My hunger is not mild, but I trainеd it not to kill
Tonight ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rushthatspeaks and I tried to make mămăligă and it failed on a level I have never in a lifetime of grits, cornbread, and hasty puddings experienced: within seconds of thickening, it burned so badly to the bottom of the pot that blackened skins of former porridge were coming up in the stir and then it exploded. Researching after the fact, it looks as though the culprit may have been the electric stove in the sense that since we needed to reduce the heat from a boil to a simmer, we should perhaps just have moved it to a different burner. In the meantime we made a substitute of grits and ate them with a variation on Julia Child's hamburgers—extraordinarily delicious—and an improvised pan sauce. I have since cleaned the stovetop of volcanic activity. We watched the next couple of episodes of One Piece (2023), which I am continuing to enjoy all the more as it is explained to me that the show is successfully compressing hundreds of chapters of manga into an hour at a time of TV, and it occurred to me that Alexander Maniatis, at least with his black hair slicked back and his serious round glasses and his hands weaponed like a cat's claws, could have played Lackadaisy's Mordecai.
rushthatspeaks and I tried to make mămăligă and it failed on a level I have never in a lifetime of grits, cornbread, and hasty puddings experienced: within seconds of thickening, it burned so badly to the bottom of the pot that blackened skins of former porridge were coming up in the stir and then it exploded. Researching after the fact, it looks as though the culprit may have been the electric stove in the sense that since we needed to reduce the heat from a boil to a simmer, we should perhaps just have moved it to a different burner. In the meantime we made a substitute of grits and ate them with a variation on Julia Child's hamburgers—extraordinarily delicious—and an improvised pan sauce. I have since cleaned the stovetop of volcanic activity. We watched the next couple of episodes of One Piece (2023), which I am continuing to enjoy all the more as it is explained to me that the show is successfully compressing hundreds of chapters of manga into an hour at a time of TV, and it occurred to me that Alexander Maniatis, at least with his black hair slicked back and his serious round glasses and his hands weaponed like a cat's claws, could have played Lackadaisy's Mordecai.
no subject
https://www.chefspencil.com/recipe/traditional-romanian-polenta-mamaliga/
My entire previous knowledge of mamaliga was from song lyrics
https://youtu.be/aeJGN9wUn5o?si=6JNiljZdzIxT_7qr
I had no idea there was corn meal involved. I may try this (says the person who used a pile of paper towels cleaning the counter after trying to make rice pudding in a rice cooker yesterday).
I have been cooking on an electric stove for decades. I am grateful not to have any connection to gas in our house. There have been explosions in Lexington (one years ago, one as recently as last year) due to pressure imbalances or something (technical details of gas transmission escape me). Our electric stove decision is whether to switch to induction tops. I have decided no, for the time being, but my son-in-law, who has some training, says I could learn.
no subject
I've had it occasionally from restaurants, as well as having the same song stuck in my head all night. (I had the same problem the one time we ordered a karnatzl from Mamaleh's.) I would love to know how it works out for you. It should have been an uncomplicated recipe, but it very clearly just had too much heat. I am glad your electric stove is treating you well.
no subject
https://lauradi7dw.dreamwidth.org/file/101831.jpg
I used the page I linked above and went with option 1. Except it said to stir for 12 minutes, and in order to follow the "press down with a spoon" instruction, I had to keep stirring for almost 45 minutes, because before that it was too soupy for pressing. There was no temperature setting for the long stirring period. I left it on medium because that was plenty high enough to keep it at the lots of little volcano stage. I was sure that there was a bit in "Bored of the rings" that said "Floop, suggested the swamp," but I can't find it quickly.
It's fine. It's very smooth, not grainy. I had some with cheese, some with tofu, some with milk and molasses and pumpkin pie spice (to make it be like "Indian" pudding). I have fridged the rest and will top it with caramelized onions and mushrooms at suppertime, to get as complete an experience as possible. I am not planning to do it again. If I want grits (I often do), I use Quaker quick grits, which requires less than five minutes of stirring. I do not eat instant grits at all. If I want something like bread, start-to-finish scratch corn bread takes less time than this did.
It was an experience. I am glad to know what it's like. I think for the purpose of not making a mess in the kitchen, the critical instruction was to use a 3L pot (I used a 4 quart copper-bottom Revereware saucepan) for the 4 cups of water. Even at very burbly times, there was no danger of spewing out of the pot.
no subject
I'm glad it was an experience which led to food, and I appreciate the picture! (You should be able to get the HTML to embed a photo in a comment from your image list; it's the same as for a post.) The times I have had mămăligă it has been savory with sour cream, so caramelized onions and mushrooms should have been fine. Thanks for the report! If I succeed in re-trying our recipe, I will let you know if I still like it homemade.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
I am glad she was all right.
no subject