[Sca-cooks] OT: Polish food in the UK
Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius
adamantius1 at verizon.net
Thu Jan 4 11:32:57 PST 2007
On Jan 4, 2007, at 1:21 PM, silverr0se at aol.com wrote:
> Well, mamaliga is a favorite of the Rumanian half of my family. My
> great aunt (unfortunately now deceased)was the family champion at
> mamaliga-making. I have been nagging, er, ASKing her daughter to
> share the secret recipe with me.
>
> Renata
Well, until you get it, you can try this one from Paul Kovi's
"Transylvanian Cuisine":
"MAMALIGA OR CORNMEAL MUSH
(Puliszka)
1 quart water
2 cups cornmeal
1 Tbs salt
Boil the water in a pot and add the salt. When the water has reached
a rapid boil, pour in the cornmeal slowly, stirring constantly. Cook
over low heat for 20 minutes.
Remove pot from heat, wrap a dish towel around it, and stir
vigorously for 3 to 4 minutes.
With a wet spatula, scrape the cornmeal away from the sides of the
pot, Continue to cook for another 2 to 3 minutes over low heat. Turn
the pot upside down over a wooden board and remove the cornmeal in
one piece. It will look like a small, round, and flat bread.
Holding the ends of a thin white string in each hand, cut the
cornmeal into slices.
VARIATION
Mamaliga Layered With Sheep Cheese: Grease an oven-proof casserole
(preferably with a thick bottom) with 1 Tbs rendered lard. Then line
it with a layer of mamaliga as prepared above. Fry 3 1/2 ounces diced
bacon until crisp and drain on paper towel. Arrange a payer of bacon
and a layer of crumbled young cottage-type sheep cheese (for a total
of 11 ounces) on top of the cornmeal. Repeat the layers until the
ingredients are used up, making the top layer mamaliga. Bake in a
preheated, moderately hot oven for 10 to 15 minutes.
This cornmeal dish can be served as a meal in itself. In the summer,
however, a molded salad goes very well with the dish*. Cracklings may
be substituted for bacon. In some Transylvanian regions, sour cream
is used to cover each layer; a total of 1 cup sour cream should be
sufficient.
NOTE: Mamaliga, a favorite Rumanian staple, is a light and healthful
dish when served with milk, cottage cheese, stews, or ragouts. Use it
to replace bread and other garnshes with meat dishes."
*NOTE: when Kovi says "molded salad", I'm almost certain lime Jell-O
is not involved ;-).
Hey, sure sounds a lot like polenta to me... there also appear to be
several books by George Lang with various mamaliga recipes.
The funky pumpkin-phyllo pastry referenced in the article is
something for which I believe we published a recipe in my son's
elementary school cookbook several years ago, and got kids to bring
recipes from home; it was one of those situations where the recipe
didn't make it abundantly clear what the end product was supposed to
look like, and I had to edit everything for clarity without
sacrificing any more of the children's and grandma's text than
absolutely necessary. Finally I hit myself in the head and said,
"Oooooooh, this is supposed to be like an unsweetened _strudel_...
okay, I can talk about that..."
Adamantius
"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils mangent de la
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them
eat cake!"
-- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
"Confessions", 1782
"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
-- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry
Holt, 07/29/04
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