This dish is fantastic (you can't even imagine until you've tasted it) with polenta done the Romanian way:

You'll need about 0.6 kg corn wheat of the not so small-grained one sort - grain should be about the size of Crumb.

Put a heavy cast iron pot (a pot, not a casserole - if it's not cast iron with thick walls you will probably burn the polenta, at least in the beginning, until you get used to making it) with two liters of water on the fire, put a teaspoon of salt into it. Wait for it to start boiling.

Start mixing the water with a wooden spoon while spreading the corn wheat over the surface, so that no clumps are formed. Continue until all of the corn wheat is in the water - move fast, since it only takes very few minutes for the corn wheat and water mixture to become very sticky. Take the spoon into the right hand, take a glove on your left hand, hold the pot with your right hand and continue mixing. It will become increasingly hard work, as the mixture thickens more and more. You'll be sweating and cursing, but if you don't mix thoroughly the polenta won't be cooked uniformly. Continue for about 20 minutes. You'll notice that the polenta is ready when it starts to sort of fall off the spoon and the pot's walls, and not stick to the spoon anymore when you take it out. The fire should be as low that the polenta should not spit all over the place, but string enough that it still puffs and behaves remarkably angry. Remove from fire, put a wooden board on top of the pot, turn pot upside down, so polenta can fall onto the wooden board. Shake the pot, if the polenta doesn't want to fall off, until it does. Serve sarmale with small slabs of polenta, both hot. You don't cut it with a knive, since it will stick, but with a thread - you introduce it from the side beneath it, then pull the two ends up and one towards the other - this will cut the polenta in nice regular pieces.

Bonus tip: after doing the polenta, a sort of corn wheat skin forms on the pot's walls. I like to peel it of and nibble at it. It's corn taste at its best.

Just a few more things about sarmale: try not cooking the sarmale at 350 degrees but at 250, for maybe two to four hours - you have to take care that they don't dry out. Traditionally, the pot is left in or on the wood stove from the evening until next day at noon, in a corner, so it barely boils. The longer and softer they are cooked, the tastier they become. Also, place some dried thyme and dill branches on top of the sarmale, sprinkle a few back pepper seeds, chop some tomatoes on top of the sticks, and make sort of a cover using the remaining cabbage leaves. Use half a bottle of at least acceptable white wine and the same quantity of not so sticky pure tomato sauce for the juice (how much juice you need depends on the quantity of sarmale). You and your guests will go insane when you taste it. You should also mix some finely chopped onion into the meat mixture, and not use instant rice. Unboiled rice will inflate while cooking, making the sarmale round and shiny like little piglets in the casserole. Ideally, the casserole should be earthenware and should have a lid. Also, try replacing the pork with some smoked ham - not of the processed sort, what you can probably get closest to the real thing is some Schwarzwälder ham, or the closest thing of reasonable price to Parma ham, or there are some british ham sorts which could work. Don't cut off the fat, it will melt down anyway while cooking, but if you cut it off from the beginning your sarmale might become dry.

You're a hoot, and I love your recipe for polenta.

My Romanian Grandma did not use tomatoes or sauce. This sounds more like my Polish friend's recipe!!