polenta question

[herbalwriter]

HEre I am again with a question...ds and I loooove polenta, but the kind I had been using is from de-germed corn. I couldn't find whole grain polenta, but I found whole grain coursely ground cornmeal...is that the same thing? are the ratios of water and grain the same? just curious. :shrug

[fancifulfrog]

Yes it works to replace with cornmeal.

[herbalwriter]

Fancifulfrog, you are my food answer mama. :hug Thank you! :kiss

[ShangriLewis]

I don't think I've ever heard of whole grain polenta. Aren't corn kernals pretty tough?

Here is an exciting article on corn
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/lf_hl_whole_grains_guide/text/0,2677,FOOD_22517_33763,00.html

[herbalwriter]

Thanks Heather - that's a neat article and I can't wait to check out the recipes! :tu I see now that cornmeal and polenta are the same basic thing, and whole grain corn meal is essentially whole grain polenta. I'll have to remember to post and let you all know how it turned out...

[fancifulfrog]

Fried Polenta is the same as the South's Fried Mush. I have had an extensive knowledge of all that since I was a DC. There was a time when all we had for food was gov't food commonidities (sp). We ate fried Polenta (mush) every day three times a day for like a month. Why? They gave us bags and bags of cornmeal. I still get nausea every time I smell it cooking. I'll never be able to eat it again.

[herbalwriter]

Oh man...you poor thing. That must have been awful!

[ShangriLewis]

My grandma was telling me how she saw polenta being cooked on the foodnetwork and she was so appalled. To her polenta is poor man's food and she new if mom was serving it, that they didn't have much else to eat.

[fancifulfrog]

Alton Brown did a show on it for his cooking show Good Eats. If you want to know all the ins and outs go to www.foodnetwork.com (http://www.foodnetwork.com) and look it up there. He is really good about breaking everything down and likely there would be other recipes

[herbalwriter]

I used to love Alton Brown's show when I had cable! He would sure be the one to check with. Thanks for the link!
...and we are totally poor, so it IS a cheap choice! ...tasty, too. :mrgreen

[herbalwriter]

Well, I made it roughly according the Alton's recipe, and it was soooo good! I got it too salty, but that's my fault. Thanks for the link! :tu

[fancifulfrog]

I'm glad it worked out for you. Congratulations. :mrgreen