Table Talk - Creamy Polenta with Tomatoes, Squash & Fresh Mozzarella

It was my turn to host this week.  I spent some time flipping through the cookbook and found this section with lots of variations of creamy polenta.  I liked the idea of making polenta.  When I was first married and got into cooking (and the cooking channel) I kept finding these recipes that called for polenta.  But at that time the stores in North Ogden didn't have polenta.  I knew it was cooked corn meal but I had no idea how to fix it.  Plus if I remember correctly I couldn't even find corn meal.  So I've always wanted to know how to make it.

I started by prepping all the ingredients.  There's a bit of knife work with this recipe.

The recipe suggests starting the polenta while cooking the vegtables.  But since I wanted to get pictures and the polenta had a lot of stirring I decided to do all the veggies first and then make the polenta. 

I cooked the squash & zucchini in two batches as directed.  Although I thought about doing it all at once.  But I think I wouldn't have gotten any of the carmalization - it would have just steamed.

I set the cooked squash aside and cooked the onions.

 I added the garlic and a little bit of dried thyme (I didn't buy any fresh).  Then added the cherry tomatoes.

I set that aside while I made the polenta.  I found corn meal in the grocery store but I couldn't find anything that told me if it was course-ground. 

 

The polenta was pretty simple.  The only problem I had was getting the corn meal to come out of the measuring cup slowly.  It came out in big clumps and I eneded up with lumpy polenta just like the recipe warns.  I got most of the lumps to mix out but a few were left.  There was no problem with the flavor but the texture wasn't so hot.  The other thing I had no idea about was how to tell it was soft and smooth, so I just cooked it for 10 minutes before taking it off the heat and adding the butter and parmesan.



Then it was just a matter of assembling the dish, polenta, the veggies, a sprinkle of parmesan, chilled fresh mozzarella and fresh basil. 



I tried to get a beauty shot but I'm no good at that.  I can tell you that it was pretty tasty and pretty easy.  I'm going to have to work on a better way to add the polenta slowly to the boiling water but otherwise it was very good. 

Creamy Polenta with Tomatoes, Squash & Fresh Mozzarella

SERVES 4

Don’t skip the step of freezing the mozzarella; it prevents the cheese from turning chewy when it comes in contact with the hot polenta and vegetables.  However, if you can find handmade buffalo- or cow’s-milk mozzarella, use it here; this fancy type of cheese does not require freezing.  To save time, start the polenta before cooking the squash in step 2.

4  ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, cut into ½-inch cubes (see note above)

2  zucchini (about 1 pound), halved lengthwise and sliced ¼ inch thick

1  yellow squash (about 8 ounces), halved lengthwise and sliced ¼ inch thick

1  tablespoon olive oil

Salt and pepper

1  onion, minced

6  garlic cloves, minced

1  teaspoon minced fresh thyme

3  cups cherry tomatoes (about 1 pound), stemmed and halved if small or quartered if large

1  recipe Creamy Polenta, warm

2  tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese

½  cup chopped fresh basil

1.  Place the mozzarella on a plate and freeze until slightly firm, about 10 minutes.

2.  Toss the zucchini and yellow squash together in a bowl.  Heat 1 teaspoon of the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering.  Add half of the zucchini and squash and ¼ teaspoon salt and cook until spotty brown and tender, about 8 minutes.  Transfer to a bowl and repeat with 1 teaspoon more oil, the remaining zucchini and squash, and ¼ teaspoon more salt.

3.  Add the remaining teaspoon oil to the pot and return to medium heat.  Add the onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.  Stir in the garlic and thyme and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

4.  Stir in the tomatoes and cooked zucchini and squash and cook until the tomatoes are just softened, 1 to 2 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

5.  Portion the polenta into four individual bowls and top with the tomato-zucchini mixture.  Sprinkle with the Parmesan, chilled mozzarella, and basil and serve.

CREAMY POLENTA

MAKES 4 cups

Do not use instant polenta here.  You can substitute medium or coarse cornmeal for the polenta as long as it is evenly ground; do not use stone-ground cornmeal meal.  If you do not have a heavy-bottomed saucepan; you may need to use a flame tamer to help manage heat.

4  cups water

  Salt and Pepper

1  cup coarse-ground polenta (see note above)

6  tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

1  tablespoon unsalted butter

1.  Bring the water and ¼ teaspoon salt to a boil in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan.  Following the photo on page 164, slowly add the polenta while stirring constantly in a circular motion to prevent clumping.

2.  Bring to a simmer, stirring constantly, then cover and reduce the heat to low.  Cook, stirring often and vigorously (make sure to scrape the corners of the pot), until the polenta becomes soft and smooth, 10 to 20 minutes.  Off the heat, vigorously stir in the Parmesan and butter.  Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve. 

PER SERVING (1 cup polenta and 1-1/2 cups topping); Cal  360; Fat 16g; Sat Fat 8g; Chol 35mg; Carb 42g; Protein 14g; Fiber 6g; Sodium 460mg



Table Talk - Southwestern Black Bean Salad

This week it was Amanda's turn to pick the recipe.  She picked a yummy, easy salad.  As usual I made a few minor adjustments. 

It's a really simple recipe.  I followed the recipe in using fresh corn and I agree that was important to the yummy outcome.  I cut the corn off the cob and cooked it in a bit of oil for about 6 minutes, just enough to make the corn really bright and just starting to brown.  I could just spell the carmalization when I pulled it off the heat.  Then I mixed the corn with a can of black beans (rinsed & drained) and about a cup of grape tomatoes cut in half.  I was supposed to use a tomato, cored, seeded & chopped medium.  But I forgot that I needed a tomato for this recipe and I ate all the ones I bought at the farmers market within two days of buying them.  I love, love fresh tomatoes.  I left out the cilantro because I'm not a huge fan and I didn't want to buy a full bunch for 3 tablespoons, since the rest would go to waste. 

The dressing is a bit of fresh onion, fresh lime juice, about a teaspoon of hot sauce, honey, salt & pepper.  The recipe called for scallions (not onions) but I had some sweet onions on hand so I used a bit of that (about 1/4 cup).  I was also supposed to use 1-1/2 teaspoons of minced canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, but I didn't want to open a whole can for 1-1/2 teaspoon, so I used hot sauce instead. 

I tossed the corn, beans and tomatoes with the dressing and then I folded in a diced avocado.  Yum!!

This took all of about 15 minutes, quick & easy.  I loved the fresh sweet corn flavor against the smooth, mild beans.  The dressing had just the right amount of heat, sweetness and tartness.  This is definitely one I have to make again. 

Check out Amanda's blog for the full recipe. 

Table Talk - Pasta Salad with Arugula & Sun-Dried Tomatoes

This time for our dinner group we made a pasta dish.  It is yummy!  It was pretty easy too.

I didn't worry too much about measuring things and I had to make a few substitutions - darn Wal-mart! 

First substitution - I used a sweet onion instead of a red onion.  I was buying sweet onion for another dish I was making but they only sold them (and the red onions) in bags.  I didn't need two bags of onions.  I didn't even need one, so I picked sweet onions for both dishes. 

Second substituition - I used a spinach, arugula mix because there wasn't any arugula alone.

Third substitution - I used parmesan cheese instead of provolone because Wal-mart didn't have any provolone and I had parmesan on hand. 

Other than cooking the pasta and mixing things up in different dishes you pretty much just throw all the ingredients in a dish and mix it up!

Yum!  Check out Jen's blog for the full recipe. 

Table Talk: Buffalo Chicken Salad

So I wasn't too excited about this pick.  I don't like Buffalo Wings or Blue Cheese.  But my husband loves Buffalo Wings so I thought I'd modify this a bit and see if I could make something he would like.  I didn't work and I ended up with something that wasn't anything like the recipe...Oh, well.

First step was to whisk together hot sauce, butter and molasses. 

I didn't want to use up all my tobasco sauce on something that I may or may not like so I decided to use Siracha sauce instead.  I don't like molasses and knew I wouldn't use it if I bought it (other than for this recipe) so I substituted honey.  The first batch I made with 1/4 cup siracha sauce, 1 tbls butter and 1 tbls honey.  It was so hot I couldn't taste anything other than heat and it burned!!!  Jonathan couldn't even eat it and he likes hot stuff.  So I dumped that out and made a second batch with one part siracha, one part honey and one part butter.  That was edible at least.  I could taste a flavor and I liked it but it was still too hot.  Jonathan tasted it and said it needed a teaspoon of strawberry jam.  :-)  So I mixed one in for him.  It didn't change the flavor to me at all.  The siracha sauce was still the dominant flavor. 

Next I moved on to the chicken.  I flattened it out a bit before drying it off.

Then I seasoned it and coated it in the corn meal/corn starch mixture.  After letting the oil heat for a bit I started cooking.

Six minutes later I flipped it over.

About 5 or 6 more minutes it was done.  At this point I was supposed to make a salad toss it in Blue Cheese dressing, toss the chicken in the hot sauce mixture and top the salad with the chicken.  Instead I drizzled the hot sauce over the chicken and served it with rice. 

Jonathan didn't like the sauce.  But I was smart and didn't drizzle any over his chicken so he was still happy with his meal of chicken and rice. 

If you want to see the whole recipe and how it's really supposed to be made check out Michelle's blog. 

Bake 52 Rewind - Tres Leches Cake

So I didn't take any pictures of making this... but it turned out really good. 

The cake part is pretty basic - lots of cinnamon flavor.  The hardest part was cooking the sweetened condensed milk in the microwave...

My first try resulted in a mess (above), so I had to start over and stir after every minute (or less) and watch it the whole time.  I don't know if it really got carmalized or thickened like it was supposed to but it almost boiled over again so I figured it was good enough.

After the cake is cooked you poke a bunch of holes in the top and pour the three milk (the sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk and cream with vanilla) over the top.  Then you let it sit in the frig for three hours to let the milk get fully absorbed by the cake. 

I let it sit over night so I could do that last step (the whip cream frosting) right before serving it. 

I had a piece for breakfast :-) and then sent the rest with Jonathan to Bishopric meeting, so they could have some.  Then his Sunday School class finished it off. 

This isn't the sort of thing I'd normally make - cake soaked in milk - doesn't sound that appetizing to me.  But I was glad I did make it.  The cake is incredibly moist (obviously) and sweet, but not sickly sweet.  The cinnamon and whip cream frosting really make the whole thing taste wonderful.  The whip cream frosting isn't sweet to me at all but it's the perfect flavor and texture compliment to the cake.  Overall I really liked it and I'd recommend it!

Check out Amanda's blog for the full recipe. 

Table Talk - Chocolate Chip Cookies

This week for Table Talk we baked.  My favorite!!  You can't beat chocolate chip cookies but this was an awfully involved recipe, especially for one that only produces 18 cookies.  If I made this again I would double it.  Why go to all this work for so few cookies.

 

It starts out like a typical cookie recipe, mix the dry ingredients and mix the wet.  But before you mix the wet ingredients you brown some of the butter.  That's supposed to enhance the flavor but I didn't really notice a difference. 

 

But the most annoying thing was I burned the butter the first time around.  I got the butter perfectly brown and nutty smelling.  I turned off the heat and snapped a picture. 

But in that time the heat of the pan was enough that it went completely black!  It literally happened right before my eyes. 

I dumped the whole thing out and started over.  This time I didn't take a picture until it was in the bowl.  :-)

Then next weird thing was the recipe had me cream the sugar into the melted butter.  Once it was fully incorporated I had to let it "rest" for 3 minutes.  Then I repeated that two more times.  It was supposed to make it thick... I didn't notice.

The rest of the recipe was pretty straight forward, mix in dry with the wet, mix in the chocolate chips, until the last step.  Once I formed the balls of dough for the cookie I took the last of the chocolate chips and pressed a few into each of the cookies, so you could see lots of chocolate chips in every cookie. 

I took a picture before I did that...

And one after...

You can see a difference but probably not something I would bother doing again. 

All these extra steps are because these are "healthy" chocolate chip cookies.  They were trying to maximize the flavor while minimizing the calories.  They didn't do too bad... each cookie is only 120 calories with 5 grams of fat.  But personally I'd rather just make Tollhouse next time.  :-)

For the full recipe check out Valerie's blog. 

Table Talk - Vegetable Lo Mein

This week for our dinner group we made pasta - I love pasta!   The recipe was for Vegetable Lo Mein.  Traditionally lo mein is made with spaghetti.  I was sure I had some... I was wrong.  So I used eggs noodles instead.  Plus I decided to throw in some leftover chicken too, so I don't think you can call what I made Vegetable Lo Mein... :-)

I started by prepping all the veggies - mushrooms (I bought sliced, so no work there), cabbage (sliced), red peppers, scallions and garlic.

Then I put the sauce together - chicken broth, soy sauce, oyster-flavored sauce & cornstartch.

Then I started the water for the noodles.  While that came to a boil I cooked everything else. 

Mushrooms first, then the cabbage & red peppers.  Finally the scallions and the garlic.  I was supposed to put in some ginger but I don't like it, so I left it out. 

 Once all the veggies we cooked I added in the sauce and let it simmer for a bit.  The final step was to add the noodles.  I decided to throw in some chicken I had leftover so it was a bit heartier.

 The last step was to add in a bit more seasoning - cilantro, toasted sesame oil and sriracha sauce.  I only added the sriracha sauce.  Even though it was really, really hot on it's own I decided to try it. 

I liked the dish.  I wish I'd had the spaghetti noodles.  I think they would have absorbed the sauce better.  But the egg noodles were more aligned with the size of the veggies so it was actually easier to eat.  I didn't pick up a lot of heat from the sriracha but I think that may be because I didn't mix it in very well.  I'm probably going to come across one or two bites that blow my mouth apart, with my luck. 

Check out Talesha's blog for the complete recipe. 

Table Talk: Breakfast Strata

I had a crazy busy April... May is looking to be about as bad.  Since it's my turn to host I made this well in advance to make sure I didn't miss my turn.  But then I postponed writing the actual post... now it's been so long since I made this dish I'm worried I won't remember enough about it to actually write anything!  Hopefully the pictures will help.

Step one - toast the bread, low and slow...

 

 

Next melt the butter

Then cook the onion until soft.

I used dry onions... that way I don't have to dice it.  :-)  Then you add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Then you stir in spinach

and heat through... not sure why since you set it aside for a while and ultimately chill it for up to 24 hours...

I transferred the spinach/onion/garlic mixture to a bowl and added apple juice to the pan to reduce.  I don't drink so I figured apple juice would work instead of the white wine.

I let it boil it away until it had reduced by half.

Now it was time to assemble everything.  I used my handy magic bullet to mix up the eggs and other liquid ingredients.

 

Then I dumpped the liquids and bread crumbs into the bowl with the onions, spinach and garlic.

Opps... I need a bigger bowl.

After I got everything into a bigger bowl I got it all mixed up and moved into a greased 8x8" pan.

I covered the dish with plastic wrap and weighted it down.  The recipe says to use a gallon ziploc bag full of sugar.  I didn't want to deal with sugar everywhere, because I was sure to spill, I went looking for something else that would work.

 

I had two full bags of Calcium Chews - I figured that would work.  I put the whole thing in the frig overnight.

The next morning I topped it with the leftover feta and cooked it for about an hour.

Unfortunately I didn't remember to take any pictures of it after it was cooked... 

I was expecting this to taste more like a frittata or souffle, but the main flavor and texture was the bread.  I liked the taste and it was reasonably filling with the eggs and feta.  Overall it was good, but I probably wouldn't make it again - too much bread, not enough veggies. 

If you want to try it out here's the complete recipe.

BREAKFAST STRATA

SERVES 6

Do not substitute oil for the butter in this recipe as it provides important richness. Do not substitute lowfat or skim milk here.

½      loaf supermarket French or Italian bread (about 6 ounces), cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about four cups)

2       tablespoons unsalted butter (see not above)

1           onion, minced

1           garlic clove, minced

10     ounces frozen spinach, thawed, squeezed dry, and chopped coarse

½      cup dry white wine (or apple juice)

          Vegetable oil spray

6       large eggs

1 ¾   cups whole milk (see note above)

1           teaspoon salt

¼      teaspoon pepper

1 ½   cups crumbled feta cheese

 

 

1.         Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 275 degrees.  Following the photos on page 24, spread the bread cubes out over a rimmed baking sheet and bake until thoroughly dry and crisp, 30 to 40 minutes.

2.         Melt the butter in a 10-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat.  Add the onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.  Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Stir in the spinach and cook until the spinach is heated through, about 2 minutes.  Transfer the spinach mixture to a bowl.  Add the wine to the skillet and simmer over medium-high heat until it has reduced to ¼ cup, about three minutes; set aside to cool separately.

3.         Spray an 8-inch square baking dish with vegetable oil spray.  Whisk the eggs, reduced wine, milk, salt and pepper together in a large bowl.  Stir in the spinach mixture, 1 cup of the feta, and the dried bread cubes until well combined.  Pour the mixture into the baking dish and cover with plastic wrap.  Weight the strata down with a large zipper-lock bag filled with sugar.  Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours.

4.         When ready to bake, adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 325 degrees.  Meanwhile, remove the weight from the strata and let it stand at room temperature for 20 minutes.  Sprinkle with the remaining ½ cup feta.  Bake until the surface is puffed and the edges pull away slightly from the dish, 50 to 55 minutes.  Let the strata cool slightly before serving.

 

PER SERVING:  Cal 340; Fat 18 g; Sat Fat 10g;  Chol 255 mg; Carb 23g; Protein 16g; Fiber 2g; Sodium 1050 mg

Table Talk - Creamy Chicken & Spinach Casserole

 This time for our dinner group we did a pasta dish.  It turned out really creamy even though it only uses 1% milk. 

I sliced up all the chicken first.  I didn't have an onion or garlic so I decided to use dried onions and garlic powder.  It seemed to work out just fine. 



 

I browned the chicken first.  I didn't worry about cooking it all the way through, since the recipe just says to brown it. 

I used 3/4 cup of dried onion.  I really like onion so this was fine for me, but it was really too much. If I make it again I would only do a half a cup or maybe even just a 1/3... 

After the chicken was brown I dumped the onions in with some more oil. 

After they had softened a bit I added the garlic powder.  The bottle told me how much to add for an equivalent for a clove.  Next I added the 2 tablespoons of flour.  Finally I added the four cups of 1% milk and a bay leaf.

I let it simmer and thicken.

I added the chicken back in at this point.  I cooked it for about a minute to finish cooking it through. 

I added the spinach.  I used a dish towel to "wring" all the moisture out of it. 

I added parmesan and the noodles which I had cooked while the white sauce simmered. 

Loaded the whole think into a 8x8" pan. 

I topped it mozzeralla cheese and baked it for 15 minutes.  All done!

The recipe says it only make 4 servings.  Four servings!!  The square below is a sixth of the recipe, much more my size. 

I worked up the calories for six servings. 

I really like this.  My chicken ended up being dry even though I thought I'd barely cooked it.  I don't know if it was over cooked or if it was just dry chicken...  If you like pasta, you'll like this recipe. 

Check out Jen's blog for the full recipe.