Fried Mealie Pap and Pumpkin cakes

Ingredients:

* 1 cup mealie/maize/corn meal - white or yellow
* 1 1/2 cups water
* 1/2 butternut pumpkin (or thereabouts)
* some oil for frying (rice bran oil was realy nice)
* some more mealie/maize/corn meal in a bowl to dip the cakes in

Do the thing:

1. peel and gut the pumpkin, and cut into smallish pieces. microwave/roast until soft, mash up into pumpkingoo, then let cool while you're doing the rest.
2. bring the water to the boil in a mediumish saucepan
3. gradually mix the mealie/maize flour into the boiling water stirring constantly, keep on low heat.
4. it'll thicken up all of a sudden. keep stirring until it starts threatening to burn in the bottom of the saucepan.
5. when you're sick of stirring, take off the heat and stir the pumpkingoo in. let it cool long enough for you to be able to play with it.
6. heat the oil in a fry pan.
7. get a tablespoon or two's worth of the goop, make it vaguely squished ball shaped, coat in the mealie/maize flour in the bowl.
8. fry in the oil until it goes crispy and a bit brown on the outside, then flip over and do the other side.

it's pretty good if it's still a bit gooey on the outside. also, it'd work wel with polenta. also, you could bake it in the oven in a big slab instead, but it doesn't get oily crispy delicious.

Grilled polenta and roasted vegetables

Ingredients:

(halve this if you want to make enough for fewer people)
* 2 cups of polenta
* 8 cups of water with vegetable or chicken stock
* salt and pepper to taste
* two capsicums
* a bunch of mushrooms
* two tomatoes
* any other vegetables you want on top
* olive oil

Instructions:

1. Line a non-shallow baking tray with grease proof paper for later. Chop the vegetables up for roasting*. Bring the water, stock, salt, and pepper to the boil.
2. Slowly add the polenta, constantly stirring. The mixture should start to thicken up pretty quickly.
3. Turn it right down and cook for about twenty minutes (or until you get sick of it), stirring all the time if you can. This'll stick to the bottom the first chance you give it.
4. Tip the polenta mix into the prepared tray and smooth it out. It'll set pretty quick.
5. Put the polenta in the oven/under the grill for a while, until it cooks through and starts to toast up.
6. Take the polenta out of the oven when it's getting just about yummy.
(6a. Slice the tomato thinly. Cut the mushrooms into chunks. Etc.)
7. Cover the top of the polenta with slisced tomato. Chuck the other vegetables on top. If there's oil from the capsicum, tip some over the vegetables and polenta.
8. Put it in the oven for a bit longer, until the tips of the vegetables are just starting to burn.

Hopefully yummy.


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* Roast capsicum is nyummy with this. Roast with a bit of oil until not quite done, let cool, then take the skin off. Chop it up into strips. It'll get roasted a bit more later on in the recipe.