What do you do with leftover polenta?
 

I am at a loss about what to do with the polenta that is left over. Any ideas?

I bet you could make corn bread out of it. It is cornmeal, after all.

I don't eat polenta very often but decided to google for recipes for leftovers... there are lots of ideas out there. This blog had some fun looking ones. http://suddenlunch.blogspot.ca/2012/...r-polenta.html

My Grandmother made polenta & molded it in a loaf pan.She sliced & fried it for breakfast,served with butter & home made syrup.It's very easily made in a microwave.Don't remember seeing many left overs......maybe because she had 8 children.

I'm with plainpat, and that's the way my grandmother's, mother and I fix it. If any is leftover, I put it in an airtight container and it's breakfast for later in the week, have even frozen it for a couple of weeks. When originally served, it was usually for a supper meal. I believe it's more of a rural meal so many don't know what it is and then haven't a clue what to do with it. My grandfather often ate the leftovers of fried mush, for breakfast, after his morning chores of milking a dozen cows and feeding his livestock.

That is the way my Grandma used it too. Grits for breakfast with extra made to pour into a loaf pan. In those days it was not that hard to purchase coarse ground corn meal or to have your own corn ground. When I was in my teens, my mother frequently complained about the scarcity of decent cornmeal. One grandma gardened, cooked, and preserved food, the other fished, hunted, and sewed. I was fortunate to have spent time with each one, but unfortunately, did not pick up their skills.

Add a little milk and chicken broth to make it soupy when heated and whisked. Add shredded chicken and have the best chicken soup. Temper an egg and add to make it extra rich. This is the chicken soup my kids always wanted when they were sick. I make it from scratch with cornmeal but leftover polenta works great.

You folks are making me hungry. We also put grits and polenta in a loaf pan, chilled it and then dipped in egg and flour and grilled. It was served with butter and syrup.

I think that I must be the only Italian family where my mother never made polenta.

I like cornbread, but when I was a child polenta always made me gag if I ate it. Mom kept making it and telling me to "Try it, you'll like it!" every year, year after year. I haven't made or tried it as an adult---wonder what would happen now?

What do you mean by "temper an egg"?

If you add a raw egg to hot ingredients it will scramble. The egg has to be tempered first to be creamy in the hot mixture.

My mother never used the polenta but did use fine ground "mush". She took the leftovers and added cinnamon and sugar and fried it in butter and then added home made sugar syrup and it was a very delicious breakfast.

Yes, but I still don't know what "tempered" means. My thoughts are that it needs to be at room temperature or warm or something like that. Am I right?

try this site for instructions http://www.wikihow.com/Temper-an-Egg It gives you more than one way to do it.

This is what Grma made,but she made a couple pans full at a time,so probably doubled this amount.You want a hot skillet & some ppl dip slices in flour to crisp them. You can add cooked sausage too,just break up in small pieces while cooking,drain....then add to cornmeal before pouring into a loaf pan.Try with maple syrup.....a great breakfast or breakfast for dinner.

https://derdutchman.wordpress.com/20...cornmeal-mush/

I temper by adding hot mixture to the beaten egg a little at a time then add it to all the hot mixture. I learned how to temper eggs by watching my grandmother cook and in my home ec class in high school. In a gourmet cooking class it was one of the first things we learned. I won a whisk for knowing. Every class a student got a cooking utensil for the best of the day. I won again for knowing about ghee and how to make it. I didn't know it was called ghee. I knew it as preserved butter. I lived next to a Mennonite lady in CA for a few years. She taught me a lot about food and how to stock my pantry.

Thanks Onebyone and misseva too. I knew how to do this since I was a teenager, but never called it tempering. We were just shown how to add the egg to hot stuff the right way, and I didn't think there was a name for the process. Now I know.

Wow! That's a lot of info! I've been seeing a lot of recipes with polenta and I always end up with a little left over. My favorite is to add shredded cheese to it and stir until melted and combined with the cornmeal. I'll have to try frying it. Maybe make it into little patties before it hardens.

I grew up eating "Fried Mush." Its made, as you said, and molded in a loaf pan. Refrigerate overnight then roll slices in flour and fry until crusty, turning just once so it doesn't fall apart. When my dad made it he called it Pan Haus. Its a German version of Palenta with shreaded leftover meat in it. Both kinds were served with butter and syrup. How do you make it in the microwave? Would love the recipe

Just found a recipe online for making one bowlful at a time to eat instead of oatmeal. I'm going to try it now. I remember as a kid I added a little butter and sugar to the hot mush then added milk and ate toast with it. Guess what I'm making for my lunch today!

Here you go.....Pat

http://www.cooks.com/recipe/be8pg8ht...meal-mush.html

Thanks Pat, will try it!

plain pat is right. Fry it crispy and serve with butter & syrup for breakfast.

interesting ....... I've never tried this.

my grandma fried it in bacon grease served with butter and waffle syrup

My favorite way is to slice it about two inches thick, reheat it and ladle a nice hot beef stew over it in a bowl. It is a hearty lunch with a salad in the fall.

This is what I do. Sometimes I make polenta just for this.

We call it fried mush too. Try cooking the cornmeal in the water you have used to boil a ham in and add some of the ham in small pieces. My first in-laws were Pennsylvania Dutch and called that scrapple. Good stuff but sadly only one of my daughters liked it growing up.