Corn polenta. Polenta: benefits and methods of preparation

Polenta is a versatile cornmeal dish that can be consumed both chilled and warm.

Polenta is considered a healthy product, as it has some health benefits. In this article, we will consider eight advantages of polenta, as well as methods for its preparation.

What is polenta?

Traditionally, polenta was associated with Italy and was used in various dishes of this country. However, now it is also often eaten in many parts of the world, including in various countries of Europe and the United States.

Polenta is made from yellow corn, which is ground into corn flour. Depending on the grinding, the polenta may be harder or softer. After grinding, the cornmeal is boiled in water, milk or broth. Typically, the ratio for making polenta is 4 cups of liquid per 1 cup of cornmeal. When cooking, it acquires the consistency of thick porridge.

The traditional method of obtaining polenta involves stirring in a pot for about 40-50 minutesthat can be time consuming. For those who are looking for simpler cooking methods, polenta is sold as instant or instant cereal. This polenta is pre-cooked and dried before sale, so you can cook it in 5-10 minutes.

Fully cooked polenta is also available at grocery stores. It is usually sold in oblong packages, as it can be cut in solid form and then fried or baked.

The nutritional benefits of polenta

Some varieties of polenta are fortified to enhance nutritional value. Making polenta in milk instead of water can add valuable nutrients.

Source of fiber and protein

Polenta contains both protein and fibertherefore quickly saturates the body. Fiber helps maintain the proper functioning of the digestive system, promotes the growth of healthy intestinal bacteria and prevents constipation.

Gluten free

For people who eat gluten-free dishes, polenta is a good option. Many sources of fiber, such as wheat, couscous, and rye,

Polenta is usually safe for people with or with sensitivity to gluten. However, it is worth checking the composition of the product, as it may contain additional ingredients.

Rich in complex carbohydrates

Polenta is an excellent source of complex carbohydrates.Simple carbohydrates break down quickly and can cause an increase in blood sugar. In addition, simple carbohydrates do not contain many nutrients. Cakes, cookies and white bread are prime examples of simple carbohydrates.

Complex carbohydrates in polenta are slowly destroyed, which means that the digestion process will take longer. This helps keep blood sugar level.

Contains Vitamin A

Although it does not contain large amounts of vitamins and minerals, polenta does contain vitamin A. According to the National Institutes of Health, vitamin A is essential for the proper functioning of the kidneys, lungs, and heart.

Source of Carotenoids

Polenta consists of ground corn, which is a good source of carotenoids. Carotenoids are believed to reduce the risk of a number of diseases, such as some types of eye diseases and several types of cancer.

Low fat content

Polenta contains a small percentage of fat, so it can be part of a healthy, balanced diet. Those who want to reduce their intake of saturated fats, it is better to cook polenta in water, vegetable milk or broth instead of animal milk, and do not add cheese or butter.

Contains Essential Minerals

Iron, magnesium and zinc are essential minerals. Despite the fact that the polenta contains not so many of these useful elements, they are still there, so the dish will fit perfectly into any diet.

Low calorie

Polenta - a low-calorie productlike other whole grains that are cooked on water. It provides about 70 calories per 100 g of the prepared portion.

Nutritious, whole foods that are low in calories, such as polenta, can be a good choice for people who want to lose weight or keep it healthy.

How to cook polenta?

Polenta has a mild flavor of corn, which makes it a good base for adding herbs, vegetables or cheese. It can be used as a side dish and eat with fish or meat.

Although the polenta has a consistency similar to porridge, when cooked, if it is cooled, it will become hard enough to be chopped. Polenta slices can be cooked on the grill or in the oven with various fillings, including cheese or sauces.

Raw polenta can also be used with cakes and bread instead of some types of flour. Using polenta in baking can add nutritional value and a moist texture to the dish.

Polenta can be eaten during brunch or as a side dish, for example, with cabbage, mushrooms and tomato sauce, or use instead of pizza dough.

Looking for a classic polenta recipe? Well, I myself think: if you came here - it means that you are interested in the classics, and not what you have written on the packaging. So, my dears, I have to disappoint you. Right from the start. Look at this photo. Do you have such a boiler? No? If not, then the classic polenta will not work for you, according to what recipe you can cook it. Because the classic polenta is made in a thick-walled copper boiler on wood fire. Basta! (By the way, “basta” is Italian.)

On wood fire - this does not mean "at the stake". In Italy, until the end of the twentieth century, wood stoves were very actively used in villages. And not only in Italy, by the way. If you, say, have a wood-burning stove in the country, then you have a chance to cook a classic polenta. The only catch is a thick-walled copper boiler. Both wall thickness and material are very important. Copper is the most thermally conductive material used for cookware. It warms up very quickly and cools just as quickly when you remove the dishes from the fire. Well, the thickness of the boiler allows you to use it in extreme heat, at those temperatures at which modern thin copper cookware with alloying simply deforms and changes color. In short, a purely copper old thick-walled boiler is THING !!! But they are no longer being produced. Ours is hereditary. But I do not have a wood stove, so even I can’t show you the recipe for classic polenta, if I have the right boiler. I have not scared you yet, will you continue to read?

Polenta - an old recipe, but not so much from hoary antiquity. Corn came to Europe after the discovery of America, and in warmer countries it seriously replaced other, more whimsical and less productive cereals. In Italy, respectively, polenta replaced the pulse: porridge made from ground spelled, millet, barley and spelled, known since ancient Rome. In short, the cereal has changed, but the cooking recipe has remained. So the preparation technology of polenta is damn for many years, and in our refined conditions of the 21st century it is very difficult to make it in a classic form.

I also tried the classic polenta - exactly once in my life, the father-in-law cooked when my parents came to get acquainted. The name of the father-in-law was Giuseppe Manyago, he was from South Tyrol, whose Italians from the plains call it that: "eaters of polenta." In short, I know the recipe, I can tell it, but I can’t prepare it, because to install a copper dome boiler on a ceramic electric stove is simply impossible! I cook polenta in a cast-iron flat-bottomed cauldron, adapted for electric stoves. Will you be okay?

The main secret of the classic polenta that distinguishes it from the product that has replaced it now is the use of two types of cereals, with different grinding caliber. In Italy, you should take the largest and medium grinding, but, besides the mills there, I have never seen anything like this, so in Germany I make corn grits and corn flour. Using two calibers gives a completely different dish consistency than with uniform flour. But cooking requires a bit more complicated calculations than from one type of flour.

Polenta ingredients are not counted in grams and milliliters, but in volumes. I counted in grams for this recipe, but this is not a traditional approach. It is necessary to explain how this was done normally. You can’t imagine an Italian peasant by a wood stove measuring flour and water using scales and a measuring cup?

The ratio of cereals for classical polenta, our Giuseppe used the following: 1 measure of coarse grinding - 2 measures of fine grinding. And water - 4 times more than corn grits in aggregate. That is, 12 cups of water, 2 cups of fine cornmeal and 1 cup of coarse cornmeal. A cup, a cup, a mug - that’s not important anymore, understand? Historically, there was a large cauldron, and there was some kind of small container, which measured water and cereals.

The water is brought to a boil and salted.

At first, a bowl of large-caliber grits is poured into boiling salted water. Boiled for about 5 minutes.

And after that, 2 cups of cornmeal are poured with a thin stream with very thorough stirring. When they fall into the water, the polenta begins to spit wildly, you can seriously burn yourself. Significantly worse than just boiling water, because it is an adhesive substance. Therefore, somewhere for a moment or two, a polenta boiler makes sense to close the lid.

When you hear that the spitting has stopped, the cover can be removed. Then there are two cooking strategies: on low heat with almost no stirring (a homogeneous polenta is obtained) and on high heat with stirring (it turns out to be dense, with a coarser and more heterogeneous structure). The first one is easier to prepare and more beautiful, the second one is more laborious, but according to our family's ideas, it is tastier.

Today is just the birthday of the senior representative of our branch of the Manyago family, and a festive dinner was held with us, so I prepared exactly their favorite option: time-consuming and scary-looking. In short, what you see with me is not a defect in the preparation, but a special honor for the birthday man. Nobody forbids you to leave the lid closed, turn down the fire to low and simmer the polenta for about half an hour.

For 20 minutes I have to stir the polenta over the high heat from edge to center and in a circle. Those. it turns out that I, in fact, beat it up. Parallel stripes on the walls are traces of the scapula. From top to bottom and to the center, the next movement is a bit to the right, and so on, all the time in a circle. Strong fire allows the formation of layers of denser "skin", which I constantly interfere with the liquid inner layers. Stirring is stopped when the polenta can really be moved away from the boiler wall in this way. It should form in a single tight lump. The fact that it is heterogeneous is considered to be just a special chic. I will cook a uniform liquid polenta in a saucepan.

After thickening, the surface of the polenta is compacted to make it more or less smooth, and the polenta is kept on medium heat for another 5 minutes.

After removing the polenta from the stove, let it cool for 5-10 minutes. It makes sense to pierce its edges with a spatula to the very bottom, so that they are easily separated from the walls. Next to the polenta is pressed a round serving board. By no means a plate! If you want a classic, you need a completely flat wooden surface, there simply aren’t such plates. A little further I will show why.

The boiler with the polenta is turned over, the polenta is planted on a wooden board. I can clearly see that the crust has separated from the bottom of the boiler. So, it will have to be torn off and thrown away, because the boiler is cast-iron and there is a black frying on the crust, and the crust itself is very stiff and slightly bitter. But you can even eat a crust from a copper boiler, it is different. But it is not served with the polenta that is on the board, it is torn off and consumed for breakfast with milk. Well, at least our Giuseppe did that.

Should I bring to a crust? Classical polenta - yes, it should. This gives it a special aroma - along with the smell of smoke from a wood stove.

Now look carefully. This is a serving of classic polenta, but it’s straight condo - it doesn’t happen condo: on a wooden board and with a rope. The rope must either be tied to two sticks, or at its ends there are loops in which you can stick your fingers. A flat wide spoon is also desirable - to shift the layers of polenta on the plates of eaters.

The fact is that the classic polenta is cut not with a knife, but with a thread, and it is cut from bottom to top, and not from top to bottom. The thread is brought under the polenta from below to the thickness of the piece, stretched and stretched upward at both ends. That's why the board is needed, and not the plate: plates always have sides, which interfere with the classical way of slicing.

In general, sorry for such a recipe with the volume of "War and Peace", but the classic polenta with all the bells and whistles is a dish that requires a lot of explanation. Due to gadgets and due to the fact that all utensils for its preparation in modern kitchens are simply not used. For example, I do such polenta only for family holidays. This is a little show. But these are traditions. It is just as interesting for our son to cut polenta with a rope as it was interesting for his father and uncles to do in childhood.

Maybe cook all the same polenta according to the recipe that you have on the package? It is probably simpler.

Polenta is a dish, the name of which many have heard, but probably have tried everything, but not everyone knows about it. Polenta is called crushed grain of corn, as well as a dish of Italian cuisine, in fact, polenta is corn porridge made from crushed grain. It seems to be an ordinary porridge that we all ate in childhood, why did it suddenly become a masterpiece of Italian culinary art? To answer this question, we turn to history. Polenta has been known since the 16th century, when corn was brought to Europe from America, then it became widespread and became the favorite food of peasants. Polenta was prepared soft, hard, cut into pieces, baked or fried, new dishes appeared, based on corn porridge, and gradually the polenta won the hearts of Italian gourmets. Polenta and dishes based on it reached the peak of popularity at the end of the 20th century, going beyond Italy, this dish turned into an exquisite dish, which became the decoration of many restaurant menus.

Polenta in its pure form, that is, you can hardly find corn porridge in a cafe or restaurant now, it is served with meat or mushroom sauces, cheeses and vegetables are added. Polenta is a versatile dish, it is tasty both in cold and in hot form, it can be made sweet or salty, hard or soft, grainy or tender and creamy. Cooking polenta is a long and laborious process, requiring constant stirring during cooking. Some stores offer "instant" polenta, i.e. semi-finished product for the preparation of which will require a minimum of effort and time. But the most delicious and proper polenta will turn out only for those who cook it themselves in a deep copper pan or a cauldron with a rounded bottom, constantly stirring with a wooden spatula with a long handle.

Polenta is a dish truly loved by Italians, because if they hadn’t loved it, they would not have arranged a celebration in his honor. A grand culinary celebration takes place annually in the small town of Sermoneta, where in the morning large copper cauldrons are exposed on the streets, in which delicious polenta is cooked on an open fire. The festival is accompanied by live music, contests, performances and tastings, and all this splendor ends with a hearty dinner right on the central square of the city, where everyone is offered polenta cooked in a huge copper pot according to a recipe favorite by Italians.

Traditionally, the polenta is cooked in a deep copper pot, coarse corn flour is mixed in the water, which looks like fine cereal, and is mixed with a wooden spoon until it is thickened so that it can hold on a spoon, usually this happens after 40-60 minutes from the beginning of cooking. After that, the polenta is laid out in a round tray, cooled, cut into pieces and served to the table. In this form, polenta can be an excellent side dish, if you want to offer it as an independent dish, you will need to take care of sauces and the further method of its preparation. For example, after cooking, polenta can be baked in the oven, after adding cheese and butter, fry in butter, cut with chopsticks or form balls and grill.

There are a lot of ways to cook polenta, as well as ways to serve it, the main thing is to choose or think of your own, then on your table, in addition to the usual rice, pasta and potatoes, a new low-calorie side dish or an independent dish rich in carbohydrates will appear, which means not only saturating, but also giving energy. Separately, it must be said about the beneficial substances contained in polenta. These are minerals such as potassium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus and zinc, as well as B vitamins, vitamins E, beta-carotene and biotin. As you can see, polenta is a great example of delicious and healthy food, which means it is suitable for those who follow their figure and adhere to the principles of healthy eating. But enough words, it's time to cook!

Polenta with vegetable and cheese sauce

Ingredients:
250 grams of corn grits,
1 liter water,
salt,
2 carrots
1 onion head
2 cloves of garlic,
80 gr. butter
50 gr olive oil,
2 tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato paste
ground black pepper,
ground red pepper
5 sprigs of cilantro,
100 g cream cheese
50 gr hard cheese
1 tbsp with a hill of flour
150 ml of milk
sweet ground paprika.

Cooking:
Before you start preparing polenta, make sure that you have dishes with thick walls, ideally copper, but a cast-iron cauldron is also suitable. Pour a liter of water into the cauldron, salt and bring it to a boil. Constantly stirring with a wooden spoon, add corn grits to the water, then reduce the heat and cook the polenta for about 30-40 minutes, stirring constantly. Polenta is ready when it begins to lag behind the walls and becomes viscous. Put the finished polenta on a round tray or cutting board and give it the necessary shape, because the finished polenta is viscous, then it will not be difficult to do this.

Now, while the polenta is cooling, prepare the sauces. Peel and dice the onion, grate the carrots, put the tomatoes in boiling water for a few seconds, remove the skin from them and cut into large cubes, chop the garlic and cilantro. Melt 50 g of butter, add olive oil to it, add the onion, fry it until transparent and add the carrots. Then add the tomatoes, a tablespoon of tomato paste and a tablespoon of water, stew for several minutes, then add the garlic, cilantro, salt and pepper. Melt the remaining butter in a frying pan, add the flour, mix thoroughly and a thin stream, without stopping stirring, pour the milk. When the mass boils, add the cream cheese, grate the hard cheese and add it to the sauce, bring to a boil, add paprika and salt.

Cut the polenta with culinary thread or a pizza knife, put a piece of polenta on a plate, pour cheese sauce, put vegetable sauce and garnish with cilantro.

Ingredients:
4 things. chicken fillet,
2 tbsp olive oil,
450 gr champignons
4 cloves of garlic,
125 ml. dry white wine
450 ml chicken stock
2 tbsp chopped parsley,
freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp. wholemeal corn flour
70 ml of milk
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp fresh marjoram
salt.

Cooking:
Season the chicken with salt and pepper. In a pan, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil, add the fillet and fry it over high heat for 2-3 minutes on each side. Remove the fillet from the pan. Rinse the mushrooms well and cut them into 1 cm slices. Peel the garlic and cut each clove in half. Heat another 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan, add mushrooms, garlic and salt. Cover and simmer until the mushrooms give juice, then remove the lid, increase the heat and fry the mushrooms until golden brown, then pour in the wine and wait for the liquid to evaporate, add the broth and parsley, continue cooking over medium heat for about another 10 minutes. Add the fried chicken fillet to the mushrooms, cover and simmer over low heat until cooked. Cook polenta at this time. In a refractory form with a lid, mix 3 cups of water, cornmeal, salt and pepper. Cover the mold and place for 15 minutes in the oven, preheated to 220 degrees. After 15 minutes, mix and put in the oven again for 15 minutes. Add milk, butter and marjoram to the finished polenta, mix thoroughly, put on a plate, put chicken and mushrooms on top, pour the sauce over it, decorate with parsley and serve.

Ingredients:
300 gr cornmeal
olive oil,
2 stalks of celery,
shallot,
dried oregano
freshly ground black pepper
a mixture of peppers
2 tomatoes
6 pcs cheese for toast,
12 seedless olives
basil leaves
salt.

Cooking:
Pour a liter of water into the cauldron, salt and bring it to a boil. While constantly stirring with a wooden spoon, add the cornmeal to the water, then reduce the heat and cook the polenta for about 20 minutes, stirring constantly. Turn off the heat, cover the cauldron with a lid, wrap with a towel and leave for 30 minutes. Cut celery, peel and finely chop the onions and fry everything in hot oil, add pepper and oregano. Add the resulting mixture to the polenta, cook until the liquid has completely evaporated, then transfer the polenta to a square shape and cool. Cut the cold polenta into 6 square or rectangular pieces. Dip the tomatoes in boiling water for a few seconds, remove the skin and cut into slices. Oil the baking dish, put the polenta on it, put cheese, tomato slices and 2 olives on each piece. Bake the polenta for 15 minutes in the oven, heated to 180 degrees. When serving, garnish with basil.

Polenta is becoming an increasingly popular and beloved dish, it is winning the hearts of people around the world thanks to its neutral taste, which is perfect for meat, mushrooms, fish and vegetables. Salty, sweet, hot, cold, spicy, polenta will be equally tasty in any form, whatever you serve it. It’s worth preparing the polenta at least once to make sure that it is as good as they say about it, or maybe it will be able to exceed all your expectations, because it’s not for nothing that the polenta has become a masterpiece of Italian cuisine!

How to cook polenta? How to file it? How to make a rich snack out of the “poor” porridge? We will consider all these culinary issues in this article.
Recipe Content:

Among the many Italian culinary treasures, the public domain is many dishes: pizza, risotto, pasta, polenta. This is the most resonant “roll call” of Italian dishes. In this famous list, polenta occupies a special place, which has turned from porridge for the poor into a gourmet dish. In gourmet restaurants, the dish is estimated at a considerable amount. However, this dish is both democratic and rich.

Cooking polenta: subtleties and secrets

Polenta - a dish of cornmeal. This is a thick porridge, side dish or a stand-alone dish. It is served alone or with additives: meat, anchovies, fish, seafood, etc. The quality of the polenta depends on the quality of the flour. The dish should be creamy and smooth, because during cooking, starch is completely dissolved. Cheap low-grade flour will not give such a result, and larger particles will not completely dissolve.

To make the polenta soft, you need to use 3 parts of water for 1 part of cornmeal.
Cook the dish over low heat for 40-50 minutes, stirring constantly.
The “historical” technology involves the use of copper utensils for polenta cooking.
The readiness of the porridge is determined when the mass lags behind the walls of the pan. Then it’s time to remove it from the stove.
Cornmeal can be white or yellow. But yellow is more often used.
It is desirable to give preference to coarse flour, then the dish will be more healthy. From fine grinding porridge will come more tender with a creamy texture.
To serve polenta, it is poured into a bowl moistened with cold water. Leave to stand for 10 minutes, after spread on a plate.
The remaining polenta is kept in the refrigerator under plastic wrap for up to 3 days.
If porridge is needed thick for roasting, then it is spread on a baking sheet greased with 1.2 cm thick fat and left to thicken or baked at 175 ° C until it warms up.
Cut a thick polenta with squares with a pizza knife or an ordinary kitchen knife.
Before cutting it is kept for some time in hot water.
To avoid lumps, flour is slowly poured into boiling water, stirring constantly. Another easy way to avoid the formation of lumps is to pour corn flour into cold water, beat quickly, and then bring to a boil.
If the polenta is burnt from below, then it is transferred to another pan without scraping off the burnt bottom and continue to cook. However, it is often stirred.
Lumpy polenta is removed from the stove, kneading lumps, vigorously beat with a mixer.
Soft warm polenta, while eating, can replace bread.

Polenta can be prepared in a variety of ways. But the simplest is in water with salt added. For a more tasty and healthy porridge, use yellow or white flour, and a thick consistency - coarse grinding.

Calorie content per 100 g - 87 kcal.
Servings Per Container - 4
Cooking time - 30 minutes

Ingredients:

Water - 3 L
Corn grits - 1 tbsp.
Salt to taste

Step by step cooking:

Boil salted water in a saucepan.
Pour the corn grits gradually, while stirring constantly.
After boiling again, when bubbles form, reduce heat.
Continue to cook cereals for 30 minutes, stirring constantly. If necessary, add water or pour porridge.
When the mass lags behind the walls of the pan, then the dish is ready.
Place the mass on a tray, shape it and leave to cool.

The original and classic recipe for polenta is very simple. The main thing is to observe the technology and the recipe sequence.

Ingredients:

Yellow cornmeal - 0.5 tbsp.
Drinking water - 1.5 tbsp.
Salt to taste

Step by step cooking:

Boil water in a pan with a thick bottom so that the porridge does not burn.
Pour the cornmeal gradually, stirring it with a wooden spoon.
Salt and stir.
Boil the mixture again, stirring constantly.
Reduce the heat to a minimum and cook for 30 minutes, not forgetting to stir.
When the porridge begins to lag behind the walls, freely separate from the bottom and form a crust on the walls of the pan, which means that it is ready. The consistency of polenta should be homogeneous and creamy.
Put the Italian delicacy on a cutting board, squared and cool.

Polenta (Italian. Polenta) - Italian dish, which is a corn porridge. Despite the sonorous name, the dish is quite simple. In fact, this is the most common steep porridge made from crushed grains of corn or corn flour, an analogue of the mamalyga known to all (Moldavian, Romanian, Caucasian, Western Ukrainian and Cossack national dishes).

Polenta is especially popular in northern Italy, in the Italian part of Switzerland, as well as in!

History reference

Only in the XVI century. corn came to Europe, where it was brought from America by ships.

She quickly took root on European soil and easily gained popularity, becoming an ingredient in many dishes. Ancient Roman porridge “pulse” (Italian: Puls or Pulmentum) is considered to be a prototype of corn polenta. Being a culinary masterpiece of Italian cuisine, polenta was originally a simple meal of Italian peasants and poor. Traditionally, food was prepared in a large copper pot, mixing corn grits with water and stirring the mass over low heat until thickened. Then the composition cooled on a wooden tray, the frozen polenta was cut into strips and dried a little. In this form, it was stored and eaten for several days, pieces of polenta were usually taken with them on the road.

A simple polenta was flavored only with salt and aromatic herbs; instead of cheese, the poor added dry bread crumbs. More prosperous peasants fried strips of polenta in oil, stewed, baked, watered with various sauces.

So a simple peasant corn porridge was the ancestor of many dishes that have become a masterpiece of Italian cooking.

Over time, with the invention of various recipes based on polenta, it began to be served in expensive restaurants, satisfying the needs of the most demanding gourmets.

Today there are a huge number of options for its preparation, for every taste.

It is used as a side dish and as an independent dish with various additives (with meat, cheese, mushrooms, vegetables, anchovies, fruits), fried, baked, etc. There is a hard polenta (this can be bought in stores) and soft. It can also be sweet and served for dessert.

A few words about the benefits and harms

The main component is corn grits (flour), which includes potassium, calcium, sodium, iron, copper, phosphorus, magnesium, manganese, zinc, biotin, fiber, proteins and carbohydrates, as well as vitamins A, B, necessary for the human body. , E, PP and mass. Calories: 100 calories per 100 g.

Classical polenta

Some of the useful features

Regular use of polenta helps reduce bad cholesterol.
Corn is useful for the cardiovascular system: thanks to vitamin C, the walls of blood vessels and the heart muscle are strengthened.
Including a meal of cornmeal in your diet, you can normalize the metabolism, this improves the functioning of all body systems and helps to reduce weight.
Fiber, which is part of polenta, normalizes digestion, actively cleanses the intestines, removing toxins and toxins.
Polenta is extremely beneficial for the skin, since corn contains vitamins A and E, which are necessary for nourishing and moisturizing the skin.
This dish can rightly be called a diet. Polenta is low-calorie, but for a long time gives a feeling of satiety, which contributes to the normalization of body weight (this is very important today).
Phosphorus contained in corn is very beneficial for the brain, improving its activity.
Zinc is known to have antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effects.
The iron included in corn grits is essential for the prevention and treatment of anemia.
Gluten is absent in corn grits, which means that the dish can be considered hypoallergenic, and people with food allergies can safely include polenta in their diet.

As for the harm, the dish is contraindicated for those suffering from a stomach ulcer and for gastritis in the acute stage. And finally, when using polenta, observe the measure, otherwise, excessively carried away, you can provoke constipation.

How to cook at home

For the preparation of polenta, it is desirable to use yellow or white cornmeal. If you want the polenta to have a thicker consistency, choose coarse flour.

Cooking method:

For cooking, you need special dishes with a thick bottom, not aluminum or enameled. The cauldron is great.
Pour 1 liter of water into the cauldron, pour in 1 cup of cereal and put on low heat.
Cook from 40 minutes to an hour, stirring constantly, until the polenta begins to lag behind the walls of the dishes.
Salt the porridge, pepper to taste, mix, cover and remove from heat. Then it is made either soft or hard. While it is hot, it is important to decide which dish you want to get in the end.
It remains to shift the composition to the tray, give it the desired shape and cool.

How to serve?

The prepared polenta can be baked, fried in oil in a pan, grilled, then served as a side dish for meat or fish. The dish goes well with vegetables and all kinds of sauces.

Sweet polenta is an amazing dessert for tea. It can be served with cream, with jams, jam, syrups, etc.

To make soft polenta, add a little milk, herbs and a slice of butter to the pan. Soft p. Will be a wonderful side dish to any main dish, instead of the usual ubiquitous potato.
To make the polenta sufficiently hardened, add grated cheese, butter, and a little wine to the finished corn porridge. Quickly mix the porridge, put on a greased baking sheet, smooth with a spatula and leave for 20-30 minutes. When the dish hardens, turn the baking sheet onto a wooden tray and, until it has completely hardened, cut into necessary pieces.
Pieces of polenta can be fried on the grill, in a pan, baked in the oven and served with various sauces.
Add different spices and seasonings, experiment with taste.
The consistency of porridge can be controlled by changing the proportions of water and flour.
A solid item is cut using a regular sharp knife, a pizza cutter or using a strong thread.
Various sauces are prepared for polenta (bechamel and tomato, cheese, sour cream, mushroom) or just stewed vegetables. With polenta everything will be unusually tasty. Experiment and enjoy!

Curious facts

Delicious breakfast

His recipe was found in the original book of Russian authors “At the table with Niro Wolfe or The Secrets of the Great Detective’s Kitchen”. Niro Wolfe, as you know, is both a great detective and a great gourmet, to be honest, a big glutton, who is the main character in a series of detectives by R. Stout. According to the plot, the famous detective had a personal chef, Fritz Brenner, the best culinary specialist in New York, who, during the course of the story, treats the gourmet hero with all kinds of delights. The authors of The Culinary Detective (S. Sinelnikov, T. Solomonik, I. Lazerson) in their book cite recipes for many dishes mentioned in Stout’s novels.