Corn Meal Polenta Recipe

When Thanksgiving festivities are over, out comes my corn meal recipe for polenta. It seems that polenta just goes so well with Thanksgiving leftovers. There's a post-Thanksgiving cuisine emerging in my house and polenta is part of it.

The basis of polenta is corn meal. This is a down-home, old fashioned recipe for a decidedly current, nouveau way to have corn meal. Find corn meal in the cereal isle in the supermarket. Skip the prepared polenta that comes in the fat plastic tube in produce. You can easily make your own from basic ingredients, and it will taste a lot better.

The polenta this recipe yields is neither runny nor rock solid. In the end, the polenta is poured into a glass pie plate and served by cutting into wedges. The water-to-corn-meal ratio is critical. You'll know you got it right if the polenta is soft but holds the wedge shape when served.

So, here's the recipe. You'll need:

1 small red onion, chopped
1 tablespoon butter
3 cups water
½ cup corn meal
2 chicken bullion cubes
½ teaspoon salt
4 oz. cheddar cheese
1 handful fresh chopped parsley

In a medium pot, sauté the onions in butter until the onions are soft. Add the water, bullion cubes, salt and bring all to a boil. With a wire whisk, add the corn meal while stirring constantly. This prevents the corn meal from lumping. When all the corn meal is in the boiling water, change over to a wooden spoon and stir the mixture well. Turn down the flame to very low but still bubbling, cover the pot, and cook for 30 minutes with occasional stirring. Add the cheddar cheese and stir until it melts. Turn off the flame and add the parsley. Put the cooked mixture into a buttered glass pie plate. Set it out until it firms. Cut in wedges. Serve warm.

If you want to get fancy, here's where you can put something fancy like cooked shrimp, cooked salmon, or even slices of leftover turkey meat on top of the polenta wedge when plated. Add a sauce or pan drippings and they'll start calling your down home cooking 'gourmet.'