Mamalyga is a tasty, satisfying and inexpensive dish that can often be seen on the table in Georgian, Ossetian, Adyghe and Abkhaz families. It is easy to prepare and does not require many ingredients.
Essentially, the mamalyga recipe is a recipe for a very thick porridge (it is often eaten instead of bread), which is hard-boiled and then cut with a special wooden knife or canvas thread.
In Romanian and hominy they cook with a very thick consistency. We can say that this is not even porridge, but steamed bread. The finished dish even resembles a loaf in its shape. Caucasians prepare mamaliga, which is closer to porridge. It is cooked from corn grits or flour. Another essential condition is that the recipe for mamalyga in the Caucasus does not involve the addition of salt, sugar or spices; the porridge turns out completely bland. Additional ingredients give it a unique taste: salted suluguni cheese, cherry plum sauce and other spicy sauces.
Mamalyga in Abkhazian style: recipe
There is nothing complicated in making mamalyga. Perhaps the most important thing is to guess the ratio of water and Many people use a proportion of 1:3, but in our recipe from Abkhaz housewives it is 1:2.5. So, for one full glass of fine corn grits or flour we need two and a half glasses of water. You will also need about 150 grams of brine, and a tablespoon of butter, for tenderness.
The traditional recipe for mamalyga, as we have already mentioned, does not involve adding salt. However, at first, the porridge may seem too bland to you, and the taste preferences of our compatriots are somewhat different from the traditions accepted in the Caucasus. Therefore, you can salt the hominy once, but just a little - then you will understand for yourself whether you need salt in this recipe and how much.
For delicious mamalyga you need the right pan, and it is better if it has thick walls. The ideal cookware for cooking is a cast iron pot, but in worst case an ordinary enamel saucepan will do. Pour the required amount of water into it, add a little salt and wait until the water boils.
Pouring cereal into boiling water is an important and responsible process. This should be done carefully, in a thin stream, while constantly stirring the contents of the saucepan. Then the finished porridge will be homogeneous and without nasty lumps.
The hominy recipe requires 20-30 minutes of preparation. If the porridge is prepared from flour, half this time will be enough. True, you won’t be able to step away from the stove for long - after all, hominy needs to be stirred often. Cook the dish over low heat. Readiness is checked very easily: stick a wooden rolling pin into the porridge and turn it. If the porridge does not stick, it means it is ready!
But don’t rush to put the hominy on plates. First, using a wooden spatula moistened with water, slightly separate the contents of the pot from its walls and leave for another couple of minutes on the stove. Then all that remains is to turn the dishes over and dump the finished “loaf” onto a beautiful dish. By the way, by the integrity and shape of the hominy, by whether it falls apart or all the grains form a single monolith, the quality of the finished porridge is judged.
Mamalyga is served with many different products. This includes suluguni, and feta cheese, and kvass, and garlic, and fried onions, and lard with cracklings... In general, choose what you like and enjoy this hearty and healthy dish!
Step-by-step photo recipe for making homemade mamaliga.
corn flour - 2 cups,
salt – ½ teaspoon,
water – 6 glasses,
pork – 400-500 gr.,
onions – 1-2 pcs.,
salt, pepper - to taste,
feta cheese – 100-150 gr.,
sour cream – 2-4 tbsp. spoons,
chicken eggs – 3-5 pcs.
Mamalyga is a very tasty national dish of Romanian and Moldavian cuisine. It is made from corn flour. There are several recipes for making mamalyga. Today we will show and tell you how to cook mamalyga at home.
- This is hard-boiled porridge, which after cooking can be cut into pieces using a special wooden knife or using a canvas thread.
Making mamalyga at home is quite simple; the most important thing is to accurately determine the amount of flour and water. The best flour to water ratio is 1:3. Perfect cooking comes with experience.
In our family, we always serve mamalyga with feta cheese, fried eggs, sour cream and stewed pork. The stewed pork needs to be prepared in advance.
Be sure to cook mamalyga at home using our step-by-step photo recipe.
Cooking mamaliga at home.
First you need to prepare the stewed pork.
To do this, wash the meat, dry it and cut it into pieces.
Peel the onions, rinse and finely chop.
Then fry the chopped meat in a frying pan until golden brown.
In a small cauldron you need to fry the chopped onion.
Then add the fried meat to the onions.
Add bay leaf, salt to the cauldron, add water and simmer.
Simmer the meat until done.
Pour the required amount of water into the cauldron, add salt and bring to a boil. Then proceed to the crucial moment for preparing hominy, namely adding corn flour to boiling water.
Corn flour should be added in a thin stream, while stirring constantly. If you don't mix well, lumps will form that spoil the taste of the mamalyga.
Cooking hominy takes about 30 minutes. Do not forget that all this time you must constantly be at the stove and stir the hominy, pressing it against the walls of the cauldron. The heat during cooking should be slightly higher than the minimum. After 30 minutes have passed, the fire must be reduced to the very minimum and kept for another 10 minutes. Previously, readiness was determined using a rolling pin by plunging it into the porridge. If no porridge stuck to the rolling pin during rotation, then the hominy was considered ready.
In order to remove hominy from the cauldron, you need to separate it from the walls using a moistened wooden spatula and leave it in this position on the fire for a couple of minutes.
After which it is easy to remove the hominy from the cauldron by simply turning it over and shaking it. The quality of mamalyga is also determined by how it holds its shape after it has been removed from the cauldron. ready. If the hominy is not dense enough, you need to let it cool a little.
1. Mamalyga should only be cooked in a cast iron cauldron! Pour 5 glasses of water into it, put a teaspoon of salt (without a slide) and put the water to boil.
2. Pour 2 cups of medium-ground cereal into a bowl.
3. Little by little, continuously pour the porridge into boiling water and stir with a spoon. It will thicken instantly, this is normal. After everything has been added, stir well again.
4. Cook the porridge over low heat without covering it with a lid for 30-35 minutes. During cooking, the mamalygu needs to be stirred twice.
5. Remove the finished porridge from the heat and let it cool, do not eat it right away! Next, it’s better to do it as follows: melt the butter in a frying pan (don’t skimp) and put the required portion on it to warm up. Mash the porridge in a frying pan well with a tablespoon. Hot and mashed mamalyga can be served as a second course.
You can flavor the dish with cheese (preferably sheep cheese) - grate it on top using a medium grater.
It is also very tasty to eat mamalyga sweet - just sprinkle it with sugar, then sweet lovers will not be able to tear themselves away from it.
For this mamalyga you need to take corn grits like this
Pour water into the cauldron, add a teaspoon of salt, sprinkle a handful of cereal. 
Let the water boil, foam should appear on the surface. 
As soon as this happens, reduce the heat to low. Immediately begin to pour in all the cereal little by little in a stream, constantly stirring with a broom until the mixture thickens. 
When it is no longer possible to stir with a broom, leave it and take a wooden stirring stick or a wooden spoon, or a rolling pin. Immediately add a tablespoon of olive oil or 30-50 grams of butter. Whatever you prefer. 
Stir well with a stick in a circle, trying to touch the walls of the cauldron. 
Stir and leave on low heat to steam. It should kind of hiss. Don’t forget, after a while, stir again several times with a stick, separating with a spoon from the walls to the center. 
Hominy is considered ready when it easily comes away from the walls of the cauldron, and a lagging dry crust has appeared on them. You can also find out if you poke a stick in the middle and spin it quickly between your palms - the hominy will not stick to it. 
Turn off the fire. Using a spoon, we again begin to push the hominy away from the walls of the cauldron, leaving it for another couple of minutes. Then shake the cauldron thoroughly and dump it onto a wooden board. It is possible, but not advisable for a dish. If you serve it to guests, then leave it to cool quite a bit on the board so that the steam comes out. Then place it on a plate and serve. 
In general, it takes about an hour to prepare. This is how the bottom of the cauldron should remain. If it's a little more, it's okay. 
After that, you can pour milk into the still hot cauldron and let it boil. Then add a little sugar, a piece of mamalyga - you get a delicious dessert :)
It's Lent and I used almond milk. 
We cut the hominy with ordinary thread into the desired pieces. Serve to the table. 
Now you know how to cook hominy from corn grits.
You will definitely succeed! It seems nothing complicated, but in this matter you really need at least some practice. As Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov said: “Theory without practice is dead, without theory it is blind”
Good luck to you and good health!
Bon appetit!
Corn porridge recipes
Moldovan mamaliga recipe with photo
40 minutes
300 kcal
5 /5 (5 )
Moldavian mamaliga is a thick corn porridge formed into a round loaf. This is both an independent dish and an excellent side dish for fish, meat, and vegetables. Just as a retinue makes a king, so Moldavian mamalyga fully reveals its taste only in the circle of familiar accompanying dishes - “Muzhdey” sauce, scrob and cracklings. All this is prepared quickly and simply. Let's get started.
Step-by-step classic recipe for making mamaliga in Moldavian style with photos
Kitchen utensils: cauldron with thick walls and bottom, cast iron or aluminum,wooden spatula or rolling pin,wooden cutting board or cloth napkin,cotton thread.
Ingredients for 4 servings
The classic recipe uses finely ground cornmeal. However, if you can’t find it in your nearest store, don’t despair, because you can make mamaliga from fine corn grits, the recipe doesn’t change.
Important! In order for the hominy to turn out “A+”, the flour must be dried. To do this, you need to scatter it on a baking sheet in a thin layer and place it in an oven preheated to 150 degrees for 3-4 minutes. This will make the flour more crumbly and rid the finished dish of small uncooked lumps.
Step-by-step preparation
- Pour water into a cauldron, put it on fire, add salt.
- When the water is slightly warmed up, add half a glass of flour and mix thoroughly.
- When the contents of the cauldron boil, reduce the heat and begin adding the remaining flour in small portions.
It is very important to mix the porridge thoroughly, breaking up any lumps that form.
- For 20-25 minutes, periodically stir the porridge, running a wooden spatula along the walls and bottom of the cauldron. When it starts to thicken, add oil.
- When the porridge thickens (it should resemble a thick viscous dough), separate it from the walls of the cauldron with a wooden spatula, reduce the heat to low and cook for another 5 minutes.
After this, we check the readiness - insert a toothpick into it and turn it slightly. If the porridge does not stick to the toothpick, it means it is ready.
- Place a board on the table or spread a cloth napkin. We take the cauldron with both hands, shake it lightly a couple of times and turn it over onto the prepared surface. If the operation was not entirely successful, we trim the shape of the hominy with a knife or spoon, forming a rounded loaf.
- The finished hominy cannot be cut with a knife; it sticks to it. For this stage we have prepared a thread. We take it by the ends, cut into portions and serve.
What is mamalyga served with?
Mamalyga is a universal side dish. It goes perfectly with stewed vegetables and mushrooms, meat and fish in any form - boiled, fried, stewed, smoked, and so on. It is served with pickles, sour cream, fresh vegetables and herbs.
In Moldova, mamaliga is traditionally served with grated sheep cheese, “Muzhdei” sauce, scrob and cracklings. All these dishes can be prepared at the same time as mamaliga.
Grated cheese
Sheep cheese can replace simple cow cheese, feta cheese, feta, mozzarella or suluguni (if you have suluguni cheese, you can prepare it). We grate it on a coarse grater and put it in a separate outlet. The dish is ready.
“Muzhdey” sauce
Ingredients
Pour into the sauce boat and move on to the next dish.
Scrub (4 servings)
Ingredients
Cracklings
Ingredients
When serving, sprinkle the mamalyga with cracklings and onions, pour over the rendered fat.
Video recipe for mamaliga in Moldavian style
You can see the process of preparing mamaliga in Moldavian style in this video. And even if you have never had to prepare such a dish before, the video will be a good helper in this process.
As you can see, the cooking process is simple. Moldavian peasants knew a lot about food; it is not for nothing that this dish is now included in the menu of expensive restaurants. However, you don't need to be a chef to cook it.
- If four servings are not enough for you, increase the amount of food, strictly observing the ratio of corn flour to water - 1:3.
- If at the end of cooking the mamalyga is not thick enough, increase the cooking time - the water will evaporate and the porridge will thicken.
- You can only turn the finished hominy over onto a wooden board or cloth napkin; on a regular plate it will become damp and tasteless.
- Mamaliga is cooked only over low heat.
If you weren’t able to eat all the cooked hominy in one sitting, while it’s warm and aromatic, it’s not a problem. The next day, you can fry it in butter until golden brown and serve it as a side dish or dessert with jam, honey, and sour cream.
Corn cannot be called a low-calorie product, but it removes excess fats and waste from the body, so we can safely recommend this dish to those who are watching their figure. A large list of vitamins, beneficial microelements, and vegetable proteins allows corn porridge to rightfully be called the “queen of the table.” If you liked the sunny taste of hominy, try an alternative recipe. The recipe for corn porridge in a slow cooker is suitable for those who own such kitchen appliances. Fans of dairy dishes will love this recipe for corn porridge with milk.
Mamalyga is prepared in Abkhazia, Adygea, Romania, Moldova. In Italy it is called polenta, in Georgia - gomi, in Africa - ugali. With such a vast geography and centuries-old history, there are probably a lot of secrets and unique family recipes. Share your experience or your own recipe, and also tell us what you like to eat hominy with.