Polenta - Is this the most disgusting food item in the world??

[VanillaPumpkin]

I have just cooked a meal involving 'Polenta squares'. It is the most revolting thing I have ever tasted and the texture. Yuk.
So does it have any redeeming features or should I bin the bag of it I bought?
I read somewhere it can be used in cakes. Really? Anyone had any success with using it in baking.
I am quite shocked as I like nearly everything but I am having to cook pasta as I type as I can't expect any of my family to eat it.

I think I will try a cake. The texture lends itself to that I think....
I boiled water in a pan, slowly added polenta (in a steady stream) stirring and carried on stirring for two mins (volcano effect at this time so I took it off the heat. Added butter and parmasan and stirred until butter melted. Then put in cake tin and left to cool. then cut up slices and fried in frying pan and olive oil. Revolting!

IME it either needs to be fried or to have a lot of parmesan stirred into it.
Jamie Oliver has a lovely recipe for orange and polenta biscuits in (I think) the second Naked Chef book.

it was a staple of my childhood it is my comfort food
I like it warm with milk and butter
or cooled fried or baked
and in lots of yummy ways

to be fair I very rarely eat it out of the house, far too many disappointments

Polenta is fab providing it is cooked properly

Unfortunately I have not learned how to do the cooking part of it. Although I have mastered the eating bit.

I am bemused as to why cooking it should be so hard though .

It's vile stuff imho - but nice in cakes. And cornbread is lovely - can you use it to make that?

DH is eating it . He has smothered it in honey .
Perhaps I will try a cake.

! You did the right things, I wonder what when wrong. I probably wouldn't have left it to cool, I'd have eaten it piping hot and with other melted cheese (I recommend melted gorgonzola). What I usually do with cooled down left overs of polenta is: cut into thin slices, fry them til very crunchy, fry eggs on top. Mind you, I never really make polenta nowadays !

when???? went

I have made an amazing raspberry polenta cake using frozen raspberries - it's magnificent - from a Sainsburys or good food recipe I think, I'll try to find it...

Ooh yes please link if you find it. I love raspberries.

We love Polenta here!!

ds1 eats lashings of it!

You do need to cook it properly though and put gorgonzola in the middle til it melts and goes oozy and it needs to be served with a good rich beef stew!!

not the actual recipe I used, no link that I can find to that, but this looks very very similar

I use polenta,paprika/chilli and grated parmesan (mixed together) to coat slices of chicken (dunked in egg white) and then shallow fry them. This gives fab chicken dippers for the kids (and I love them too). Omit the paprika/chilli for a less spicy taste.

okra obviously wins any revolting competition

polenta is great if used ground for cakes/shortbread. We use it alot where i work.

Its not so good in savory items.

I did a meal with polenta once - we gave up half way through and called out for a pizza.

In our house it is the yardstick by which we measure how bad a meal is e.g. "It's not great but not as bad as the polenta..."

i love polenta.

okra is feckin slimy gooand takestheprize along with oysters(nose blow)

okra is way worse.

Ooohh that Nigel Slater cake looks delish. I might even use it for frying as suggested. At least I don't have to bin it. I will never never be making it up into 'solid' stuff again though, yuk yuk yuk.
I have never had Okra though. I have also thought of something worse. That South African dried meat Biltong??. I have some of that and had to spit it out . I was able to swallow the polenta. Certainly an aquired taste there.

Okra is gorgeous if you deep fry it (dunk in some flour + spices first) and it goes all crispy and fabulous! I couldn't eat it otherwise!

Maybe go on line and check out Antonia Carluccio's recipe for mashed buttery polenta. I watched him make it a couple of years ago and it looked mouth watering but perhaps a traditional Italian recipe is the best for making it well? It also would accompany something with full flavours as it's quite bland.

that's Antonio/not Antonia!

VanillaPumpkin DH makes a lovely lemon polenta cake.

It's just cornmeal so use it in any recipe calling for that or corn flour

I want to try the stuff as a savoury product but I keep wimping out

Yep it's Godessblossom's Nigel Slater one. It is scrummy