Ingredients
1 cup cornmeal
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil
3 1/2 q water
Directions
Mix all ingredients in a 3-quart microwave-safe dish. Cover and cook
on high power for 5 minutes. Stir and cook on high power until
thickened, about 5 minutes longer.
Makes 4 servings.
[COOKS; JUNE 1989] Posted by Fred Peters.
Servings: 4 servings
Microwave Polenta Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Bread; Breads; Microwave
The History of Recipes
Written cooking instructions as a concept can be traced way back into the far past, certainly as far back into history as ancient Egypt, and possibly even further than that. Interesting though that maybe, mostly, these ancient recipes were just primitive pictorial recipes for preparing meals.
Fascinatingly, the oldest recipe in existence, according to Professor Solomon Katz, are a few ancient tablets in Sumerian describing the preparation of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as making those who drank it feel `wonderful`. Progressing into The time of the roman empire around 25BC a roman called Apicius assembled a collection of scripts detailing recipes enjoyed by the Romans. He recounts how the meals were split into appetizers, main meal and desserts, a very modern way of dining. Additionally, he tells us how the cooks of his times used many different spices, including some familiar names like thyme, rue and parsley. Moving our culinary historical trip onwards, we find a couple of cookery books which were published in the fourteenth century ; one book titled `Forme of Cury`, and another named `Curye on Inglish`. Surprisingly, these are nothing to do with the indian food that we all know today, but instead accounts of the types of meals eaten by the nobility of that time. Later on, in the 15th century, people returning from the crusades brought us a variety of foods and spices from the East, including spices like rosemary and coriander. These new foods and spices prompted an outbreak in recipe publications, most of which are now in private cookery archives. Over the succeeding few centuries, the families of Europe competed to lay on the most extravagent banquests, and as a result the best chefs and their recipe collections were greatly in demand. Nevertheless, it wasn`t until the 1800s that haute cuisine and recipe books rose to prominence. Mrs Beeton in the UK, and the equally famous Fannie Farmer in the US, devoted their lives to assembling, testing, and writing down recipes to help cooks of their time. When we get to the 20th century, cookbooks were highly popular as a result of increased literacy, people having increased spare time and having more money. The arrival of TV gave us TV cooks and the demand for the spin-off recipe books. Which brings us neatly to the present day and the invention of computers and the internet, allowing everyone to access thousands of recipes like those on this web site. |
We hope you enjoy this Microwave Polenta recipe.
