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.
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Nine
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Hasty pudding is the same way! It's part of the reason I am blaming the stove or at least my still relative inexperience with electric vs. gas: I did stir and it still burned more instantly and catastrophically than any comparably simple dish in my adult cooking life. By the time I moved it to a smaller, cooler burner in hopes of quelling the volcanism, I think it was too late. I do want to try making it again because I like cornmeal-based things, but I may be a lot more paranoid about cooling it down mid-cook.
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It was unnecessarily exciting!
The burgers were terrific, though. Would make repeatedly.
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I'd be too--I cook with gas and would have no idea about how to handle an electric stove, I'd probably use my non-stick pot, just in case! XD I hope it works out, because it sounds delicious!
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Thank you! I never had an electric stove before we moved to this apartment and I must say I deeply prefer fire. I find it much more difficult to adjust the heat rapidly and accurately on an electric range, which is what we think happened here.
(I don't want to say that polenta and mămăligă are the same because I am sure wars have started over less, but I believe them to be very similar.)
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I thought the same when I looked up mămăligă, so no worries here! ;)
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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.
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It has been our experience over the last year that it is not, since we wind up having to open all the windows and sometimes the kitchen door when we cook anything of complexity, which was not the case in the last place. But I take it the induction range is working out for you?
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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.
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Thank you! The grits were much less fumarole. (The mămăligă hit the microwave and the toaster oven, though.)
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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.
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No persistent contamination has been observed in the culinary zone.
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No one was harmed! I got a splash on my hand when it erupted, but I held it under cold water and it hasn't burned, and fortunately we kept chasing out the cats. I have just never had a corn-based anything go full Stromboli on me before.
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I am glad she was all right.
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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.
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I grew up on gas and I have SO MUCH to say abotu trying to adjust to the crappy electric stove in the apt I shared with WD. my current electric stove is much better but all electric stoves have the issue of changing heat levels far less quickly than gas does. I do miss my fire.
ALSO you reminded me of being nine and catastrophically burning Jamaican cornmeal porridge in a similar manner (that being another stirred cornmeal dish) because I forgot to turn down the heat. I had to 1) throw the pot in the sink 2) take a shower 3) put burn cream on my chest 4) come back and clean the stove and kitchen 5) have a good cry. ahahahahah
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We have lived in this apartment for almost a year and it is still difficult for me to cook an array of normal things without extreme care because it seems impossible to fine-tune the heat casually or sometimes at all. It's an interesting experience and I understand it may be the unavoidable and environmental wave of the future, but at the moment it remains a slight but actual barrier between my exhaustion levels and cooking as I have done all my life for fun. And I am still under doctor's orders not to eat anything that isn't home-cooked by me or my family, so, wheee.
I had to 1) throw the pot in the sink 2) take a shower 3) put burn cream on my chest 4) come back and clean the stove and kitchen 5) have a good cry.
No meal should involve burn cream!
*hugs*
(What does one put in or on Jamaican cornmeal porridge?)
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Yeah, AFAIK electric stoves don't have any provisions for cooling from a certain heat setting except for natural cooling down, which makes them far less responsive than a gas stove. I have miniscule energy issues compared to yours and I still do sometimes feel like it's too much trouble to deal with adjusting my cooking to the electric stove. I hear you.
Ah, Jamaican cornmeal porridge. It is seasoned with sweetened condensed milk and often cooked with a cinnamon stick, and sometimes served with cream crackers. I grew up eating corn products in sweet ways for the most part. The first time I met polenta I felt as if someone had put tomato sauce on cornflakes (obviously I did not say so to my host)
Yeah, rereading my account I feel a little sorry for my tiny past self. But I think I would have said, "if I'm going to get hurt at least it was on my own terms and I learned something."
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That sounds delicious. I used to make rice pudding with condensed milk (and sometimes condensed coconut milk). Almosst nothing can be harmed by throwing in a cinnamon stick.
The first time I met polenta I felt as if someone had put tomato sauce on cornflakes (obviously I did not say so to my host)
I grew up with savory corn products in the form of grits, which were always with butter or cheese, but sweet ones in the form of what used to be called Indian pudding. Whether the cornbread in our family is sweet or savory depends on which of my parents is making it and I believe represents an actual regional distinction, in that while my father enjoyed very little of his childhood time in the American South, he seems nonetheless to have picked up several of its foodways. (He has strong opinions about fried chicken and chicken gravy.)
But I think I would have said, "if I'm going to get hurt at least it was on my own terms and I learned something."
Some people get the Salmon of Knowledge, you got corn porridge.