POLENTA - MAMALIGA 7 cups water 1 cup coarse - or medium-ground corn meal. 3 T butter salt & pepper to taste 1. In a heavy pot, bring 4 cups of water to a rolling boil. In the meantime, keep the rest of the water warm on second burner. With a wooden spoon, start stirring the water until you create a little eddy, into which you will now pour the corn meal slowly but steadily (keep stirring constantly while you are pouring, in order to minimize the formation of lumps.) Creating a good polenta is directly related to the way you perform this step. There isn't really that much more to it. Just lower the heat, and simmer while stirring slowly for 15-20 minutes - if you come across any lumps, you just try to eliminate them by squishing them against the side of the pot with your spoon. If the mixture seems too dry, add some more hot water from your reserve pot. After 15 minutes, taste your concoction (careful, corn meal tends to get very-very hot.) If the grains feel soft, it's about done, so stir in the butter, add salt and pepper to taste, any other herbs and/or spices you like and simmer for 5 more minutes. 2. You're done with the polenta so you may now serve it, and it will make an excellent side to just about any entree. Just get a layer of it on your plate, and then spoon some stew on top. Or beans, be they Spanish style or Egyptian, it doesn't matter. This polenta works best with anything that has a sauce of some sort. 3. You may of course make a great polenta casserole if you choose. In that case, just layer a casserole dish alternating thin layers, of polenta and grated cheese (Cheddar, Gruyere, Swiss, Jarlsberg, etc.) Any good grating cheese will do, follow your instincts. Bake in 375 degree oven until you see the cheese layers melting (about 15 minutes) and serve. Some people will argue that polenta is Italian - as indeed the name of if is. That may even be true, however, I ate in a lot of Italian restaurants but only a few have polenta on any of their menus. On the other hand, I have yet to find a Romanian restaurant that does not have it on their menu. They do not however call it polenta - the name is "Mamaliga." Mamaliga is pretty much the Romanian national dish and when I was growing up in Romania my mother would serve it with cheese, with beef stew, with chicken fricassee or just plain milk with a couple of raisins in it. Whichever way. it always seemed to work so just experiment. I mean add finely chopped herbs like: dill, parsley, basil, cilantro in the last 5 minutes or so of boiling your polenta. Also, crushed garlic, crushed pepper flakes, or finely chopped, jalapeños, chili peppers and so on. With mamaliga, anything goes, and it goes real well. Bon Apetit! T = Tablespoon