Poached Eggs and Polenta (or cornmeal, or grits or....)

It's not often that I think to have eggs for dinner, but when I do, they are almost always a hit. These eggs are served over polenta or cornmeal. But is there a difference between the two?

I find the similarities or differences between cornmeal, grits and polenta to be more than a bit confusing and although some purists would probably argue that there is a difference, they are essentially interchangeable, especially for a dish like this. I sat here and tried to type up an explanation of the differences, but then I confused myself even more, so I will simply refer you here, here and if you like Alton Brown, here. There, now you can go and confuse yourself and then you won't be able to blame me for the confusion. That said, I have started to use stone ground coarse cornmeal for polenta instead of trying to track down those overpriced packages of polenta that are probably pretty much the same thing anyway.........

Poached Eggs over Polenta

For this dish from Cooking Light, however, I used the Quaker Oats cornmeal which has been degerminated. See, this is where I get confused - if hominy grits are different from corn grits because they have been degerminated, then wouldn't cornmeal that has been degerminated really be the same thing as hominy grits? So that hominy grits=degerminated cornmeal=Quaker Oats cornmeal? And then polenta=stoneground whole grain cornmeal (either coarse, medium or fine)? See, that's why I'm referring you to the above articles and letting you decide.

Obviously I used yellow cornmeal in place of white, but I think that yellow cornmeal actually works better here in that it provides a nice color contrast to the egg whites. We found that the polenta needed A LOT more salt than the recipe called for and actually, more of everything - it just didn't have that much flavor. I ended up adding a bit more butter, a bit more cheese and a lot more salt. My parmesan cheese was not top quality, so if you can't use a top quality parmesan with lots of flavor, then I recommend using a sharper or smoked cheese that might help kick up the flavor - in fact, I'm not sure that Parmiggiano Reggiano would have been enough - perhaps a sharp or smoked provolone would work best.

The salsa added an interesting dimension for us - we are not accustomed to eating tomatoes with our eggs - and added nice color as well. I prefered to keep the egg and salsa separated, but enjoyed both flavors with the polenta. I would certainly consider making this again, but I would play around with the polenta to get something a little more interesting and would also be inclined to try the this dish with variations in the salsa, such as using roasted red peppers only or maybe a bit of balsamic. In any case, it's a pretty simple meal to throw together and it's made from ingredients that are commonly on hand.