

I also like it cooked with chicken broth. Add a little celery salt and sage and it is great with a chicken dish. I like it firmed up in the refrigerator then unmolded and sliced, then fried. It has almost the same taste as stuffing, but not the same consistency.

Ironically, I was considering trying creamy maple polenta this week (over the weekend when I am without a computer, so we must've been on the same wave length in thiking about it!). When it came time to pair it with the pork tenderloin I had on hand--what came to mind is--parmesan and sage crusted pork. I know the pork dish is good, so that was a no brainer. But would the two together be too "breakfasty"?

Here is a link that might be useful: pork recipe

I used to serve polenta sliced and heated in a little olive oil and then served with a putenesca sauce. It is at best a vehicle for a sauce with personality.

I visited Whole Foods today and found Bob's Red Mill Coarse Grind Cornmeal. Hot dog! Polenta is in my future!

I've had it served grilled with a mushroom sauce--awesome!

I like polenta in all it's different ways but I almost always: cook it for a long time so it gets creamier, use coarse ground cornmeal, use broth not water and add cheese.
Soft, firm, sliced, scooped, it's all good.

When I was a child, my Italian grandmother made it all the time but I thought it was gross!

I've made polenta once or twice. Like Jessy, my DH doesn't like it, so not in my regular rotation. Like Teresa, I chilled it until firm, then sliced it. I used cornmeal, not grits.

A friend and I were approximating an appetizer from a restaurant in Groton, CT (Olio's) with cajun shrimp and grilled green onion served on a polenta square. We cheated and used a frozen jamaican jerk shrimp which was really close to the cajun spice the restaurant uses (Margaritaville was the brand for the shrimp, I think). The dish is plated with a polenta square topped with 3 shrimp draped with two green onion. Pretty and yummy!

DH is going out of town next week... maybe I'll fix me up some polenta!!

John, you were actually on the right trail. Instead of sticking it in the toaster oven, if you had just refrigerated it you'd have then had the slicing kind. Even most of the pretty creamy thinner polentas will firm up if allowed to set. The name of the product does vary. The polenta cornmeal is of course a grit. It's just what coarseness of grit you prefer, but it can be done with pretty much any grit/coarseness/grind/etc. Grits that most call grits as supposed to be made from hominy as was mentioned earlier, but sometimes aren't. Sure, try again.

That big old porcelainized kitchen table ya'll have heard me mention, was used by my Grandparents to serve the family polenta and meat sauce. Right on the table or on a big giant board. Big pot of polenta poured on, pot of meat/sauce on top, kids/people given spoons to dig in. What fun!