I was reminded last Saturday, through a casual jaunt to Beans & Barley, that I had stepped out of my narrow-minded food boundaries recently. I tried polenta. Polenta is boiled cornmeal that can be seasoned with a variety of ingredients.
Keep in mind, this tube is not nearly as disturbing as the tube of ground beef I saw at Walmart. I know it's just packaging...but it still causes me to shiver a little bit. Even as a memory.
We were having a family dinner about a week back when my mom decided she was going to be adventurous. She sliced open the plastic casing around the polenta tube and sliced rounds about a 1/4" thick. She then browned the polenta rounds in olive oil, deciding it would be a healthier option than butter. Not a single one of us had ever tried polenta before but took the obligatory "okay, I'll try it" piece. I was surprised! I really liked it, as did everyone else at the table! We all went back for seconds and some for thirds. It was a hit. Although, we did decide after a dinner postmortem that we may have had some crispier polenta rounds if butter had been used. Oh, well...there's always next time.
I always see people cook with polenta on the food network and I haven't had the guts to try it yet either. Maybe I will now.
ReplyDeletep.s. I have seen the ground beef in the tube at the grocery store too and it grosses me out.
That sounds interesting... now I kind of want to try it. So what exactly does it taste like?
ReplyDeleteDon't lie, you eat Walmart tubed food all the time. Spam gets expensive as you know.
trish
It's almost like a cornbread. I am thinking of sampling it again soon...
ReplyDelete