I’m thankful for cornmeal mush. There. I said it. It’s there. I love cornmeal mush. I even ordered it at Bob Evan’s one time. It was great!
Never heard of it? Oh, you don’t know what you’re missing. Cornmeal is available at the grocery store, usually in the baking aisle. It’s most often used for cornbread and as a coating for frying. Hushpuppies are made with cornmeal. Delicious!
We had fried cornmeal mush in our home as long as I can remember. I’m sure it was a hangover from my paternal grandmother.
There is a trick to making good cornmeal. It’s not like oatmeal where the cereal is added directly to a pan of boiling water. If you try that with cornmeal, which I remember doing at least once or twice, you’ll end up with big clumps. No. To make cornmeal boil three cups of water. Combine one cup cornmeal, one teaspoon salt, and one cup COLD water in a small bowl or pan. Slowly pour the mixture into the boiling water while stirring constantly. Allow the cornmeal to return to a boil again while stirring. Remove from heat and eat! (That is if you want to have a bowl of hot cornmeal with sugar or maple syrup. Oh my!)
Pour the extra cornmeal into a covered container and put it in the refrigerator. Allow it to chill overnight.
When I made a batch this week. I added a little too much water so the chilled cornmeal was a little softer than I prefer.
Slice the chilled cornmeal and place in a hot frying pan with butter or cooking spray on low to medium heat. I’ve never tried deep frying it but I’ll bet that would be good too. Allow the cornmeal to fry thoroughly on both sides.
When the cornmeal mush has a nice golden crisp on each side, it’s ready. Put it on a plate with some maple syrup and you are in for an amazing treat!
I think the best fried cornmeal mush I ever had was prepared by my Aunt Olive on the family farm. We were there for deer hunting and very early in the morning she greeted us in the kitchen with fried cornmeal mush and sausage. I’m writing about it fifty years later. That’s how good it was!
A Coffee State of Mind 