Lady 1: I’m going to show you how to make polenta. And polenta is coarsely ground corn meal, that’s all it is. And you stir, stir, stir it and make it into a beautiful grain dish that’s set. You can do all sorts of things with it. And all you need is five cups of liquid. In this case, I’ve got three cups of water in this pot that’s coming to a simmer here. And then I’m going to add to that two cups of organic free range chicken broth, yee-haw, and we’ll get that simmering. I’m going to go ahead and do that. Yeah, and then I’m going to add a little bit of butter, about a tablespoon of butter, and some salt and then I’m going to put the polenta in and that’s when the magic starts because polenta has to be stirred for 30 minutes. Stir, stir.
Guy: Wow!
Lady 1: Yeah, that’s how long, it has to be stirred that long.
Guy: And when we want it, we don’t see it around very much.
Lady 1: Well, it’s an active love to make a polenta.
Guy: It says here that polenta derives from earlier forms of grain mush coming on this gruel or porridge.
Lady 1: Right.
Guy: Common in the Roman times and after.
Lady 1: Right.
Guy: So you’re cooking gruel?
Lady 1: Yeah but it comes out very sishy. Really they serve it in cool restaurants and everything. And I’m going to add a little salt in here, about actually like a teaspoon of salt. It needs that much in there. And since this comes to a nice simmer, I’m going to add the polenta. And you’re supposed to add it slowly while the broth or the liquid is simmering. You can use all kinds of things in here. I mean you could use juice, wine. You don’t want all juice, all wine but it could be part of the liquid that’s in there.
Guy: That’s one cup to five?
Lady 1: That’s right. Yeah, and that’s why it takes so long to stir it. You know when I do this for my students at __ when I had them do it, I make them actually have loving thoughts while they stir the polenta. I mean, I don’t make them do that, of course, I can’t make anybody have loving thoughts, can I?
Guy: But what happens if you don’t have good thoughts?
Lady 1: Well sometimes their polenta comes out icky and lumpy and stuffy, that happens.
Guy: And that’s truly, you believe…
Lady 1: I do. I believe that.
Lady 2: Do we have any straws? Do we have any straws?
Lady 1: I don’t think so.
Lady 2: We had a crazy straw.
Lady 1: So I’m just going to add this really slowly now, because this is, yeah, it’s nice and simmery in there.
Guy: What do you need a straw for?
Lady 2: Joaquin’s got a sun drop stuck in his nose.
Lady 1: Oh no, can he breathe?
Lady 2: Come here boo-boo.
Lady 1: Steve… You should go check on him. Go check on him.
Guy: Hang on. Hang on.
Lady 1: Ok so I have the polenta in there. And now it begins. It’s so cool you can’t go anywhere. I can’t answer the phone. I can’t use the computer. I’m just here becoming one with the polenta. In Italy, they say you should stir it with a wooden spoon in a clockwise motion. I don’t know why that is but…
Guy: It works… I think, here, let me take care of this.
Lady: Why? Well, just stir it. Keep the heat, see. Yeah, that’s good, just keep stirring. That’s great. You’re doing great.
Lady 2: Honey, be still.
Lady: Alright, putting your love in there?
Lady 2: Yeah.
Lady: Ok it looks really nice.
Lady 2: Yeah.
Lady 1: I’m going to turn the heat up just a little bit because you want it to do that kind of puckery thing? Pt, pt, pt, pt.
Lady 2: Ok.
Lady 1: Yeah that means it’s the right temperature.
Lady 2: I’m going to save the puckering for you.
Lady 1: Really?
Lady 2: Who wants to watch Teletubbies?
Lady 1: That’s what we all need right now, to stop and stir the polenta. What are you thinking?
Guy: Family hug.
Lady 2: Yeah.
Guy: Polenta hug.
Lady 2: We love the polenta.
Lady 1: So we’re going to put in the Asiago cheese and the fresh corn. Go ahead you can put those in.
Guy: Does it matter what your order?
Lady 1: No, you can put in as much as you think. That’s pretty nice.
Guy: Always more.
Lady 1: Always more. This would give it incredibly fun texture. Yeah, oh it likes it. Yeah. Yee-haw, yey, that’s great. Oh, fun stuff.
Guy: That’s good.
Lady 1: Ok can you get this…
Guy: What’s this for?
Lady 1: I’ll show you. It’s fun. You will like it. But Jane would probably like to do it. We’re going to decorate the top.
Guy: Ok.
Lady 1: You want to call her?
Guy: Jane, we’re decorating the top.
Lady 2: Ok when you’re done with this, I need to ask you something.
Lady 1: Ok, but I know you always like to decorate the top so…
Lady 2: I do.
Lady 1: So I cut up some little red peppers. And you can…
Guy: I’ll get the rest.
Lady 1: Ok, and then you kind of give it a little shake to get the surface of it nice and smooth. And then Janey, you can decorate the top with those little red peppers. Wait let’s get it smooth. Ok stop. That’s good, here, give me this. There we go. Go ahead, whatever you want to do darling.
Guy: Isn’t she special?
Lady 1: And then it just needs to set at room temperature. And when it’s at room temperature it will actually be sliceable. Very cool. Oh that’s lovely.
Lady 2: And that’s the tongue.
Guy: Let’s see.
Lady: Ok that’s great.