Polenta!
Recently I subscribed to the magazine Eating Well, and in my first issue that arrived a few weeks ago, there was an article about Polenta. Included in the article were several recipes using it and one of them stood out...Catalan Sauteed Polenta & Butter Beans.I actually bought a tube of prepared Polenta at Walmart soon after reading the article, but I was unable to make it until today when I finally found fresh spinach in the grocery store. The FDA lifted the ban on 9/29 and only now is it available around here. Crazy. I'm guessing the stores didn't want to stock it because they feared it wouldn't sell so soon after the recall? Cheap bastards!
So I made the recipe and you know what? It was actually pretty good! The first few bites totally reminded me of Grits, but I got over it. The texture was good, too. I ended up using red wine vinegar instead of the sherry vinegar the recipe called for since I couldn't find any locally. I'll be making this again when I find a cheaper source for Polenta...it was like $3 for one little tube at Walmart!!!
posted by Jen @ 8:46 PM
6 Comments:
At 4:26 PM,
BigAssBelle said…
um . . . so you don't like grits? where do you live again? are you doin' your grits up right? butter, salt, pepper, butter, butter, butter? grits are the food of the gods in my book, but i've never tried polenta . . . sounds good.
At 6:37 PM,
TitanThirteen said…
That dish pictured looks sooo yummy!
I've never cooked with polenta either. When i do the grocery shopping, i look in the pasta isle where they have all that stuff. I pick up packets to think about trying them. But i'm not very adventurous with food so i always put off throwing a new product in the trolly. Let us know how you go :o)
At 8:52 PM,
Kimberly said…
The only thing I know about polenta is that Giada made really yummy-looking hors d ' oeuvres with it once. She used dry (coarse powder) polenta and mixed it with water and butter. As best I understand it, it's kind of like cornmeal? Is that right?
Anyhow, looks and sounds really good.
At 8:54 PM,
Kimberly said…
Oh, sorry. This is Giada. She's hot and she cooks.
At 9:30 PM,
Wanna_B_slimmer said…
Hello there....
Followed a link from cactusfreek's blog to here... I just want to say that you can buy polenta cheaper in the dry form... I bought some a few weeks ago.. and it is still sealed up in its packet... hehe..I am gluten intollerant so I bought it thinking..wooohooo something I can eat.. but have yet found a recipe that I want to make with the stuff... other than a recipe using it as a pizza base.. well thats not good for a lard arse like me trying to get rid of it.. haha..
but then again.. might be healthy form of junk food...
hmmm
now where did I hide that polenta...
At 9:03 AM,
Jen said…
Bigassbelle,
Grits are...well...okay. :-D I spent most of my childhood up in Western Massachusetts so the only grits I was exposed to were the instant kind. Although grits aren't on my list of favorite foods, I can eat *anything* with lots of butter and salt! Oh, and cheese too. LOL
Cactusfreek,
Be daring! Take the plunge and try something new! I've been trying a lot of new things, but there are some things I've seen that I just won't try. One of my local grocers carries Ground Bison. Ewww! It just sounds gross. I have to draw the line somewhere. :-D
Kimberly,
Yep...it's made from cornmeal which is like a coarse flour made from corn. I really do need to learn to make it from scratch. Do you ever watch Good Eats on the Food Network? That guy made some on a recent episode and it seemed fairly easy.
Wanna_b_slim,
Let me know how the pizza comes out if you make it. Sounds like it could be good! If all else fails, you can make grits! ;-)
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