Are Ya hungry?
Really hungry?

Well, how’d you like some nice healthy Polenta?

It’s easy (with a microwave).

It’s cheap.

It doesn’t taste too bad, if you add stuff to it.
(Actually, it doesn’t taste too bad even if you don’t add stuff, but in that case the really inexpensive versions don’t taste much at all.)

Ingredients:
Corn Meal
Water
Something with flavor

Step 1:
Pour some cornmeal into a microwave-safe bowl. About a third as much as you think you’d like to eat.

Step 2:
Add enough potable water to make a really thin paste. I tend to add enough water to make a smooth, thick paste, then double it.

Step 2½:
Add food items to increase the flavor of the polenta. Even something as simple as crushed red pepper is good. If you’re not worried about a tablespoon of butter, add a tablespoon of butter. Cheeses are good. Little bits of salty meat are good. Pretty much anything edible and oily, or palatable and strongly flavored can be added, in appropriate amounts.

Step 3:
Get to know your microwave.
This is the hardest part. Some microwaves have lots of settings to allow the most automatic cooking; some microwaves have on and off. At 1000 watts.

IF by some chance, you microwave has power settings from 1 to 10 (or 1 to 0 with 0 being equivalent to 10), and your microwave is about 800 watts (don’t worry about checking, it doesn’t really matter), AND it has a rotating turntable inside, AND you’re cooking about a cup of raw polenta, set your cooking time to 5 minutes at, oh, 50%.

Put the bowl of uncooked gruel in the middle of the turntable and let it cook for the full five minutes. If it’s too hard for your taste at the end of five minutes, remember that five minutes is too long, otherwise, A) eat it, if it seems edible, or B) stir it around to evenly mix the hard and soft parts, and put it back into the microwave for TWO minutes, at 50% and let it cook.

If a fork stuck into it stays upright, it’s done.

Or even better, if it looks good to you, it’s done.

Ta da!

Polenta!

Oh yeah, if you’ve had traditional polenta and have enjoyed it and have any pointers, let me know