Every time I am sick I have to eat mămăligă (or polenta) or I will not feel better. It is the perfect combination of soft food that is easy to digest and a taste that can only be explained as perfection.
I love to cook so I am unsure of why I haven’t learned to cook it yet. My father is more flabbergasted because he knows that I can prepare more difficult dishes. He makes explaining so easy but I am still unable to make it. Mainly because I feel that if I screw up making my favorite dish I will feel an uncurable sadness.
Don’t feel tricked by my father, he also explains step by step his famous rice recipe that I couldn’t recreate yet. So he is not the most reliable narrator. But if you feel brave enough to conquer the famous Romanian dish here are the steps:
Romanian polenta ingredients:
A very good pot
1 cup of cornmeal
4 cups of water
A teaspoon of salt
Romanian polenta
Mix with a whisk the water and cornmeal. Don’t stop or it will be lumpy and we don’t want that.
After you start to see bubbles, you switch to a wooden spoon and continue to stir for about 5-10 minutes.
You take the pot and immediately place the polenta onto a plate. (Don’t scoop, let it fall).
You see, it doesn’t take a lot of ingredients or steps.
The best trick is to hide cheese in it to eat it later.
But if you do not want to be a pirate, you can grate the cheese directly onto it and add a splash of sour cream. That’s the traditional way of eating.
Or my mother puts the polenta in milk and eats it.
You can eat polenta alone (with cheese and sour cream) or it can be a dish for a spicy chicken or sarmale.
But there is another way of eating it. It’s a bit more complicated and if you are ever in Transylvania or Bucovina find a place that sells bulz because they make the tastiest upgraded polenta.
It is basically baked polenta (after you have done it, you bake it with the following ingredients: cheese, sour cream, eggs, sausage, or ham. Some of these ingredients may not be featured).
I choose to eat bulz when I am a bit hungrier (but still sick).
The first time I ate bulz I was in Bukovina, in the beautiful Campulung Moldovenesc. There is a little cabin from where you can see the whole town. A man started to make us his special dish in a cauldron where he put the polenta and traditional cheeses.
I was in heaven.
After that I tried many other restaurants, some lived up to my experience but some just put an egg on the it and called it a day. If you want to eat bulz in Romania look at the picture before.
Usually, in Bukovina and Transylvania you will find a more traditional (and closer) rendition of what it is supposed to look and taste like.
Why you should eat polenta?
After all, why should you try it?
It is a great substitute if you are looking for gluten-free dishes. Not only that, but it is a great source of fiber and protein with just a bit of vitamin A to help your lungs or heart.
Furthermore, it is low calorie but still packed with some essential minerals and carotenoids which are believed to diminish the chances of eye diseases and cancers.
But if these benefits did not convince you, then I am sure that the taste will.
