Mamaliga!

Oh the weather outside is frightful
But the fire is so delightful
And since we've no place to go
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
It doesn't show signs of stopping
And I've bought some corn for popping
The lights are turned way down low
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
When we finally kiss goodnight
How I'll hate going out in the storm!
But if you'll really hold me tight
All the way home I'll be warm.
The fire is slowly dying
And, my dear, we're still good-bying
But as long as you love me so
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

So it's the second day of December, and we got our first snowfall. Not a huge amount of snow, but it was nice to wake up on Sunday morning and see the white streets.

I wasn't sure what to have for breakfast. Somehow, cereal, didn't seem like the proper thing to eat on the first snow day. I opened the cupboard, and was happy to see some coarse corn meal hanging out there. I don't often use it, but there is one warming breakfast I could think of that I could make with it: Mamaliga! We grew up on mamaliga; Saturday mornings meant mamaliga with smetana (sour cream) or scrambled eggs.

Mamaliga is basically coarse (or fine) cornmeal, cooked in boiling water over the stove until nice and thick.

It needs salt, because cornmeal by itself is pretty bland. We ALWAYS have it with sour cream. It's a Russian's answer to making anything better; just serve it with smetana. :) Curiously, I believe the Swedes also use this word for sour cream, which makes sense, considering its relative proximity to Russia. I love my Scandinavian brethern!

The way my mom does it is cook this in a cast-iron pot, and once the mamaliga cools a bit, she turns it out onto a wooden chopping board, and then you could slice the mamaliga like a cake. I don't have a small cast-iron pot, so improvised a bit, piling on the lovely and warm mamaliga on a plate. I gave myself a generous dollop of sour cream. No matter how much mamaliga you serve yourself, you always take sour cream to the table, because I promise you, you will always run out of sour cream on the plate and go for more. Mamaliga just begs for that smooth coolness.


It was delicious! A great way to spend a snowy day indoors.