the problem with polenta

Husband and I tried a new recipe today. It was muy delicious. Polenta Stuffed Poblano Peppers from Real Simple. I should have taken some photos of finished product, but once we started eating, it was just too hard to stop! Plus, it was pretty typical “Mexican-Style” food: messy but yummy.

I made some pretty minor modifications. The first was the addition of a jalapeno to the broiled vegetables. We like our food a little spicy and I thought that would be a good addition. Plus, we had an extra jalapeno in the fridge and because we are leaving in a couple of days, I didn’t want it to go to waste. The second addition was chorizo sausage to the salsa on top of the peppers. Husband is not a vegetarian and needs his protein. I was not convinced that it would be a good addition but it worked really well.

But my problem has nothing to do with the finished product; it is about polenta.

We really like polenta. I don’t buy “instant polenta”, I buy corn meal. Because isn’t that what polenta is? Corn meal? All of the instructions, er… recipes that I use for making polenta say to bring the liquid to a boil, then add the corn meal. Stir until it thickens, usually about 5-8 minutes.

But here’s my dilemma; my polenta never needs 5 minutes to cook until it’s thick. It’s usually only about 30 seconds. The polenta is good, it’s not gluey or anything like that. What am I doing wrong? Am I doing anything wrong? Should I just go with it and call it yummy? Everyone seems to like my polenta so I thought I’d share my “recipe”.

My “perfect” polenta recipe:

• 1 part corn meal
• 3.25 parts liquid (I use milk or cream. Usually not 100% cream, but about half cream, half milk. It’s whatever is left over in the fridge. I’ve never tried water, but I guess it would work. All of the recipes seem to recommend it. Why 3.25 parts liquid? Because it usually sits for about 20 minutes before it gets served. If you are the type of person that is “organized” and “prepared”, then you can probably decrease the amount of liquid to 3 or 3.1 parts.)
• Olive oil
• Cheese, about 1/2 part. I usually use parmesan; the Kraft shredded kind in the shaker bottle, because that’s what in the fridge. If I have some real parmesan (the aged kind), that is really nice. But the recipe above uses goat cheese. It’s more expensive but is nice!

Bring liquid to an almost boil. If water, you can ignore it. If milk/cream, you need to stir every once in awhile. Add the corn meal while whisking. I usually add in a pretty fast stream, but not all at once. If you don’t whisk or stir, you’ll get yucky lumps. After the corn meal is added, add about 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil and the cheese and stir until thick. “They” say 5-8 minutes, but it never takes me more than 30 seconds to reach that point. After it’s thick enough, Turn off the heat. I then pour a little olive oil on top (1 tablespoon maybe?) and put the lid on until it’s time to serve.

Viola. Perfect polenta.

What I always hate about the cooking sites are phrases like: “Stir until thick” or “Cook until done.” What’s thick? What’s done? I need more details!!! So here’s the nitty gritty about “thick”. Once the whisk (and yes, a whisk is really important) starts leaving soft peaks in the mixture, it’s probably thick enough. You’ll start to feel more and more resistance as you stir. Once your wrist starts to complain a little, stop. But what I think about is this, “would I want to eat it now?” You don’t want to stir until it’s the consistency that you eat it at because it sits, it will firm up.

What is this whole “part” thing? Where are the cups and oz and lbs?!? And how many parts does does a person eat anyway? The rule of thumb that I use is 1/4 cup of polenta for two people. That usually makes a tad too much and I end up throwing some away, but corn meal is cheap. So is olive oil when you buy it by the gallon like we do.

Anyway. I hope you make and enjoy some polenta sometime soon. It goes with anything. Our favorite? Steak and spinach with mushrooms. Or grilled lamb chops and asparagus. Or baked chicken with peas…

Turkey for 20?

Once again, “we” decided to get a huge turkey that could feed 12. No matter that there were only four for Thanksgiving. I could say that we had ten other people that cancelled at the last minute but that would be a lie. Two friends couldn’t make it, but that was it.

So now, we are swimming in turkey. And this is after sending over half of it home with our friends.

For the record, I want it to be known that I wanted to go with the smaller bird, but I was overruled. Husband loves turkey dinner and seems to think that more is better. But he forgets that leftovers get old quickly. It’s only Saturday, but I’m already getting tired of turkey. We went out for lunch today but had turkey for dinner. I’m hoping that I can handle one more night of it.

Turkey pot pie? Turkey burritos? Turkey pilaf? Turkey cocktail? Anything but turkey dinner!!

This year, Dusty’s decided that they would offer the option of cooking the turkey. I had my reservations, but the friends and Husband talked me into it. It was OK. The problem was that we picked it up at 10AM but didn’t eat until 3PM. It was good, but I can do better.

It was an experiment and worth doing, but I don’t think we need a repeat of it.

I like the craziness of running around and worrying that it won’t get cooked in time. I like using my electronic thermometer and keeping too close of an eye on each degree. Only 10 more until it can come out!!

I like basting the turkey and the chef in a bottle of red wine. It make the gravy so yummy!

But I really like putting that big bird on the table and knowing that I was responsible for it.

Call it pride. So shoot me.

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Project 365 – No. 95 (November 24, 2008)

Monday morning, there were six deer in the backyard. I took off after them in my dress shoes through the snow and about half way across the yard I thought “What the hell am I going to do if they chase me back?” Thankfully, there was no mauling. But I did notice tracks in the snow on the deck as I was coming back into the house. Do you thick they are getting brave?

Project 365 – No. 96 (November 25, 2008)

This was a last minute photo on Tuesday night. It was supposed to show all of the crap that I brought home with me to grade over the break but instead it just looks like I can’t keep the backseat of my car clean. Which I can’t, but that’s not the point.

Project 365 – No. 97 (November 26, 2008)

Quotation marks are dangerous in the wrong hands.

Too Lazy…

To post photos. I have some, but running and cooking makes a girl slow and lazy.

I cooked my first Indian today. Spinach and lamb curry and a vegetable curry. The veggie curry came out much better than the lamb, but the lamb has possibilities. Next time (and there will be a next time!!), less water, less spinach and more spice!! We had one of our special bottles of Italian red with dinner. It was a marzemino from northern Italy (Trentino) that we brought back with us. (A case of wine weighs about 48 pounds, which is just under the weight limit for international flights. The duties on wine are actually pretty low so it is easy to bring back your favorites from Europe! Just make sure you declare wine when you come through customs. If not, there is probably a strip search and long delays in your future…)

The acidity of the Italian wine cut through the richness of the food for a nice contrast. The wine was a lighter wine with low alcohol. Who would have thought that Italian and Indian would go well together? I wish that American producers would rediscover low alcohol wines. It was such a treat to enjoy a glass of wine with dinner and not feel like we had a third course.

But the reason I don’t feel too guilty about all the food and the wine with dinner is that I ran today.

I FINALLY got the battery in one of my running watches replaced today so I know exactly how slow I am. It is a short run from our house to my favorite jewelry store, the Wooden Skate where I got the battery changed out. It is slightly uphill, and I think I was running at about a 11:30 pace. On the way home, it was closer to 10:30. It still means that a half marathon is over two hours, which is totally unacceptable.

Also unacceptable is running when it is freezing outside. Why might you ask?

• The battery on the iPod doesn’t last nearly as long. Thankfully, it lasts over 20 minutes which is all I’m running right now.
• No cute running shorts.
• Dressing for the cold is fine and dandy, but when you start getting hot, it is not good form to leave clothes littering the sidewalk.
• Running with a scarf wrapped around my mouth is nice for about 30 seconds. Then, the steam from heavy breathing starts making the scarf moist and chaffing. Explain that one to your friends, I dare ya.
• Ice on the sidewalk is dangerous.
• So is running on the road when the shoulders are only 12 inches wide.

Tomorrow is my “long” run. I’m aiming for 3.1 miles. If I’m not back in 45 minutes, look for ice cubes.

Gravy, two ways.

For some reason, I’m mostly caught up. There is still stuff to do, but I’m not so far behind that if I don’t spend 112 hours on Sunday grading, making class notes, writing exams, etc., I won’t be ready for class. I got to spend some time today working on “professional development”, whatever that means. Well, what it means in my case is writing a grant for a software/hardware update and cooking.

Yup, cooking is professional development for me. I teach a class on the Science of Food and Cooking. One of the things that I’ve been reading about is gravy. Gravy is hard; both cooking-wise and science-wise. It’s really all about proportions; Fat to Water to Thickener.

Today, I made gravy two different ways. This morning, I made bacon gravy and biscuits. It wasn’t sausage gravy because now-a-days sausage has very little fat. And fat is essential to gravy. So bacon it was.

Morning gravy wasn’t a rousing success. I made a roux after the bacon was cooked and then added milk. Unfortunately, I think my roux was too thick because my gravy was lumpy. No matter what I did, my gravy was lumpy. Whisking, stirring hard, smashing the bottom of the pan with a spatula, nothing worked. But I ate it anyway because that’s what snowy Sunday mornings need: Biscuits and Gravy.

Warning: Science coming up.

Flour is a lot of starch and a little protein. Starch is actually a long string of sugar molecules. It doesn’t dissolve like regular sugar does, but it does absorb water. When it absorbs water, the starch granules start to plump up and get jelly-like. If the granules are clumped together not well separated, then the outside particles swell and create a nice, waterproof coating around the inner granules. That’s where lumps come from.

That’s why it is good to sift the flour in, or add flour that is suspended in a little bit of water. But raw flour can taste dough-y, which is why you add the roux instead of raw flour. But if your roux is too thick, then it is too hard to whisk in the liquid. It’s a no-win situation.

OK: Science is over for now.

This evening, we made one of my favorite meals, Citrus-Chili Shrimp. It’s an Atkins recipe, but with the addition of a little flour, it carbs that recipe right up! I use a lot less olive oil and chili garlic sauce to add some heat. At the end, when you are supposed to boil the marinade for two minutes, I add a little bit of flour to make a gravy. Well tonight, the gravy started to separate out into oil and clumpy, yucky stuff.

So after lumps, the other problem with gravy is proportions. If the gravy starts to separate out and get oily, it means that your proportions are off. What surprises me is that if you add some water back into pan, everything will whisk back into one phase.

A little water and a whisk and I had a beautiful sauce! Along with spinach and a 2003 Melville Clone 115 Indigene Pinot Noir, it was a most amazing meal. Husband said it was the best iteration of this meal ever. I am feeling very good about my technique with this recipe because the past three times I’ve made it, Husband said that it was the best ever. Yay me!

(Funny thing: I’m watching the new season of Top Chef as I’m writing this!)

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Project 365 – No. 85 (November 14, 2008)

This is my curling iron. It is almost brand new, even though I’ve had it for about 4 months. What struck my Friday night was the tag: “Caution – This Product Can Burn Eyes”. Really. Who’s using a curling iron with a 1.5 inch barrel to curl their eyelashes?

Project 365 – No. 86 (November 15, 2008)

This is a bad photo, I know. But you can kind of see the interesting Fall foliage transitions. The small oak tree on the left, still completely green. It hasn’t lost any of its leaves. This is the poor tree that the deer ate the top off of last winter. Then in the spring, it started coming back from the base. Then the deer ate it again. It came back, and the deer ate it again. At that point, I decided that this damn tree had a will to live and it should be nurtured.

The forsythia in the back is in the process of losing its leaves and the oak on the right is completely brown.

I need to decide which oak to move. Two that close together are too much.

Project 365 – No. 87 (November 16, 2008)

Missy really wanted to go outside today even though it was snowing all day. Pretty soon we’ll have to put her out for a little bit, just to let her know that it sucks.