Saturday, January 5, 2013

Puliszka - polenta - 20 min meals


Puliszka is not a Hungarian, it is a Transylvanian Hungarian dish :).
It sneaked into the Transylvanian kitchen from the Romanian kitchen, with adjustments of course.
The Romanian "mămăligă", or puliszka, or polenta, was (is) made of fine corn grits, almost flour, cooked for very long time, dumped onto the table, cut into slices with a thread, and consumed with smoked bacon or sheep cheese (the shepherds were mainly Romanian, or some Székely = a Hungarian group of people living at Transylvania's borders mainly in the Carpathian mountains).

The Hungarian "puliszka" however is made of corn grits, cooked for much shorter time, and consumed as side dish with.... there are sooooooooooo many possibilities you can eat your "puliszka" with :)....
This is one of them... and something I love this puliszka for is the fact that can be served in 15 minutes. Ok, 20 if I count the time it takes to bring the water to boil and add the cheese.

Ingredients (4 modest portions)
3 cups water
1 cup corn grits
1 tsp salt
1-2 tbsp oil
!!!! I had the wrong water vs corn grits and I just noticed the mistake! So please add water MORE and less corn grits or it won't work..

Serving
feta cheese (sheep or cow), or blue cheese, or cottage cheese
sour cream (optional, but sooo good)
spring onion, chopped (optional)

Put the water to boil with the salt and oil. When boils add gradually the corn grits, stirring continuously. Reduce the heat.
You can choose to stir for about 12 minutes, or stir for couple of minutes (~5 min), and then let it cook under a lid for additional 10 min (reduce the heat even more..). Remove the lid, stir well again, and is ready.
When ready serve still hot with cheese, sour cream and sprinkle with freshly cut spring onion..
After adding the cheese you can let it stay a little for the cheese to melt on the puliszka, but add the sour cream (and onions) just before eating. The contrast of hot puliszka, warm cheese and the cold, fresh sour cream is just soo good :D.

Ps. If you don't know whether people like or not onion, just clean the onions and let people decide and have it bit by bite.. :)

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