Help with fried polenta...?!


Question: Hi everyone!
I have tried a handful of recipes from the internet. Cooks.com, foodnetwork and a few other sites. NOT one of them gets solid enough to fry properly. They are just a bit too mushy. Any suggestions or tried and true recipes? Thanks a ton!


Answers: Hi everyone!
I have tried a handful of recipes from the internet. Cooks.com, foodnetwork and a few other sites. NOT one of them gets solid enough to fry properly. They are just a bit too mushy. Any suggestions or tried and true recipes? Thanks a ton!

It started out as a cereal/mush.

From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polenta

"Polenta is often cooked in a huge copper pot known in Italian as paiolo. In northern Italy there are many different ways to cook polenta. The most famous Lombard polenta dishes are polenta uncia, polenta concia, polenta e gorgonzola, and missultin e polenta; all are cooked with various cheeses and butter, except the last one, which is cooked with fish from Lake Como. It can also be cooked with porcini mushrooms, rapini, or other vegetables or meats, as in the Venetian poenta e osei, with little birds.

The western polenta is denser, while the eastern one is softer. The variety of cereal used is usually yellow maize, but buckwheat, white maize or mixtures thereof are also used.

Polenta is traditionally a slowly cooked dish, sometimes taking an hour or longer to cook, with constant stirring being necessary. The time- and labor-intensity of traditional preparation methods has led to a profusion of shortcuts such as the instant and precooked polenta which have become popular in Italy and elsewhere. In his book Heat, about his experiences as a line cook in Mario Batali's Italian restaurant Babbo, Bill Buford details the differences in taste between instant polenta and slowly cooked polenta, and describes a method of preparation that takes up to three hours, but does not require constant stirring: "polenta, for most of its cooking, is left unattended.... If you don't have to stir it all the time, you can cook it for hours—what does it matter, as long as you're nearby?"[1] Christopher Kimball describes a method using a microwave oven that reduces cooking time to 12 minutes and requires only a single stirring to prepare 3 1/2 cups of cooked polenta.[2] Kyle Phillips[3]suggests making it in a polenta maker or in a slow cooker.

Fast food polentaCooked polenta can also be shaped into balls, patties, or sticks and fried in oil until it is golden brown and crispy; this variety of polenta is called crostini di polenta or polenta fritta. Similarly, once formed into a shape it can also be grilled using, for example, a brustolina grill."

First use less water in making it or cooking it a little longer.
Second, be sure to let it set in the refrigerator over night in a loaf pan.
Third, slice it rather thick.
Forth, make sure your grease or oil is hot before putting it in the frying pan. You can also use a cooking oil spray instead of oil in a teflon frying pan. You might also try dredging your slices in some dry polenta before putting it in the frying pan to decrease the mushiness.

You gotta make the polenta from scratch and cook it until it pulls away from the sides of the pot. Spread it in a parchment lined jelly roll or similar pan, cool to room temp then refrigerate. Once cooled, cut into diamonds, rounds, whatever and deep fry til golden brown.





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