Millet polenta?

[bunnyjadwiga]

I'm going to try this one (from Granado):

Para hazer escudilla de mijo, o de panizo machado -- To make a dish of millet, or of chopped panic-grass

Take the millet, or chopped panic-grass, clean it of dust, and of any other filth, washing it as one washes semolina, and put it in a vessel of earthenware or of tinned copper with meat broth, and cause it to cook with stuffed intestines in it, or a piece of salted pig�s neck, to give it flavor, and when it shall be cooked, mingle with it grated cheese, and beaten eggs, pepper, cinnamon, and saffron. (You can also cook the said grains with the milk of goats or cows.) And after they shall be cooked with broth, letting them thicken well, they shall be removed from the vessel and shall be left to cool upon a table, or other vessel of wood, or of earthenware, and being quite cold, they shall be cut into slices, and shall be fried with cow�s butter in the frying-pan, and serve them hot with sugar and cinnamon on top.

So, I'll need to:

• Cook the millet with broth
  
• Mix the hot millet with beaten eggs, cheese, pepper, cinnamon & saffron.
  
• Cook a bit more, sufficient to make it thick.
  
• Cool the millet
  
• Cut into slices
  
• Fry slices in butter.
  

I'll let you know how it goes.

Comments

[lady-guenievre.livejournal.com]

I did this one for a feast once, it's tasty.

There's another one in http://www.geocities.com/helewyse/libro.html that uses almond milk instead of eggs, and doesn't include the frying step - I'm using it for my feast in 2 weeks.

[joef-johnm.livejournal.com]

and cause it to cook with stuffed intestines in it, or a piece of salted pig�s neck,

Sounds a lot like Scrapple. According to "Country Scrapple" by William Woys Weaver, page 14, "An example of a millet based scrapple would be Slovenia sara, a mixture of millet, white stock and pork blood baked in the oven in an earthernware vessel. It is cut into pieces when served and is often reheated by frying on a griddle"

[bunnyjadwiga.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure about the scrapple-ness of it, as scrapple seems to ahve blood and/or significant amounts of meat in it, and I don't see that here. But we will see what happens when I try it out this week. :)

Scrapple's a sort of blood-sausage, yes?

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

Scrapple's a more general term than a subset of blood-sausage; it's kind of a "mix the leftover bits of the animal with grain and binders and spices, and let it set up" sausage. Philly and Baltimore area scrapple (the kind I grew up with) had no blood in it (other than incidentally); it was made with leftover meat bits and sometimes organ meats.

[joef-johnm.livejournal.com]

Nope, more like a grain and pork loaf. Weaver posits that the dish originated as a way to use up the broth left from butchering day, cooking any leftover bits of pig and then thickened with a grain product. At least in today's recipes, blood is optional. If it was stuffed in the intestine, instead of having it cooked in it, it might be closer to a sausage.

It's a good book. ISBN is 081170064X. ILL it, its only 160 pages.

I look forward to hearing how your test recipe comes out. I have scrapple making on my list of things, probably about #4 at this point, after a few more sausage projects.

[montuos]

I want some! :9

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

It sounds nummy. Though, in my experience, whole millet cooks up more like a pilaf. I take it the eggs and cheese hold it together?

[bunnyjadwiga.livejournal.com]

I suspect it depends on how much liquid you cook it in, whether you get a pilaf or a sticky porridge; it looks like it's fried hash, more or less. Polenta does look like a fair description, but I've never made fried polenta.