Helen RandellA use for the polenta in the cupboard
October 22nd 2010 21:33
Sometimes, when you get to the supermarket, it can be hard to remember exactly what ingredient you were after. What size block of butter did I need? What type of cheese was I after, and in very special circumstances, what type of small grain did she ask me to buy?
This was the case when a while ago now I asked Mr Rough Cooking to pick up some couscous to go with our dinner. Instead, he came home with a packet of polenta and a packet of risoni.
The risoni was quickly dealt with, but polenta is not something I have mastered in the kitchen. I have made it a few times, trying baked polenta, soft polenta and grilled polenta, but I have never been happy with the results. Because of this ineptitude, the aforementioned packet of polenta has sat in our cupboard, unloved, for some time.
The other day, while flicking through the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet Cook Book, I came across a recipe for polenta and parmesan crusted fish. The polenta packet came out of the cupboard and suddenly I have a viable use for this ingredient. The fish, we used garfish, was bathed in an egg wash and then run through the polenta and parmesan mixture. Then, easy as can be, you just put it on a baking tray and place it in a 200 degree pre heated oven for 20 minutes. We served with a few home made chunky chips, a salad and some home made tartare sauce. Very nice.
I’m also going to give this mixture a go with chucking a few herbs into the crust mixture, and I can imagine it would also be good as a coating on chicken breast.
Best of all, I have found a use for the polenta in the cupboard… and a reason to keep trying with this most humble of humble peasant foods.
Do you have a favourite recipe to use polenta? What are the tricks to making it good?
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Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness
Thanks for this - I am thinking flat head tails
Comment by Edward 1
EducatedInGames
Gamer Verdict
Comment by Helen Randell
Rough Cooking
At least the bag of polenta in my cupboard is only a little one