The Gritty,Wonderful Truth About Cornmeal

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Start the chicken first, or cook it the day before and reheat it when the polenta is almost ready.

CHICKEN

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of coarsely chopped onion
1 cut-up chicken (or rabbit)
1 to 2 cups of chicken broth
1 teaspoon of salt pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon of powdered thyme
1/8 teaspoon of dried sage
1 tablespoon of chopped parsley
1 teaspoon of sweet basil
2 tablespoons of chopped celery leaves pinch of allspice pinch of powdered clove
1/2 cup of white wine
1 to 2 tablespoons of tomato paste

Heat the oil and butter together in a heavy skillet, then fry the onion bits until they're golden. Remove the bits and save them. Next, fry the unfloured pieces of chicken in the onion-flavored oil and butter while you dump the cooked onion bits into a small saucepan and simmer them in a cup or two of chicken broth. As the chicken begins to brown, sprinkle all of the spices into the frying pan. (if you don't have some of the herbs, don't worry ... just use the ones you do have.) Now add the wine to the frying pan and let it boil until it almost disappears. While the wine is "reducing", strain the onion pieces out of the chicken broth and discard them ... then stir a tablespoon or two of tomato paste into the broth and pour the resulting red liquid into the frying pan with the chicken. Cover loosely and simmer very gently until the chicken is tender and the sauce has thickened a bit. Serve over sliced polenta.

POLENTA

4 cups of water
1 -1 /2 teaspoons of salt
1-1/2 cups of cornmeal (coarse is best)

Bring three cups of water containing the salt to a rolling boil in a deep, heavy pan. Stir the cornmeal into the remaining cup of cold water, and pour this mixture into the boiling liquid (stirring all the while with a stout wooden spoon). Now lower the heat a bit and continue to cook the polenta for about 45 minutes. You don't need to stir the mushy mixture continuously ... but do give it a good swipe every time you pass the stove. (Since it tends to cook from the bottom up, the cornmeal must be scraped from the bottom of the pan every now and then to prevent it from sticking or scorching, and to aid the thickening of the pan's whole contents.)

By the time the polenta is almost done, it will have formed a "crust" on the bottom that resists your efforts to stir it (this is normal). When the polenta is too thick to stir and smells like bread, it's time to dump the whole thing onto a flat cutting board or wide platter and smooth it into a shallow loaf. (if you've got heatproof hands, you may want to shape the mass with clean fingers and palms. Otherwise—like me—you'll have to use a spatula or the back of a wooden spoon.)

If you want to slice your polenta in the true Italian way, find a piece of strong white thread or light fish line about 18 inches long (see illustration). Hold the thread by its ends and slip it a little ways under the polenta loaf ... then—holding the ends taut—pull the thread up through the polenta. (The loaf is so tender that your thread will slice it beautifully.) Repeat to obtain as many slices as desired.

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