What is Jalapeno Grits Polenta?
Jalapeño Grits Polenta is a creamy, spicy twist on traditional polenta, combining stone-ground grits with sautéed onions, jalapeños, garlic, and melted cheese.
What does Jalapeno Grits Polenta Taste Like?
Salty is one of the five main tastes. It has a satisfying and addictive quality with hints of sourness. Salty foods include cheeses, cured meats, chips, and olives. It is used in almost every dish and prepared food. Salt is added to enhance flavor and offer a distinctly salty taste.
Umami is one of five main tastes. It is savory with a depth of flavor. Umami is a taste in many foods, including meat, seafood, beans, and nuts. It is both naturally occurring and created through the specific use of ingredients to create a satisfying taste. Umami is characteristic of proteins and savory dishes.
Ingredients
Chicken stock is made by simmering chicken bones, vegetables and seasonings, such as herbs and salt. This combination is set to simmer for 6-8 hours. The result is a thin broth with a golden color and a meaty, vegetal and comforting flavor, with hints of salt. Chicken broth is used in many dishes and is a main ingredient in soups and stews.
Cornmeal is ground from corn kernels and can be white or yellow. Unlike finely textured corn flour, corn meal is coarser. Cornmeal has a sweet and nutty taste. It is similar in flavor to fresh corn, though less sugary. Cornmeal provides a texture to baked goods that is denser and is less refined than wheat flour, but still light. It is one of the main ingredients in cornbread, a quick bread dear to the American South.
Jalapeños are a popular hot pepper with a medium-width body that is short and tapered. These peppers have a shiny thin skin and are often picked while green, and not fully mature. When jalapeños mature they turn red, as do many hot peppers. The thin green flesh of the jalapeño is crispy, with a hint of juice and very hot. Jalapeños also have a mild green flavor and contain extremely spicy seeds in their centers. The uses vary widely and jalapeños can be found in hot sauce, salsa, guacamole, cornbread and more. They are almost always used fresh or pickled.
Butter is made from churned cream, usually from a cow. It has a cream color and a texture that is smooth and melts easily. The flavor is mild and creamy. Butter is often sold in square sticks, or as a flat or round block. It is delicious on bread. It pairs better in baked goods than salted butter, due to its more neutral taste. It also makes an excellent cooking fat.
Cheese is a dairy product made from milk. The milk protein coagulates creating a firmer product. Many cheeses are aged to add flavor and texture, making them denser and more umami. Fresh cheeses are softer and milder in flavor. Cheese is often made from cows milk and can be made from goat, sheep and other mammals milk as well. There are hundred of varieties of cheese and this versatile food product has many uses in both savory and sweet dishes.
The onion is a bulb vegetable, meaning its bulb and not its leaves are eaten. Onions come in many varieties, including white, yellow and red. Shallots are small and mild onions. Vidalias are sweet, while red onions are strong and sharp. The onion is usually round and has a thin dry skin around its juicy layers. This skin depends in the color of the onion, as does the flesh. The flesh, or body of the onion is made of multiple round layers, that get smaller towards the center. The flavor of onions are sharp and sweet when raw, with an astringent taste. When cooked, these flavors mellow and the sweetness emerges. Onion are a very common flavoring and ingredient for many savory dishes.
Olive oil is extracted from the fresh olive, which grows on a tree. Many olives are needed in the extraction of the oil. This is done by a mechanical process and sometimes by a chemical process, though the mechanical method is highly preferred. Olive oil is a golden color and changes slightly due to whether it is extra virgin, or first cold pressed. The flavor of olive oil depends on how it was processed. Lower quality oils will taste mild, while high quality olive oils will have a robust flavor that is green, or may have a spicy quality. Extra virgin and first cold pressed or preferred. Olive oil lends a depth of flavor to any savory dish.
Garlic is used in cuisines around the world and is extremely popular for its depth of flavor. The garlic bulb forms underneath the soil and is harvested once it reaches maturity. The bulb typically has thin, dry, white and flaky skin, surrounding the individual cloves. Often there are 10-12 cloves to a bulb/head of garlic. The cloves are cream colored with a strong smell and flavor that is spicy and sharp. Garlic takes on a nutty flavor in addition, when cooked. It is used in countless dishes, sauces, breads and more.
Salt is a mineral composed mostly of sodium chloride. It is the main flavoring used in food and is naturally occurring in certain foods, such as cheese, beets, meat and celery, plus many others. Salt is white and has finer granules than sugar. Many commercial salts include iodide, while others exclude it. Most salts are white, while some are naturally pale pink with minerals. Salt brings out the flavor of something and can create a tangy mouthfeel, if used in excess.
The peppercorn plant grows in tropical climate and produces tiny black fruit. The fruit is dried and become hard. At this point it is ground into a textured powder comprised of black and grey dots. It has a flavor that is spicy, pungent and sharp. Pepper is an extremely popular spice, especially in Western cuisines and lends a gentle heat to dishes. There are different varieties of black pepper and the flavor changes subtly because of this.
