Category: polenta

Categories
parmesan polenta

crispy polenta fries

polenta fries

I felt like something different for a recent barbecue. Much as I like wedges or caesar salads sometimes it’s good to ring the changes. How about some crispy polenta fries? They go great with just about anything!

I use quick cook polenta, made up a little firmer than usual. Leave to set in the fridge, carve, breadcrumb and fry. One of the best things about this recipe is you can change what you mix the polenta in and the flavour changes drastically.

You can also make much of it in advance which makes it great if you’ve got people coming round.

To get the latest posts with recipes and giveaways, subscribe to email updates here.

Bonus tip: these crispy polenta fries work really well with a dash of rosemary salt – just bash some chopped rosemary with some sea salt and sprinkle over. And if you want to really push the boat out, add a drop of truffle oil to pull the flavours together!

Print

crispy polenta fries

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 400 ml chicken stock
  • 100 g quick cook polenta
  • 10 g freshly grated parmesan
  • Pinch mixed dried herbs (I used oregano, rosemary and parsley)

For breading:

  • 2 eggs beaten
  • 100 g panko breadcrumbs

Instructions

  • Grease a 14cm square baking tray and line with baking paper.
  • Get the stock on to a fast boil. Mix the herbs, polenta and parmesan together and whisk into the stock in a steady stream. It will immediately thicken and keep whisking for another minute until smooth. Pour into the baking tray and smooth over. Leave in the fridge to set for at least an hour.
  • Get your eggs and breadcrumbs ready in separate bowls. Cut the polenta into finger shapes, and dip into egg then breadcrumbs. Put the polenta fingers in the fridge for another 30 minutes to keep firm.
  • Get a large frying pan over a medium heat and add a thin layer of oil. Fry the polenta fingers for a couple of minutes on each side until golden brown.

Looking for other unusual sides? Try my courgette fries, booze-braised sweetcorn or mushroom and herb polenta.

Categories
food lamb leftovers polenta tomato

crunchy polenta shepherd’s pie

All the years I’ve been blogging, and I’ve never entered Belleau Kitchen’s random recipes challenge. It’s been running for a long old time, and I met Dom over three years ago during a Sainsbury’s campaign, for which I blogged a cottage pie. I decide to enter his challenge this month, and what do you know, I turn out a similar recipe for this as I did for that campaign – a crunchy polenta shepherd’s pie! The power of random, eh?

This recipe came out of The Best, a fairly under-the-radar show that I really loved. It starred Ben O’Donoghue, Paul Merrett and Silvana Franco. I’ve always loved Silvana’s recipes, and found her to be so inventive and accessible. Paul was approaching things in a fairly cheffy way, and Ben brought the Southern Hemisphere influences that set his dishes apart from the others. Dom’s Random Recipes theme for this month is books that need rehoming – I’ve had this book a long time, and while it’s full of great things, the useful recipe quota is used up. After 12 years I think I’ve extracted all the goodness from it. So here’s one last hurrah.

It’s Ben twists that are evident here with his crunchy polenta shepherd’s pie. Instead of a mash topping, the wonderful polenta is used in it’s twice cooked formed: first hob-cooked, then allowed to set so it can be cut into shapes ready for grilling.

The polenta recipe itself was slightly out – I would’ve added a dash of milk and a bunch more seasoning to liven it up, but the recipe challenge is all about doing “as is”! But the addition of tomatoes interweaved with the polenta slices gave lovely bursts of freshness that was very welcome. Under that it’s classic shepherd’s pie really, leftover lamb braised with mixed root veg. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

This recipe is entered into Belleau Kitchen’s Random Recipes #39 challenge.

 

Print

crunchy polenta shepherd’s pie

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 2 carrots diced
  • 3 celery sticks diced
  • 1 onion diced
  • 1 leek diced
  • 1 turnip diced
  • 1 potato peeled and diced
  • 3 garlic cloves finely chopped
  • 500 g leftover cooked lamb shredded
  • 1 tablespoon yeast extract
  • 1 vegetable stock cube crumbled
  • For the polenta:
  • 225 g instant polenta
  • 100 ml olive oil
  • 100 g parmesan
  • 4 ripe tomatoes sliced

Instructions

  • Heat some oil in a large casserole pan and saute the vegetables until golden brown. Add the lamb, yeast extract, stock cube and just enough water to cover. Bring to the boil and simmer for 45 minutes until thickened. Season to taste.
  • Meanwhile bring 1 litre water to the boil and add the polenta in a steady stream, whisking constantly. Remove from the heat and beat in the oil and parmesan. Pour into a baking tray until it is about 1.5cm thick, then allow to cool and set.
  • Preheat the oven to 200C. Spoon the lamb and veg into an ovenproof dish. Using a glass or pastry cutter, carve out circles of polenta and alternate slices of polenta and tomato on top. Grate over a little more parmesan and bake for 40 minutes, or until golden brown and bubbling.
Categories
cheese food polenta pork tomato

sous vide pork osso buco with crispy polenta

I’ve been mucking about almost constantly with my Sous Vide Supreme since unpacking it the other week. Pretty much every day the old silver box has been silently ticking away, gently cooking dinner. I’m starting to get the hang of it.

Following on from steak and gammon, I read just about every post by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt on sous vide and attacked a battery of different recipes. First up were some lamb shanks, courtesy of Donald Russell. I cooked them at 60°C for 48 hours, then briefly browned in a searing hot pan. I have to say I didn’t particularly enjoy them. The texture was a chalky, with a strong offal flavour.  However the sauce was dynamite, the cooking juices reduced down with a little port made for a spoon-licking jus.

On with pork chops. After a much briefer 1 hour bath followed by quick sear (you get used to this pattern) I tucked into them. They were perfect…  But not substantially better than pan fried. And on the downside you don’t get crispy, wobbly fat to bite into, just hard rind. I was losing faith a bit.

Lamb leg steaks marinated with rosemary for 90 minutes @ 57°C, well now we’re getting somewhere. Plump and tender with a deep lamby flavour. Helped along by a sauce of white wine reduction and mushrooms this really hit the spot.

I’m starting to find a groove with sous vide. For me what works is thick, traditionally quick-cook meats. You get a fuller, deeper meat flavour and it’s really satisfying. I‘m trying chicken breast later this week and I think It’s going to be a winner. I’m also seeing a lot of flavour imparted from dried herbs – the humidity seems to favour those often dried grassy bits and engorge them with taste. But working the slower casserole-style cuts? I’m not yet convinced. 

This recipe was my most successful long soak. Meaty pork osso buco, giving off plenty of luscious meat juices for gravy. Unlike it’s beefy cousin, the pork osso buco has a lighter, cleaner taste and a chicken-like texture. To offset this I added some crispy polenta spiked with chunks of cheese and tomato. Adding a veg-packed sauce to be mopped up meant clean plates all round.

I was given a Sous Vide Supreme to try, along with meat from Donald Russell. There’s a competition a-coming in a few days, more details here.

Print

pork osso buco with crispy polenta

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 4 pork osso buco steaks
  • Pinch dried oregano
  • 1 carrot peeled and finely diced
  • 1 onion peeled and finely diced
  • 1/2 leek diced
  • 1 garlic clove crushed
  • 1 bouquet garni
  • 400 ml chicken stock
  • 140 g dry polenta
  • 50 g cheddar diced
  • 5 sun dried tomatoes sliced

Instructions

  • Sprinkle the oregano over the steaks, along with a little seasoning. Vacuum seal and cook at 60C for 48 hours.
  • An hour before the osso buco is ready, get 125ml water in a saucepan and get boiling. Whisk in the polenta, pouring in a smooth stream. Add a pinch of salt and cook for another minute until thick. Stir in the cheese and tomato, then pour into an oiled baking dish. Put aside for a moment.
  • Over a gentle heat in a little butter fry the mirepoix. Add the stock and bouquet garni and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove the herbs and blitz with a hand blender, and keep warm whilst everything else finishes.
  • Get the grill on high and a pan on a high heat. Grill the polenta for around 10 minutes until crisp on top. Remove the osso buco and pour the cooking juices into the sauce. Pan fry the osso buco quickly on all sides until browned. Serve with slices of crisp polenta and some green beans.
Categories
chicken food polenta

oven fried chicken

I previously named Leon 2 as my book of the year, so to get Leon Family & Friends for my birthday this year was a real treat. The slightly madcap layout, the “everybody pitch in” attitude, the waves of nostalgia splashed with modern food trends is pure LEON. It’s difficult to read this book and not smile, and I’m certain it’ll get a place in this year’s best cookbooks of 2013 list.

This chicken recipe is absolute dynamite. All the fun of crunchy, sleazy chicken but baked rather than fried to assuage (some of) your healthy fears. Pretty simple too, you just need to put it in the fridge the night before then bake the next day.

Oven fried chicken (serves 6):

For the marinade:

280ml buttermilk

½ tablespoon English mustard

½ tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 clove of garlic, crushed

1 bay leaf

2 teaspoons salt

3 dashes of Tabasco

10 – 12 chicken portions

For the coating:

100g flour

100g polenta

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon salt

Pinch cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried thyme

  1. Stir all the coating ingredients together and then drown the chicken pieces in this mixture. Cover and leave to marinate overnight.
  2. The next day, preheat the oven to 180°C. Combine all the coating ingredients. Shake off the excess marinade and then roll the chicken in the seasoning. Get a wide pan on a medium heat and cover the base of the pan with oil. Brown the chicken on all sides, and then roast in a baking tray over a wire rack for 40 minutes until cooked through. Serve with lemon wedges, mashed potato and greens.
Exit mobile version