Mamalyga is a national traditional dish in Moldova. It came into use at the end of the 17th century. This dish is prepared from corn flour. Properly cooked hominy will please you and your family.
To cook delicious hominy, you need to have certain knowledge and skills. The quantity of water and the quality of the flour are also of great importance.
Cooking secrets
For the preparation of hominy, it is worth taking finely ground flour (corn). Before that, it should be dried a little in the oven. Then the corn flour is sieved through a sieve.
For cooking hominy, they use a cauldron - a cast-iron boiler with a thick bottom and walls. Lightly salted water is heated in it. After it boils, you can add cornmeal. The standard ratio of ingredients: 1 glass of flour is taken for 3 cups of water.
To avoid the formation of lumps, a wooden rolling pin (spatula, stirrer) is placed in the center of the cauldron. Boil hominy for 30 minutes over low heat. In this case, it must be regularly stirred, pressing the rolling pin to the walls of the cauldron. Then the fire is reduced to a minimum and left to cook (10-15 minutes).
To find out the readiness of the dish, the rolling pin is lowered vertically and begins to quickly rotate it with the palms. Mamalyga is ready if the porridge does not stick to the wooden rolling pin. After that, having moistened the spoon in water, it is separated from the walls of the cauldron. After shaking the container several times, the porridge is thrown onto a clean tablecloth or cutting board. Correctly cooked hominy does not fall apart on the dish and retains exactly the shape of the cauldron.
Before serving the dish to the table, hominy is cut into pieces with a wooden knife or thick thread. It is served with garlic, eggs, milk or feta cheese.
Often, urs (balls) are prepared from hominy. For 2 liters of water, 400 g of corn flour, 1 glass of grated feta cheese, 1 teaspoon of salt are required. The middle of each ball is filled with feta cheese. After that, they are baked in ash. Before serving, the dish is decorated with herbs and flavored with milk.
