This week’s food first is polenta…
I will have to admit that I was quite surprised to find it on the shelves in a conventional supermarket when I was doing my mad dash to find something new to eat this week. I have always considered polenta to be a very specialist interest food, only available from the internet or mildly unethical off-High Street shops. But, there it was, sat there pasta aisle, just to the left of the spaghetti.
Another surprise was its appearance. I always imagined it would look red and meaty, but the package I held in my hands was a spongy bright yellow block, that had the consistency of something that would probably bounce back up to hand height if dropped. It fairly closely resembled the pease pudding I ate a couple of weeks back and was certainly not anything like the important vascular organ associated with childbirth.
Oh, hang on… I’ve just realised that I may have got a bit confused… Polenta, not placenta!
Oops, this is all a bit embarrassing.
What is worse, I have just looked up placenta on Google Images – Oh my God! Why would anyone eat that??
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placentophagy
After a bit of a lie down to recover from what I had just seen on the internet (I was at home, not still at the supermarket), I was ready to eat polenta – Whatever it tasted like, it was sure to be better than eating afterbirth, so I was fairly confident of a pleasant upcoming food experience – Relatively speaking.
Polenta: Facts
- It is made from ground maize.
- It originates from Italy.
- From the information on the packet, it was clear that polenta was a versatile food. It can be fried, grilled, baked, boiled, microwaved and even made into a dessert.
- It is low in fat, low and calories and gluten free.
- It is not to be confused with placenta!
I opted to fry a couple of slices and also grill another – The two quickest listed cooking options
As it was heating, it smelt of sweet potatoes… That is, potatoes that are sweet, not sweet potatoes. Does that make sense? It does in my head.
When cooked, both versions were crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside – A bit like potato waffles. They tasted vegetably… A bit parsnippy. A bit potatoey. The interior texture was not dissimilar to that of cod roe. The addition of some tomato ketchup introduced a welcome tomatoey edge to proceedings. In a few short moments, I appeared to have introduced a number of new adjectives to the culinary world – None of them particularly useful in describing how polenta tastes. In 2041 Delia Smith will turn in her grave. Sorry in advance about that Delia… But, you can seek solace in the fact you got to a hundred years old before passing away. You had a very good innings.
The next time I have fish fingers and baked beans, I will have polenta instead of waffles.
You see, this new food malarkey is expanding my dietary horizons.
Tune in next week for another new food, another poorly described overview of the taste of that new food and a guaranteed placenta-free zone… Hopefully.
Fifty-Two Weeks of Filling My Cheeks 