Mamaliga, as you know, is the name given to traditional Georgian thick corn porridge. By the way, in some regions of Georgia it is still used as bread. Initially, hominy was prepared from Italian millet (millet). This dish is eaten and prepared with pleasure in other countries, for example, in Romania and Moldova. The very name of porridge comes from their language, but Georgians call mamalyga - gomi.
Mamalyga is an inexpensive, healthy and easy-to-prepare dish. You can add dishes such as lobio or Georgian chicken liver to the mamaliga. In this case, you will also receive an inexpensive but very tasty menu.
Many years ago, Georgians cooked millet mamaligu. However, they used an unusual millet, but an Italian one. And then corn replaced it. In the 1940s, not only millet, but also corn began to be sown in Georgia.
In Russia, mamalyga was made from millet until corn flour became available for free sale. It is worth noting that it does not taste the same as in Georgia.
If you prefer millet hominy, it is better to immediately fry it with cheese.
Ingredients:
Georgians cook mamaliga from white corn grits according to the recipe. It has a slightly different taste than the regular one. For example, we take 5 glasses of corn grits (that’s 650 grams, that’s enough for about 5-6 servings) and 17 glasses of water. Depending on the grain and fire, you may need more water. Initially, use the rule: less water is better than more. After all, when the cereal boils, you can add water to it if necessary. But if there is too much water, you will have to evaporate it for a long time.
Information for lovers of salty foods: after cooking, hominy should not be eaten salted. You can only slightly salt the water at the very beginning of cooking. Many people prefer not to add salt at all. After all, the cheese in this dish should be salty.
So, we poured water over the cereal and put it on low heat. Cook the porridge over low heat until the water boils away. Try mamalyga; if the cereal is boiled, then the porridge is ready. Everything is very simple!
The cooking time for this dish according to the recipe will depend on the intensity of the fire, the size of the cereal and the quality of the cereal. In this regard, the cooking time varies from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours. In the above proportions, the porridge is cooked for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
You can choose the thickness of the porridge depending on your preferences. But remember that hominy should not be liquid. It should not flow, like, for example, rice milk porridge. When laying hominy on plates, it should form a non-spreading mound.
After boiling, the hominy must be stirred, otherwise there is a risk of lumps forming. And during further cooking, the upper layers of the porridge will not receive enough heat compared to the lower ones.
To make it easier to mix hominy, it is better to use a wooden spatula called chogani. In general, you can use any spatula, which one you have at home. The main condition: it should not be too thin, otherwise it may break.
There is an opinion that this porridge needs to be supplemented with corn flour, or if it is not available, then semolina. Let's figure it out. The purpose of adding flour is to thicken the mixture. This is necessary if you purchased large grains. However, the factory-made cereal that you find on store shelves is usually small, so you don’t need to add flour, the porridge will already be thick.
After cooking the porridge, you can make another dish - corn crunches. This is also a simple, uncomplicated, but very tasty dish.
After you put the finished porridge on plates, there is still a lot of hominy left on the walls of the pan. Place this pan on low heat. The porridge on the walls will dry out, fry and turn into crispy tasty crust. Your crunchies are ready! They easily break off from the walls of the pan. Children love these crunches very much.
As we have already said, hominy should be placed in a heap on a plate. We insert pieces of cheese into the slide - suluguni or imeruli. Mamalyga is applied with a chogani spatula. To prevent the porridge from sticking to the spatula, the chogani should be periodically moistened in cold water.
There is no need to cook hominy for several days. Everything prepared according to the recipe should be eaten immediately. Do not store hominy in a pan. And if there is any left, fry it. Mamalyga is served and eat while it's hot.
Factory-made suluguni, although it is a poor copy of real suluguni, is still suitable for us to add to porridge. You can use feta cheese, Adyghe cheese and other types of cheese. The main condition is that the cheese melts and is salty. Many people believe that Western European cheeses do not go well with hominy. By the way, try adding salted cottage cheese or cottage cheese with mint and adjika to the mamalyga.
As we have already mentioned, in some regions of Georgia, mamaliga is used as a substitute for bread. In this regard, it is eaten with almost all dishes.
Porridge goes well with lobio or fried pork. The gravy for the porridge can be tkemali, tomato satsebeli, for example, made from the right tomato paste, and adjika with sour cream.
You can come up with nothing and eat this porridge without anything. If you have any left, fry the porridge with cheese and eggs.
Usually the porridge is fried in a frying pan with cheese. For some, this is the preferred cooking method.
If you have recently returned from Georgia, then you retain the best memories of the national cuisine. To experience the pleasure again, let's cook folk cuisine at home.
Let's start with hominy! It is on the menu of many local restaurants. It is prepared in every Georgian home.
Since ancient times, people have been growing corn, which does not require special conditions, produces good yields, and is easy to process. And most importantly, when prepared in a certain way, its grains saturate well and at the same time have a beneficial effect on the human body. The healing properties of the cereal have been known for a long time; it is no coincidence that it is also used for medicinal purposes.
Accessible and inexpensive corn today is no longer perceived only as food for the poor. Dishes made from it are very tasty and popular, so they are also included in restaurant menus.
The most famous dish made from corn is porridge. In Italy it is called polenta, for Georgians it is gomi, in Moldova and Romania it is mamaliga. The latter name became the generic name of the product.
Each nation has its own cooking recipes. But the main feature does not depend on the recipe and the country where it was created. The porridge must be very thick - this is a culinary law for homosexuals!
Georgian porridge is a substantial dish. Its preparation is not hasty or careless. But all efforts are fully rewarded!
To prepare gomi you will need a minimum of ingredients. It is based on corn products.
In the western regions of Georgia, where gomi is a traditional dish, they say that it is better to cook porridge from white corn, but you can also use flour from the usual yellow grains.
Crushed or ground corn should be thoroughly cooked, soft and tender. Therefore, the food is cooked over low heat. It is also important to use the “correct” dishes, in which the contents will warm up well, but will not burn.
A cauldron is best suited for this. Its advantages include thick walls and a semicircular bottom, which allows the contents to heat up evenly not only at the bottom, but also at the walls of the dish.
TIP: during the cooking process, the contents of the cauldron must be constantly stirred. This is done with a large wooden spatula (or shallow spoon) on a long handle, which should be prepared in advance.
Ingredients
The required quantity of products is determined based on the volume of the cauldron. For a pot with a capacity of 1.5 liters (12 glasses of water) you will need:
It is not customary for Georgians to salt mamalyga. Porridge acquires its taste due to special additives that are used when serving it.
It’s not difficult to cook delicious gomi if you use the usual method for Georgian cooks and compare your actions with photos.
TIP: after boiling, throughout the entire process of cooking hominy, the contents of the pot must be constantly stirred vigorously, preventing it from burning or thickening on the walls of the cookware.
TIP: hominy can be prepared without cereal, using only cornmeal. In this case, all the flour is poured into the cauldron at once, without dividing into parts. This will ensure the same degree of readiness of the main ingredient of the dish.
To enjoy the taste of mamaliga in Georgian style, it must be served correctly. Numerous photos will suggest the best presentation option.
In Georgia, it is customary to eat mamalyga with cheese. Add sliced suluguni to the portion laid out on a plate. You can use regular or smoked cheese. Some housewives place them vertically. But it’s better to place them horizontally in a plate, trying to push it into the middle of the hominy so that it melts. The amount of cheese is determined by taste: from 2 to 4 pieces of suluguni.
You can also mash some of it (or grate it) and mix it with pepper or chopped herbs. Then a small ball is formed from the resulting mixture and placed in the center of the plate.
Do you want to please your family and guests by hosting a feast in Georgian style? Be sure to include hominy on the menu! Offer gomi instead of bread for meat, fish, and sauces. And be sure to tell us that low-calorie hominy manages to slow down the aging process, lower cholesterol levels, and have a beneficial effect on cardiovascular activity.
Bon appetit!
Corn porridge with cheese, the recipe for which we present today, is very easy to prepare in pots using the oven. If you used flour instead of corn grits, the dish would be called gomi, polenta, hominy, etc. It is prepared differently in different countries. It turns out delicious if you make a dish with various ingredients - hearty, savory cheese, sweet vegetables and spices. In one of the recipes, piquant-tasting suluguni and sweet pepper are used as ingredients, and rosemary is added for flavor. In the other we use pumpkin, and both recipes are good and mega-healthy at any time of the year.
Thick, unleavened porridge made from corn grits (flour) is served with most meat dishes in Georgian cuisine. Let's just cook this hearty, delicious Georgian porridge with cheese and eat it with pleasure.
Here is another recipe for Georgian cuisine, a simple dish.
That's all, the aromatic corn porridge with cheese according to the proposed recipe is ready. Bon appetit!
It is not for nothing that corn porridge is recommended to be included in the diet of young children, the elderly and those who want to lose weight. This porridge is loved in many countries: Russia, Moldova, Ukraine, etc. Young housewives rarely began to cook porridge with pumpkin, apparently their parents did not inherit the recipes for porridge with pumpkin, because they are so healthy.
Corn porridge for breakfast is especially good. It is very often prepared with the addition of pumpkin, as this combination is not only magnificent and pleasing to the eye, but also very healthy.
And thanks to such gentle preparation, the maximum of nutrients will still be preserved. You can serve with butter - porridge with butter is even tastier. And also don’t forget about vanillin, it gives a stunning dessert aroma. Here is today’s collection of recipes for corn porridge - with cheese and pumpkin - choose any one!
Today I will talk about my favorite dish, which is a decoration for any table, be it a holiday or just an everyday family lunch.If you want to learn how to cook Gomi, + also learn how to choose the right corn flour - welcome to the cat.
Gomi- the dish is simple in composition, all you need: high quality corn flour
And coarsely ground corn grits a + cold water.
I cook gomi in a cast iron pot like this (and I recommend it to you - since this is the most suitable utensil for these purposes).
If the flour has passed such a test control, then we can safely buy coarsely ground corn grits from the same seller (usually sold together in separate piles).
My recipe Gomi designed for this boiler (see photo above, capacity about 3 liters)
1 kg - coarse corn grits
1.5 kg - corn flour (with reserve)
We start by rinsing the corn grits very well. We place the prepared grits on the bottom of the cast iron pot.
Pour cold water to 2/3 of the height of the boiler. Cover with a lid and set to cook over medium heat. Boil the cereal well - time from 40 minutes to 1 hour.
When the cereal is well cooked, it remains liquid. Now it’s the turn of the flour. Add it in portions (one glass at a time). This must be done quickly, stirring it intensively.
To cook gomi, they use a special wooden spatula...
It will take less flour than cereal. I can’t say exactly how many glasses of flour you will need in your case, everyone should be able to determine the thickness of the flour themselves.
The main thing is not to pour it right away:.let the flour boil for 15-20 minutes...Then add it again.Cook - stir and add more if necessary.
The difficulty of cooking gomi lies in only one thing - you need to exert physical force and constantly stir (your hands get very tired from unaccustomed use, but with experience you no longer notice this).
So, how to determine readiness?
1. Stick a wooden spatula into the gomi, it should not fall, it remains in the same position.
2. A crispy crust will form along the edge of the cauldron (see photo)
Gomi is traditionally laid out on portioned plates, with 2-3 pieces of cheese for each serving.
The cheese melts wonderfully in the hot “porridge” and we end up with such a viscous piece
What is hominy and how can it be prepared? This dish is traditional in Georgia and is a very thick corn porridge. It is still used instead of bread in the western regions of Georgia. Initially, hominy was prepared from millet – Italian millet. A similar corn dish is extremely popular and loved among Moldovans and Romanians. In addition to the fact that hominy is extremely tasty and original, it is quite healthy, so it’s worth learning the step-by-step recipe for its preparation.
This dish can be considered unique, since salt, flour, cornmeal or grits, pork fat, and water are used to prepare it. When Georgian mamalyga is ready, it can be eaten like bread or porridge. Many women who live in Georgia have been making this delicacy for a long time. It is important to note that mamalyga goes well with cottage cheese, cheese, a variety of syrups and sauces. There are many ways to serve corn delicacy, each of which can surprise you with a new and very original taste.
If you use the traditional recipe for Georgian mamaliga, then you will need a thick-walled cauldron for cooking. To stir the dish while cooking, you do not need to use a spoon; for this you will need a thin rolling pin.
Despite many years of tradition regarding the method, modern women have become accustomed to preparing the dish in an ordinary saucepan. No one argues that this dish will be different from the classic Georgian mamaliga. However, your household will not be able to tear themselves away from the next portion of the corn delicacy. It is important to note that the total cooking time may take at least one hour.
To prepare Georgian mamaliga you will need the following ingredients:
1. Prepare all the necessary products, as well as equipment that may be needed during the cooking process. First of all, this is a saucepan, two plates and a frying pan. Place a frying pan on the stove and place pre-chopped lard in it. It is very important that the fat is rendered out of it.
2. At this time, you can take a saucepan and pour 3 cups of purified water into it, add ½ teaspoon of fine salt. At this stage, a tablespoon of melted fat is added and the pan is sent to the stove.
3. Add corn grits after the water heats up but does not reach a boil. If desired, the cereal can be replaced with corn flour, it all depends on your desires and taste preferences.
4. Then you need to follow certain instructions so that the Georgian mamalyga turns out correctly. First, you need to stir the contents of the pan periodically. After the cereal swells, you need to stir constantly without stopping. Often Georgian women use a wooden spatula or rolling pin for this. If you don’t have such utensils in your kitchen, don’t despair; you can use a regular spoon. The only condition is to mix without stopping until you get a thick and viscous consistency, reminiscent of dough.
5. Transfer the finished hominy to a plate, using a spoon, smooth the surface of the dish.
6. Cut any cheese offered and decorate the dish. The main highlight is that the porridge is still hot, so the cheese will begin to melt and permeate the hominy with its aroma and taste.
7. There is another way of serving. To do this, you need to cool the corn delicacy, cut it into pieces of the same size and fry it in hot oil.
8. Decorate the dish and serve in portions. Believe me, no one will be able to refuse such a dish.
Georgian hominy or gomi is a very thick corn porridge. Despite the simple ingredients, the cooking process is a little complicated; it looks like a kind of sacrament that has its own traditions and rules. It is important to note that the finished delicacy is thick, so it can be cut with a knife. It is often served instead of bread, as it goes well with absolutely all foods. It is eaten with jam, meat, fish, vegetables, fruits, cottage cheese and various cheeses. The dish is served with sour cream and various sauces.