Mamaliga Baked with Cheese

In the spirit of trying something new, I decided to try the Baked Mamaliga recipe I saw in my favourite cookbook: Russian, German & Polish Food & Cooking.

It looked pretty simple, though I couldn't find the specific cheese it called for (Kashkaval). Some digging revealed that I could use Swiss cheese in lieu of Kashkaval so I planned on doing that. I used 1/2 feta and 1/2 goat cheese for the cooked-in cheese.

I didn't use fresh green onion because we were in the middle of a pretty crazy storm and I couldn't pick any, but that's okay. I got a general idea. I also didn't serve with tomato sauce because I forgot I was supposed to until typing this post. Oops.

Leftover Baked Mamaliga

Overall, we liked the dish, but it needed tweaking. I have done some searches and there are so many different ways to make Mamaliga it isn't funny. Even "baked mamaliga" turns up a bunch of different recipes. Some call for sour cream inside it, some for warmed cream to be served with it, others call for none. It definitely is a savoury dish and you'll want to plan around that, but we repurposed the dish with frying some thin slices with more cheese to reheat it. We also discussed having it with spinach.

Either way, this recipe was good but not perfect for our tastes. We just need to find that missing item (or items) that will really bring this together for my family. I'll likely try other versions of this recipe before experimenting on my own since I am completely new to mamaliga.


 Mamaliga Baked with Cheese

Ingredients:

• Generous 1 cup coarse ground cornmeal
• 4c. water
• 1/4c. unsalted butter
• 1 1/2c. feta cheese or brinza, drained and crumbled
• 1/2c. hard kashkaval cheese, grated, for sprinkling
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• bacon and scallions, sliced lengthwise, to garnish
• tomato sauce to serve

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Stirring occasionally, dry-fry the cornmeal in a large pan for 3-4min. or until it changes colour. Remove from heat.
2. Slowly pour in the water and add a bit of salt. Return the pan to the heat and stir well until cornmeal thickens a bit. Cover, reduce heat, and let sit for 25min., stirring often.
3. Remove from heat when thick enough to cause a wide trail to be left when a wooden spoon is dragged through the mixture. Mix in the feta (or brinza) and butter and season well.
4.  Spoon into an 8" greased springform pan. Bake for 25-30min or until firm. Let sit overnight or for 2-3 hours. Serve sprinkled with Kashkaval cheese, bacon, and scallions. (Serve with tomato sauce, too.)

Ready to top!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Post contains affiliate links.