Maybe I said it already; maybe I didn't. Trader Joe's had organic polenta by the tube. Being to the best of my ability a non-GMO person, I was thrilled to see this. (To receive the organic label in the US, you can't use GMOs.) But I had no idea what to do with polenta. However, being a big hushpuppy fan, I thought I'd like to try the very similar hoecakes and went looking for a recipe. Turned out that if you follow the directions on the package (slice the polenta, fry in a pan), you've pretty much got hoecakes. Tried it, liked it. But still...
The problem with using pre-prepared polenta is that it isn't exactly busting out with flavor. I tried adding salt, pepper and hot sauce, but most of that wound up sticking to the allegedly nonstick pan. So I wound up with pleasant, but boring, fried cornmeal mush. I still liked it, though.
This time, I bought yellow corn meal grits. This brand isn't labeled "also known as polenta," but some are. At the moment I'm cooking 1/2 a cup of red split lentils (well it started as 1/2 a cup) for added protein. Later I'll do a cup of yellow grits. What I was missing in fried polenta according to a convincing blog post I found is baking it in the oven before frying. So I'll try that, too. And I'll mix in a sauteed vidalia and a teaspoon of Trader Joe's crushed garlic and probably a great deal too much Tabasco sauce. I've already added cloves and cumin to the lentils because I'm a hippie.
This time, if a lot of the hoecake sticks to the pan, at least there will still be flavor inside, I hope. Anyway, we return to: How bad could it be? If all your ingredients are good, your fiascoes are likely to be minimal. Or at least interesting. This is only my second time trying to cook with my new castiron skillet. My egg this morning leads me to expect that a LOT of hoecake will be on the pan when I'm done. But hope is the thing with feathers, so let's get flying!
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