Growing up as a kid, Saturday mornings were a time when you not only did chores but you could get a heartier breakfast than you would normally have during the school week. For me, if I stayed by my cousins it meant stew fish with johnny cake/bread and grits, tuna and grit, corned beef and grits or boiled fish with grits…basically something was gona be eaten with grits. I would make a pretty safe bet that this is how many Bahamians have come to know grits.
Grits, or polenta is basically coarsely-grounded corn and Quaker is a brand of grits commonly found in food stores. They usually sell it in white or yellow and you have instant which should cook in 5 minutes and the regular which requires about 20 minutes (at least)to cook. Personally, I prefer the yellow grits because it just has an authentic, “real” taste to it. Some people prefer white grits, which also takes less time to prepare.
I had never heard grits be referred to as polenta. Even during my college culinary years I hadn’t been exposed to the “polenta”. A Bahamian acquaintance brought back to Kansas some yellow grits for me so I was super happy and began to imagine how many Saturdays I would eat grits with a mushroom stir-fry and avocado (because no grits and eggs, or sausage, or bacon). When I showed my Chilean born boss, he said “Oh , polenta!” And I said who?? He said polenta. Thus began my Pinterest adventures to find ways of spicing up this here polenta. I was fascinated at the ways other folk prepared it, namely the fried polenta cakes.
This past weekend after I made a batch of grits, I decided why not try one of these polenta recipes. Here is my final result.
After I cooked the polenta, I immediately poured it into a small aluminum tin bread loaf pan so that it could cool and take shape. I left in the refrigerator until I was ready to cook. The next day, I popped it out the pan and cut into rectangle pieces. I let each side fry a good 5 minutes, although I’m sure that was way more time than it needed. While this was going on, I sauteed some red spinach along with shiitake and button mushrooms in another frying pan. I also had some tomato sauce and a can of tomatoes and green chiles. I threw this into another pan and simmered with some olive, garlic, salt, basil and oregano seasonings until the mushrooms were done.
My cousin inquired as to the taste…It’s grits, what is there not to like?! When I cooked it, I made sure to add some vegan butter and salt to give it a little flavor. The stir-fry and the spicy marinara sauce were a great addition. Shiitake mushrooms are bomb!
I imagine this can be eaten at any time of day, I know I sure enjoyed it for dinner. Polenta/grits is a food that I would recommend for a weekend brunch and pinterest has so many receipes from sweet polenta pancakes to polenta crust pizza.
Vegan 365 