Fried Corn Meal Mush

Last week I talked about the pantry staple- rice. This week I want to talk about corn meal. There are so many uses for corn meal, a very useful addition to any pantry. With it you can make corn bread, corn muffins, and corn meal pancakes-my second favorite pancake, my first one being my hubby amazing pancakes. There are wonderful Tamale pies that can be made using cornmeal, it can be used in breading chicken, making polenta, and I'm sure many other wonderful recipes.

My all time favorite Corn Meal recipe is Fried Corn Meal Mush. My mother made us this for special breakfasts, and was one of my favorite treats. It takes a little forethought, because you have to pre-make the mush and chill it in the fridge before frying, but it is well worth the effort. I use the recipe right off the box.

Alber's Fried Corn Meal Mush

3 1/2 c. water, divided
1 tsp. salt
1 1/4 c. corn meal

Combine 2 1/2 c. water and salt in saucepan. Bring to a boil. Mix cornmeal with remaining water (1 cup) in a small bowl. Add cornmeal mixture slowly to the boiling water, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low, cook, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes or until mixture is thickened. Be cautious of hot splattering mush- as long as you are stirring it shouldn't bubble up on you too much.

Now at this point you have Corn Meal Mush (which can be eaten like any hot cereal) to turn it into fried corn meal mush, pour into a cooking spray coated 8 x 4 loaf pan. Refrigerate for about an hour or until set (over night works too).



Remove from pan, cut into 1/2 inch slices. I like mine a little thinner as you can see in the picture, I like mine to be crisper, so the thinner slice works better for that- everyone has their preference so I would try both at first.





Fry in a lightly greased skillet over medium-high heat for 4-5 minutes or until lightly browned on both sides. I like to fry in butter, although watch that the butter doesn't burn if you choose butter, also the thinner pieces that I like are more prone to breaking when flipping, thinner pieces have to be flipped carefully.





I would suggest making a double batch in two loaf pans if you are feeding more than four, or hungry teens- we only made one batch for our family of four, because my children are teens they eat adult size portions, it was just enough, but we could have had more, I will probably make two loaves worth next time.
Serve with syrup. Very yummy!! I hope everyone gives this recipe a try, as well as adds corn meal to the pantry. Have a beautiful weekend!