Monday, January 9, 2006

Polenta

I'll not be starting a food blog or anything, but I have been cooking a-lot lately and I thought I'd share. Most recently I've rediscovered the joy of polenta.

Polenta is just boiled corn meal, but it takes on a great texture and it holds it's shape. I made up a batch and then put it in an oiled glass pan to get a shallow loaf of it.
I sliced the loaf into four by four squares which I set aside.

Next I put some peanut oil in my wok and fried up some portabello mushroom (big slices then sliced sideways to give me small thin pieces), Zuchini and yellow crookneck squash (sliced into coins), a ton of garlic added later to retain it's flavor, and even later still a big bunch of sliced up basil, cooked just long enough to wilt.

In another pot I took a can of diced basil tomatoes (using canned, yeah, I'm a slouch. want to cook your own tomatoes? Have at it) and I cooked them down until they were nice and thick.

Next I fried the polenta squares in a really hot pan until they had a little bit of black on each side. I put a couple of sqares on each, covered them in the vegetebles and mushrooms and then the tomatoes over the top. Served up with steamed greens flavored with some apple cider vinegar and a nice green salad.

Mmmmm mmmmm good. The left over squares were put to work over the next few days under various fried vegetables and I even had some with Rice Dream over one like cereal, which I'm told folks do (except that of course most folks use milk.) It wasn't bad.

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