Hungarian Recipe Of The Week: Polenta With Curd Cheese And Bacon

  • 8 Jul 2014 9:00 AM
Hungarian Recipe Of The Week: Polenta With Curd Cheese And Bacon
"Polenta is a dish made from boiled cornmeal. The word "polenta" is borrowed from Italian. In Hungary, it is known as puliszka and is usually made of coarse cornmeal. Traditionally, it is prepared with either sweetened milk or goat's milk cottage cheese, bacon or sometimes mushrooms. Here's a light dinner at any time of the year.

Ingredients for about 4 servings:
1 liter water
200 g cornmeal
2 tablespoon margarine
500 g curd cheese or cottage cheese
150 g bacon
2-3 middle sized onions
1 tablespoon oil or fat
salt

Preparation time: 45-50 minutes

Difficulty: ☺

Preparation:

Heat the oven to 220 ºC .

In a medium saucepan, bring 1 liter water to a boil. Add 1 teaspoon of salt. Whisking constantly, slowly add the cornmeal. Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring constantly, for about 10 minutes or until the polenta starts to thicken. Remove from heat.

Clean and chop the onions. Add the oil or fat to a saucepan; add chopped onions, stirring occasionally, until the onion takes on a light brown color, then set aside. Cut the bacon into ½ inch pieces, cook the bacon in a skillet over medium heat until crisp.

Coat a casserole with oil or fat, then spread half of the polenta in it. Spread half of the curd cheese, the crispy bacon and fried onion on it. Top with the rest of the polenta, curd cheese, bacon and onion. Bake for 20 minutes. Serve hot or cold.

Hint:

* Use oven gloves while stirring the polenta, to avoid burns.
* Stir the polenta constantly, to avoid lumps.
* It thickens quickly, so 4 to 5 minutes is enough to call it done.

Source: puszta.com

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