Savory Polenta...

A month back, polenta serendipitously made an entry into our list of favorites. It so happened that  one Sunday i picked up a packet of cornmeal from our Indian grocery store thinking that i needed it in a recipe whose list of ingredients i could faintly recall. as it turned out the recipe required cornflour and not cornmeal... so the new packet just sat on the counter for a while till i googled and found this basic recipe of polenta. i made it, we enjoyed it and there was demand for more. that made me i look into Alton Brown's recipe of Savory Polenta.. which i slightly modified  to make my own version of savory polenta.

my  Google search had also led me to this article from New York times that talks about the nutritional values of polenta. so all in all i think this one is a healthy flavorful dish that you might want to include in your meals every once in a while.  over the weekend i made it twice. on Friday we had it with a side of fried chicken and on Saturday we had it with veggies in chilly sauce, while Pradyot had it with a generous helping of butter and some lentil soup and we all enjoyed our meals heartily... 

now off to the recipe..

ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup finely chopped onions
• 2 cloves of garlic, grated
• 4 springs of fresh coriander, chopped
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup split red lentil (masoor dal)
• 2 stalks of celery, finely chopped
• 1 cup coarse cornmeal
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• black pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese

what i did

• i pressure cooked the lentil with the celery in 4 cups of water., strained out solid from the cooked dal and kept 3 cups of the lentil water aside.
• i preheated the oven to 350 degree F.
• next i heated the oil in my iron skillet, added the onions, half of the coriander and garlic into it and let it sweat till the onions became soft and translucent. i then added the milk into the skillet, stirred it in with the cooked onion and garlic and poured the whole mixture into the blender and made a smooth puree of it.
• now that all the basic materials were ready, i began heating the lentil water that i had kept aside along with the salt. once the water started boiling i reduced the heat, and started adding  in the cornmeal and the prepared milk-onion puree alternatively into the water, stirring the mixture constantly since the cornmeal tends to get lumpy otherwise. 
• once all the cornmeal and milk-onion puree was added, i switched off the heat, covered the skillet with a aluminium foil and transferred it to the oven to cook for 35-40 minutes. once the mixture turned creamy, i removed it from the oven, added the butter, pepper and Parmesan in it and served it on the table after garnishing with the remaining coriander and some more grated Parmesan.

Nishi likes an extra helping of butter on the polenta, so he usually cuts out small pieces of butter and melts it atop his slices of polenta in the microwave. of course that tastes good and you could try it too if you don't mind an extra helping of fat.

Happy Cooking and don't forget to fill me with your suggestions and comments if you stop by.. you are the reason i write and its always wonderful to hear from you.

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Agrodolce Salads

The other day i tried yet another recipe from Chef Lucinda Scala Quinn's book, namely Carrot   Agrodolce and Zucchini Agrodolce.  Agrodolce is a traditional sweet and sour sauce in Italian cuisine. Its name comes from "agro" which means sour and "dolce" which means sweet.  As the chef mentions in the introduction,   this recipe involves a technique of cooking  in which the  sweet and sour taste  is achieved through the use of sugar and vinegar.  its very simple to cook and has a refreshing flavors just the kind you would want in your salads. 

in the introduction the chef mentions that she often serves them as an antipasti. however we here enjoyed both carrot and zucchini agrodolce as part of our salads with some additional ingredients. while the carrot agrodolce with its  radiance of orange stood out in appearance, both were appealing in taste. in fact it dawned on me later that zucchini aggrodolce would go very well as a filling inside crepes. but i am yet to try that..so can't give you a feedback on that right away... now over to the recipes..

Carrot Agrodolce Salad

1 pound baby carrots, sliced  into matchsticks
1 tablespoon extra-virgin oil

salt to taste

2 tablespoons finely chopped onion

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1/4 teaspoon of ground black pepper

2 teaspoons of dried parsley

2 teaspoons of dried coriander

1 small apple, sliced into matchsticks

4 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese 

what i did

as directed in the book, i placed the carrots, olive oil, salt and 1/3 cup water in a large saucepan over high heat and brought it to boil and cook until the water evaporated.

then i stirred in the onions and cooked for about a minute, added the sugar and mixed, added the vinegar and pepper  and tasted to see how much more salt was required to balance out the sour of the vinegar. i added the salt accordingly and stirred until the carrots got a glaze coating. at this point the the recipe recommended stirring in some mint. since i did not have it i added in the parsley and coriander and stirred them in just before removing my carrot agrodolce from the heat.

now that the carrot agrodolce was ready, i tasted it and felt the need to add something more to strike the right note. you know what i mean.. and then i thought of apples and grated parmesan... and yes. as soon as i added the apples and Parmesan i knew i was ready with a fresh salad for the day... Apple Carrot Agrodolce.... for the Zucchini Agrodolce, i used the same basic ingredients replacing carrots with zucchini. and as the book said, i  followed the exact same procedure of preparation except for sauteing the zucchini in olive oil instead of boiling it in water and then proceeded to  step 2. then as before I added in a matchstick slices of a small apples, some finely shredded lettuce and 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan. and taDaa.... yet another tasty salad was ready...

note: 
the recipe had said red wine vinegar. i however used apple cider vinegar because that is what i had. however you might want to stick to the original recipe. 

p.s : you can find all the recipes from Lucinda's Rustic Italian kitchen here. however you might want to lend the book from the library for the introduction. i kind of have a thing for those :)

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Chicken Polpette Casserole and Baked Kale Chips

Polpette was on my to do list ever since i borrowed the book from the library. but life kept interfering and it wasn't till last Friday that I could get it done. and then i realized that i could have cooked this up on any other weeknight... it was so simple and so easy.... and so DELICIOUS. we all loved it. and by all i mean even my little toddler.... 

though polpette is supposed to be shaped like meatballs... i simply cooked my chicken mixture in a casserole and sliced out individual pieces and served it with Annie's Noms' Caramelised onion mashed potato and  baked Kale chips. the mashed potato was yummy and the three tasted really good together. however Nishi and i both felt that the chicken tasted even better on Monday when we had the leftovers with our Indian meal of Rajma-Chawal (Rice with Red Kidney Bean Curry). don't know if  the chicken became more delicious with a two days of refrigeration or it was the combination... but we definitely relished it more on Monday.. now over to the recipe.

for the Kale chips

i used the following ingredients

1/2 bunch kale

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

salt and black pepper to taste

and proceeded as follows..

I preheated the oven to 350 degrees F, cut the leaves from the ribs, washed and dried them and chopped them into 1 inch pieces. i then drizzled it with olive oil and the seasoning and baked it for 10-12 minutes.

for the Chicken Polpette

i used the following ingredients

1 cup milk

6 inches from a loaf of french bread (I used French bread because that is what i had.)

4 pieces of tender chicken(marinated overnight and cut into small pieces)

3 tablespoons of dry parsley leaf

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

2 cloves of garlic, finely grated

1 egg, lightly beaten

2 tablespoons of Cooking Marsala Wine

10 Kalamata olives, halved length-wise

1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs

salt and pepper to taste

marinade for the chicken
   1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste 
   1 tablespoon vinegar 
   2 teaspoons hot pepper sauce 
   2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce 
   1/4 teaspoon salt

and proceeded as follows...

the night before i cooked the dish I cleaned and chopped the chicken tenders into 1 inch pieces, 

whisked the ingredients of the marinade, pour it into a resealable plastic bag and added chicken pieces coating them evenly with the marinade. then sealing the bag i marinate the chicken in the refrigerator for over 24 hours.

i preheated the oven to 350 degree F. 

next, i heated the milk until warm and placed strips of the bread in the warm milk till they absorbed the milk completely. this hardly took any time. maybe a few seconds. i then transferred the bread strips to a board and finely chopped them and placed them in a large bowl.

once that was done, i added the rest of the ingredients to the pieces of soaked bread and hand-mixed them till they combined completely. then transferring the mixture to an oval casserole dish, i baked it for 20-25 minutes. and after letting it rest in the oven for an additional 10 minutes i served it for dinner....

so that was my Friday night special.... what was yours ? I'll love to hear....

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Homemade Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Creamy Red Pepper Sauce

Never in my life had i imagined that i would make gnocchi at home. but the introductory note in the book said that "homemade gnocchi is very simple" and is 'one of the first cooking projects that the author involved are kids in.' so i thought... o.k. lets give it a try. and yes. few hours later i realized this is that making gnocchi is indeed that easy... once you have got the hang of it.

Taste wise,  my sweet potato dumplings did not come out 'as light as clouds,'  as the book described them to be. clearly there was plenty of scope for  improvement of the texture of my gnocchi. but since  it was my first attempt we tried overlooking that and concentrated more on the  the creamy red pepper sauce that i tossed it in. the sauce was finger-licking delicious. and there was an immediate request for its inclusion in the next weeks menu.

since there was no green in the gnocchi and sauce, to add color to the plate i served it with baked kale chips. and the two paired pretty well. also, just for curiosity i tossed few dumplings in store-brought ragu... that too tasted good and according to Nishi the potato taste of the dumplings was somewhat more identifiable in the ragu tossed ones. however i liked the gnocchi tossed in red pepper sauce more. i could faintly taste the paneer in it and i really enjoyed that. now over to the recipe....

To make the Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Creamy Red Pepper Sauce, 

i used the following ingredients

homemade sweet potato gnocchi  (as prepared below)

the red pepper sauce (as prepared below)

for the garnish

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 tablespoon pine nuts

and proceeded as follows....

I boiled water in a large saucepan with a generous amount of salt, dropped about 10-12  gnocchi into the water at a time and cooked them until they returned to float on the surface of the boiling water. 2 to 3 minutes. i then removed them with a slotted spoon and tossed them immediately with the prepared sauce. then garnished it with ground cinnamon, nutmeg and pine nuts.

though i mentioned Lucinda's Rustic Kitchen in the beginning,  i adapted my recipe of gnocchi from Oh My Veggies. and for the sauce i used this recipe as a guideline. 

For the sweet potato gnocchi

the ingredients and what i did

2 1-pound red-skinned sweet potatoes, rinsed, patted dry, pierced all over with fork

1/4 cup homemade paneer

1/4 cup pureed tofu

1/2 c. shredded parmesan cheese

1 tsp. salt

a pinch of brown sugar

about 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour + more for rolling and shaping gnocchi

i preheated the oven to 425 degree F, speared the potatoes lightly with a fork in a few places and directly placed them on the oven rack and cooked until completely tender, about one hour. when cool to handle, i cut the potatoes open, scooped out the flesh and mashed it with my masher, then spread them out on a baking sheet and allowed them to cool completely. 

next in a bowl i blended the mashed potato with all the listed ingredients other than flour. then slowly blended in the flour into the mixture adding 2-3 tablespoons of flour at a time, until the dough pulled away from my hands and felt like pizza dough.

next i sprinkled some flour on a work surface,  separated the dough into several pieces and rolled each out into around 1 1/2 feet long ropes and using a knife cut each rope into 18 one inch pieces. 

up to this point i followed the instructions in the recipes.. but then they became confusing. the book said " To form the gnocchi, dip a fork in flour, then place the tines on top of a piece of dough. Applying medium pressure, gently roll the gnocchi toward you with the fork, releasing pressure gradually as you roll, until it is completely rolled off the tines. Repeat with each piece of dough, placing the gnocchi on a floured baking sheet as completed. The pieces should resemble tiny footballs with a cup in the center," and the recipe i was following said something similar. and though theseinstructions make complete sense now... that night they didn't. so i googled and this video came to my rescue. 

and viola !! using the tips from the video i got my first batch of gnocchi. yay !!

immediately afterwards, i spread the dumplings on a sheet of parchment paper, covered them loosely with a plastic sheet and froze them to use later.

For the red pepper sauce

the ingredients and what i did.

1 medium sized red pepper

1 medium sized onion

2 cloves of garlic, minces

1 medium sized potato, peeled and boiled

1/2 cup milk

2 tablespoon Greek yogurt

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoons + 6 teaspoons olive oil 

1 teaspoon capers

2 tablespoons dried parsley

3 tablespoons dried basil

salt to taste

black pepper to taste

sugar to taste

i preheated the oven to 425 degree F, then cut the red pepper and half of the onion in thin stripes and along the minced garlic and 1 tablespoon of olive oil, wrapped them in an aluminium foil and baked them for 15 minutes.

next i sliced the remaining onion into thin stripes and fried it in butter over medium heat until it was soft and light brown. then i added milk to this and when the milk started simmering i stirred in the mashed potato, baked red pepper-onion mixture and capers into it and heated it for about 5 minutes stirring occasionally. i then transferred the mixture into the blender and pureed it along with Greek yogurt,  salt, pepper, sugar, basil and parsley. then whipped the mixture while gradually adding the remaining olive oil into it until it achieved the creamy consistency that i wanted in my sauce.

so that is what i indulged in over the weekend... i certainly look forward to making more of this in the recent future... what about you? have you tried your hands at gnocchi... do you have any tips to share. do drop in a line... i'll love to hear....

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Espresso Granita

In spite of many a lofty plans, this 14th of Feb, all I ended cooking up for dinner was our regular  pizza and Espresso Granita from  Lucinda's Rustic Italian Kitchen. In fact I did not even make the pizza. i just got the dough ready and Nishi topped it, as he always does and got the dinner ready while i was hanging out with Pradyot. and it was only after our little boy fell asleep that i felt a compulsive desire to make something sweet to mark our love and friendship of ten years. i flipped through the recipe books that were on the kitchen counter and decided on Espresso Granita as the dessert for the evening. why Granita on a cold chilly night you ask. well, because we are crazy like that. also,  once upon a time... several moons ago, it was coffee that had tied a strong silent bond between the two of us.... so celebrating with coffee  always seems befitting no matter which form it is in.

I followed the recipe from Lucinda's Rustic Italian Kitchen word to word, just sizing it down to serve two. and this is how it went.

ingredients.

2/3 cup freshly made espresso

1/3 cup water

1 tablespoon sugar

1/8 cup sugar

1/2 cup heavy cream

shaved bittersweet chocolate

what i did.

while the coffee was still warm, i stirred in the sugar until it dissolved and next added the water. i then poured the mixture into my 9.25 x 5.25 x 2.75 inch bread loaf pan and placed the pan in the freezer. after 45 minutes, when a thin layer of ice had gathered on the surface, i racked it with a fork to dislodge and distribute the ice crystals... and kept repeating the raking-dislodging-redistributing business every 30 minutes for the next 2 hours to form a granular texture.

in the meantime,  Nishi whipped the cream and remaining sugar in the mixture until it formed soft peaks.

finally we scooped out the granita into two ramekins, topped it with a dollop of whipped cream and shaved chocolate and dug into it right away....  hmm... that felt good...  slurp ... slurp........... 

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the event Walk Through  Memory Lane announced by Gayathri of Gayathri's Cook Spot and hosted at Merry Tummy 

Marsala Wine Valentine Taralli

A few days back i happened to stumble upon the cooking event "Flavors of Italy for the month of February" at Divya's Culinary Journey and got all charged up. you see other than pizza, pasta, lasagna, gelato and biscotti... my knowledge about Italian cuisine is limited. so i saw this event as an opportunity to  explore the unknown terrains.. and though i consult the internet for every new dish i try... for this event i decided to cook from the book.  that led me to the culinary aisle of our local library where amongst all other books on Italian culinary i picked up Lucinda's Rustic Italian Kitchen. well my choice of the book was determined by two things... 

one. it wasn't as fat as most others in the rack... 

two. because somehow rustic appeals to me much more than fine dining... 

The book with its little introductory anecdotes before each recipe is a nice read by itself. the style of cooking she mentions is very simple and non-intimidating. so after a quick browse... i decided on a few dishes that i would  like to try.. and Marsala Wine Taralli happened to be one of the firsts.

According to the chef Lucinda Scala Quinn, Taralli were typically a savory cookies which varied from  region to region and were often enjoyed with wine. Apparently some recipes of Taralli called for briefly boiling the dough before baking them. However the recipe in the book is simple and straight-forward and only involves kneading the dough, looping the dough and baking them. She says that her recipe was passed down to her from her Great Aunt Lina (Carolina Scala)... and this recipe yields taralli which are quite different from the ones she had had in Italy. 

While I tried to stay faithful to the book as much as possible there were some changes i made here and there. the chef uses eggs in her recipe. but since we are not too fond of the eggy smell so i made an eggless version. also because I could not get Marsala wine, I used the cooking Marsala wine that was available at the neighborhood  grocery store. I guess the substitutions might have meddled with the authentic taste of these cookies... but since i have not tasted the real thing.. i cannot say.  we however liked the version we had in hand. in fact Nishi and i popped in a few even before they were glazed because they were just so good.. not too sweet... not too hard.. something similar in taste to Starbucks madeleine..but slightly harder in texture. the other liberty that I took with the recipe was in shaping my loops like hearts, x's and o's.. but then it is the 14th of Feb. you can't blame me for that.

in  the book, the chef mentions that these cookies were her dad's favorite and he recalls them with a thin lemon glaze which she hadn't found in her Grandmother's files but had incorporated in her recipe.  however since i realized late at night that i had run out of lemons so i created two alternative glazes both of which tasted good... but as i said... these cookies are lovely just by themselves...

Recipe adapted from Lucinda's Rustic Italian Kitchen. 

ingredients :

for the cookies

1 7/8 cups all purpose flour*

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup Marsala Cooking wine

paste of 1 tablespoon cornstarch + 2 tablespoon water (substitute for 1 egg)

for the Marsala wine -honey glaze :

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

2 tablespoons of Marsala cooking wine

1 1/2 tablespoon of honey

for the white grape juice glaze :

1/8 cup confectioners sugar

2 teaspoons white grape juice

1 teaspoon of milk

what i did : 

I started by preheating the oven to 375 degrees F and lining 2 baking trays with parchment paper.

For the cookies I combined the flour, baking powder and salt and sifted the mixture. In a separate bowl I whisked together the sugar, wine, olive oil and cornstarch paste, adding them in the order mentioned. I

then i folded in the flour mixture until well combined and kneaded it slightly until the dough was easy to handle and medium-soft.*(see my notes).

Next, using my hands I rolled the dough into cigar-like rolls and shaped them into heart-loops and x-o s like this....

then placed them on the prepared baking trays and baked the cookies until slightly golden, about 17 to 20 minutes.

For both the glazes i simply whisked the ingredients together. and after cooling the cookies overnight, i dipped them into the glaze coating both sides and let the glaze settle on the cookies in the refrigerator for about 6 hours. **(see my notes).

notes: 

*initially i had sized down all the ingredients to 2/3 of what the recipe in the book said. by that calculation i started off with 2 cups of all purpose flour and the rest of the ingredients as stated above. but while kneading i felt that the dough was becoming tough while 1/8 cup of the sifted ingredients were still to be kneaded in. so i left it like that. while writing down the recipe i realized that while i had sized down the quantity of all-purpose flour I had not done the same for the rest of the dry ingredients. if you try this recipe you might want to size those down slightly.

**as you can see here, the original recipe says that the icing should be of the consistency of thick whipping cream. since I had used only 1/2 cup instead of 1 cup sugar mine was not so thick. however we liked the mild sweetness that it rendered.

i should also mention here that my choice of alternative glazes was determined by this piece on the internet that i found while looking for non-alcoholic substitutes for Marsala Wine. 

so that was that.... if you stop by do fill me with your comments and thoughts. I'll love to hear.. till then

Happy Baking and happy Valentine's day !!

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Vardhini's event  Sweet Luv 2013: Event Announcement (CJ #4) at Cooks Joy

Bon Vivant #12 - Quixotic Fixes at Summee's Culinary Bites

Cook like a Celebrity Chef at Food Corner