Corn Meal Mush


Below is the recipe for corn meal mush straight from the community cookbook. My practical advice…. the recipe calls for way too much water. Though the mush did firm up in the refrigerator overnight, it was the texture of soft tofu. It did hold together while frying (very gingerly turning it), but took a long time to brown because all the water in it basically had to evaporate first. Also, I fried the slices in olive oil… I’m sure frying it in a pan fresh with bacon grease would make it that much yummier. 

And though the recipe intimates that it should be eaten for breakfast (with scrambled eggs, bacon and syrup!!), I made it for dinner with another recipe I tested from the book… spinach gravy. In the photo, you’ll see slices of the corn meal mush topped with the spinach gravy. More on “gravies” in another post, but I’ve included the recipe for that, too.

This made a great vegetarian supper (my 3 year old wouldn't eat the spinach, but ate the fried mush with ketchup!!) or be delicious served with roast chicken. 


Corn Meal Mush
Provided courtesy McLennan-Hill Chapter of the Czech Heritage Society and Westfest
From the cookbook Czech Reflections: Recipes, Memories and History
Published by The McLennan-Hill Chapter of the Czech Heritage Society, 1994

Mix 1 cup cold water with 1 cup corn meal. Stir in 3 cups boiling water, 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring constantly until mixture boils. Pack corn meal mush into greased bread pan and cover. Chill until firm. Slice ½ inch thick. Brown on each side in skillet. (For crispness, first dip slices in flour.) Serve hot with syrup or jelly, to accompany bacon, ham, sausage, etc.

Spinach Gravy
Mrs. Stasie Jaska Janek
From the cookbook Czech Reflections: Recipes, Memories and History
Published by The McLennan-Hill Chapter of the Czech Heritage Society, 1994

3 cups spinach
3 cups water from [cooking] spinach
½ cup flour
6 tablespoons shortening or butter
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1 egg
½ clove garlic

Cook spinach in water. [Drain and chop fine.] Brown flour in shortening. Add spinach water and chopped spinach to browned flour. Add salt and pepper [and garlic] to taste. Beat egg and add to mixture, stirring until egg in cooked.

My practical advice… after browning the flour in the butter, add the cooking water by itself first. You want to mix the roux and the water together smoothly, using a whisk if you need to, to make sure there are no lumps before adding the chopped spinach. This dish is almost identical to what I grew up eating, but called "creamed spinach" because my grandmother added milk to hers instead of water. However it was much thicker and served as a side dish, not a "gravy."

Readers - I'd love comments about corn meal mush if you have a memory of it, served as above or in some other way. I'd also like to know if you are familiar with the spinach gravy. Why is it called gravy? What was it served over? Boiled potatoes? Meat? Toasted bread? Fried eggs? 

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