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Michelle Anna Jordan's Soft Polenta with Walnuts Recipe
December 30, 2003
It has rained ceaselessly for what feels like the past month here in San Francisco. A month back I had bowl of creamy, warm, delicious polenta for lunch at Zuni Cafe - best bowl of polenta I've ever had. During a short break in the torrent yesterday, I decided making a fresh, hot pan of polenta was going to hit the spot. I ran out to get the makings - coarse grained polenta, a sliver of gorgonzola, parmesan, and some butter.
This recipe literally took less that 10 minutes to make. I toasted up a few walnuts, then cooked up the polenta. I bought a new brand of polenta this time. In the past I have stocked up on the Golden Pheasant brand which is extremely coarse grained. The polenta I bought this time was quite a bit finer in texture, called de la Estancia. It is organic, GMO-free, chemical free polenta the texture of sand, imported from Argentina. It also cooked much quicker than the other brands I've tried. I hope this isn't like instant rice, because i don't like the way instant rice tastes at all. But this polenta tasted great, so I'm not complaining. Maybe I just don't know better at this point, I confess Im not a polenta expert.
Once the polenta was the right consistency I added all the tasty add-ins -- a little butter, parmesan, a drizzle of olive oil.
Simple and perfect.
In some of the early entries on this site I didn't request permission to run the recipe I was writing about from the publisher so it won't appear here. The majority of entries on 101 Cookbooks will have the recipes attached, this just happens to be one of the ones that doesn't.
From: The San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook Vol. II Page: 144
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Your Comments
Chris said:Here's the secret to really great polenta: whisk the polenta into boiling water, then cook it for a really long time in a double boiler (you can improvise one with a metal bowl). The longer the better-- if I'm fixing it for dinner I usually start it a couple hours beforehand. It makes the polenta very soft and creamy and must be the same method that Zuni uses. Great blog, by the way-- just came across it.
Thanks Chris, This recipe used the whisk method, but it seemed like the amount of time you were to leave it on the stove was based on what type of polenta you were using. Can you over cook polenta? Im also assuming the size grain you use contributes to a pot of polentas ultimate creaminess.
Chris said:True, the grain size does matter (instant polenta can't really be cooked that long I imagine). But I doubt you'll overcook polenta that's of a decent coarseness using a double boiler, as the heat is too gentle. I once had it on for about 5 hours and the polenta got even better.
Here's another hint -- if you have a cuisinart food processor, it came with a "pusher" which has a little hole at the end (for pouring in liquids very slowly). Put the cornmeal in the pusher and let it pour slowly through the hole and into your cooking liquid. Its much easier to get a slow and even mixing that way.
carla said:My grandmother always made firm (rather than soft) polenta, so that's the kind that tastes "right" to me. In that vein, I use coarse-ground meal (from the bulk bin at Whole Foods), and I really like Marcella Hazan's recipe. I use the faster method--takes 40 minutes, but you don't have to stir the whole time--and it comes out quite nice. (My grandmother used to keep a little bit aside, and then put her little bit in the oven with some kind of blue cheese.)
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