Polenti

Ingredients

• Make a little broth with veal bone
• a small piece of beef
• a pig's foot
• neck of chicken
• feet of chicken
• gizzard of chicken
• one sliced onion
• one clove of garlic
• one bell pepper
• one tomato
• a small piece of celery
• a carrot
• a few dried mushrooms
• butter
• olive oil
• grated Parmesan cheese

Method

1. 1

   Make broth with veal, beef, and chicken parts.

2. 2

   Cook onion, garlic, pepper, tomato, celery, and carrot in oil until soft, then add to broth with mushrooms.

3. 3

   Boil corn meal until done, cool, slice, and fry in butter and olive oil.

4. 4

   Layer fried corn meal with cheese and pour gravy over, then bake briefly.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Bohemian San Francisco (1914) by Clarence E. Edwords, page 52. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

polenti, Spanish tamale, Philadelphia FOOD scrapple and Southern Darkey crack- VARIANTS ling corn bread are but variants of the preparation of corn meal in delectable foods. It is a long step from plain corn meal mush to scrapple, which we consider the highest and best form of prepar- ing this sort of dish, but all the intermediate steps come from a desire to please the taste with a change from simple corn meal. Crackling corn bread is the first step, and here we find that the darkies of the South found good use for the remnants of the pork after lard was tried out at hog-killing time, by mixing the crack- lings with their corn meal and making a pone which they cooked before an open fire on a hoe blade, the first of this being called "cracklin' hoe cake." Good scrapple is one of the finest breakfast dishes that we know during the winter, and when prepared after the recipe given here it precedes all other forms of serving corn meal. To mix it properly one must know the proper values of herbs and condiments, and this recipe is the result of much discriminating study. Mod- esty prevents us giving it more than the name of "scrapple." It is prepared in the following manner, dif- fering from that made in Philadelphia: Take a young pig's head and boil it un- SCRAPPLE til the flesh drops from the bones, in water to which has been added two good-sized onions, quartered, five bruised cloves of garlic, one bay leaf, sweet marjoram, thyme, rosemary, a little sage, salt, and pepper. Separate the meat from the bones and chop fine. Strain off the liquor and boil with corn meal, adding the chopped meat. Put in the corn meal gradually, until it makes a stiifT mush, then cook for half an hour with the meat. Put in shallow pans and let cool. To serve slice about half an inch thick and fry in olive oil or but- ter to a light brown. 91 BOHEMIAN As originally prepared the tamale was made for conveyance, hence the wrappings of corn husk. This is a Spanish dish, having been brought SOML ^Q ^j^jg country by the early Spanish rOOU explorers, and adopted by the Indian VARIANTS tribes with whom they came in con- tact. In the genuine tamale the in- terior is the sauce and meat that goes with the corn meal which is alternately laid with the husks, and when made the ends are tied with fine husk. For meat, chicken, pork, and veal are considered the best. There is also a sweet tamale, made with raisins or preserves. The following recipe for tamales was given us by Luna: TAMALES Boil one chicken until the meat comes from the bones. Chop the meat fine and moisten it with the liquor in which it was boiled. Boil six large chili peppers in a little water until cooked so they can be strained through a fine strainer, and add to this the chopped chicken, with salt to taste and a little chopped parsley. Take corn meal and work into it a lump of butter the size of an egg, adding boiling water and working constantly until it makes a paste the consistency of biscuit dough. Have ready a pile of the soft inner husks of green corn and on each husk spread a lump of dough, the size of a walnut, into a flat cake covering the husk. In the center of the dough put a teaspoonful of the chopped meat with minced olive. On a large husk put several tablespoonfuls of chopped meat with olives. Roll this together and lay on them other husks until tlie tamale is of the size de- sired. Tie the ends together with strips of fine husk and put in boiling: water for twenty minutes. Either veal or pork may be used instead of chicken. Polenti, properly prepared, is a dish that requires much labor, and scarcely repays for the time and ex- ertion spent in its making. It differs from scrapple in that the ingredients are mixed in a sauce and poured over the musli instead of being mixed in the meal. In the New Buon Gusto restaurant, in Broadway, they cook polenti to perfection, and when it is served with cippino it leaves nothing to be desired. This is the recipe: 98 SAN FRANCISCO For the gravy: Make a little broth with veal bone, a small piece of beef, a pig's foot, neck, feet and gizzard of chicken. In a separate kettle cook in hot oil one sliced onion, one clove of garlic, a little POLENT' parsley, one bell pepper, one tomato, a small piece of celery, and a carrot. Cook until soft and then add this to the broth with a few dried mushrooms. Cook slowly for thirty minutes and then strain. For the mush: Boil corn meal until it is thoroughly done and then cool it until it can be cut in slices for frying. Mix butter and olive oil and heat in a frying pan and into this put the slices of corn meal, frying to a light brown. Place the fried corn meal in a platter in layers, sprinkling each with grated Parmesan cheese

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.