I may have mentionned, on occasion, that I have awesome friends.  My friend Gabriel made me a New Year’s gift this year – mamaliga, which is Romanian for polenta which is Italian for cornmeal mush.  Gabriel serves it with butter and Bulgarian (sheep’s milk) Feta cheese.  While it is lovely fresh, I like it just as much in subsequent days when I cut it in cubes;

fry it olive oil;

and eat it with more cheese:

Bon Appetite.

Mamaliga:  Mix 1 part cornmeal (preferably coarse) with 2 parts cold water and some salt in a pot.  Gabriel likes a cast iron pot that is wider than it is tall, but all I had was a tallish non-stick pot, both seem to work.  Put the pot on medium high heat and stir just until it starts to bubble.  Turn down the heat so that it simmers.  Stir often as it thickens.  It will start to spout steam out, highly entertaining (why yes, I am easily amused), just keep stirring every minute or so so it doesn’t stick until it has simmered about 40min – it should be nearly solid depending on the coarseness of the cornmeal.  Gabriel usually dumps it on a wooden board to serve it, but my cornmeal was a bit fine, which made a softer mamaliga, so we left it in the pot this time.