Not feeling polenta love right now

All my polenta recipes insist that you use a pot much bigger than the volume would suggest, and a long handled spoon. It does bubble and spit. I use it with juicy meat or bean dishes in place of rice. In Paraguay we made something called kiveve in which you cook up butternut squash in plenty of water, and then stir the cornmeal into that. Add cheese at the end, and it makes a great meal paired with a salad, or alongside a grilled piece of meat.

I used to make polenta on top of the stove, but no more! It is a bit messy, spits too much, and requires too much attention. A friend had been making it in the oven, but I couldn’t believe it would work. I finally gave it a try and will never do the stove-top version again. See http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/oven-roasted-polenta.aspx for a recipe.

Ice and aloe vera--straight from the plant--are the best way to go for a polenta burn--hope it helps.

Last September in Padua, I ate lots of polenta. The best version had fontina or asiago cheese stirred in. It is more substantial and much more flavorful than the plain. If you have leftover polenta from what you made, slice it and fry in butter or bacon fat til brown.

sorry about your experience. Sounds rare. When you recover from the burn/can face polenta again, make it using Marcella Hazan's no-stir recipe. Reliable, delicious, easy. Have made it for years w/o problems. Find it at epicurious.com

Aloe Vera is good for burns. Break off a lead and rub the sap on the burned area (unbroken skin only). Next time, use the genius recipe on this site. After many years of love/hate w polenta, I use this recipe. No more sneak polenta attacks on my hands and arms, no more scorched pans to soak...I love polenta w stews. Also baked w pogorgonzola, Mascarpone and walnuts.

I hope you found it worth the pain and suffering
Also try taking squares (or circles) brushing them with a little olive oil and grilling them
Put the top down to begin, get some nice grill marks, turn add some parmesan cheese then top with an olive tapenade (I prefer cerignola or picoline)

One of my favorite ways to eat polenta is from the Sundays at Moosewood cookbook. Slap the polenta out onto a wet cutting board to about 3/4 "and let it cool while you nurse your burn. Brush it (the polenta, not your burn) with butter (lots of butter). Cut it into squares (or be fancy-schmancy and cut it into circles). Layer, shingle-style in a well-buttered baking dish. Sprinkle with a substantial 1/2 Lb. of crumbled gorgonzola and bake until bubbly. Serve with a not too spicy tomato sauce or a roasted red pepper sauce. Very comforting -- boo-boo or not! It's worth it and I hope you heal quickly TBG!

Thanks for the warm thought.

Five minutes till the timer says it's done. The sting is starting to fade.

Don't know what I'm going to do with this polenta once it's cooked.

Oooh.Put some sulfadine on it. :( feel better.