3 ways with Polenta
A great bubbling pot of Polenta changes in stages and I am going to show you how. Polenta has to be the most convenient of all accompaniments, it can be anything you fancy; a soft soak for gravy, instant dumplings with tomato sauce, yummy chips with fish, or cut in roast potato sized cubes to catch the juices around a roast chicken or a pan of roast vegetables.
This is all before it is flavoured with anything; you can make herb Polenta, cheese Polenta and porcini Polenta; at the moment I particularly like garlic Polenta and roast garlic Polenta and I’m sure I’ll discover more soon.
Total Cooking Time: up to 10 minutes
Serves: 2, generously, as an accompaniment
Ingredients:
- 400ml, milk, stock or water
- 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
- 80g polenta
- 50g grated cheese
- 25g butter
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
How to cook it:
- Bring the stock to the boil. Turn off the heat; add the Polenta in a slow, steady stream while stirring non-stop
- Turn on the heat, bring the Polenta to the boil and stir for 1 minute for soft Polenta or 3 minutes for hard. Be careful as it will boil volcanically
- Remove from the heat, stir in the cheese and butter
- If serving soft, serve now with sausages and onion gravy
- You can also spoon some into ice cube trays to freeze so you have small quantities of an instant and tasty carbohydrate to serve with any baby or child’s meal, or as little roasties next time you’ve got a chicken in the oven
- If making dumplings, spoon into a frying pan, fry for 2 minutes each side or until golden and then serve with tomato sauce
- If you’d like chips, spread the Polenta 2-3 cm thick in an oiled tray or container. (I use old take away containers for this) Set in the fridge for half an hour, cut into chips, shallow fry in a hot pan then serve with salmon, mushy peas and sunblush tomato salsa
Prep Ahead: The Polenta can freeze or will happily keep in the fridge for 2 days. I always make two or three times the recipe and keep some in ice cube trays and ready cut into chips in the freezer.
KIDS CORNER
Polenta has become a friend I reach for when I need an accompaniment quickly; both my boys, aged 2 and 4 at the time of writing, like it soft or as “chips”. James last shoved it into his mouth with his hand to get it more quickly, and he likes it best with cheese. When they were both babies, the Polenta in the ice cube trays was invaluable for us; we’d mix two cubes of this with one or two cube-sized spoonfuls of vegetable and one of meat or fish. One of the great advantages of plain Polenta is that makes a fine accompaniment for everything, so what ever we were serving or had left over, we could add a cube or two of Polenta and have a lovely meal for them.
