Savory Polenta Rounds - Easter or Anytime Appetizers!

I almost titled this post “polenta and probability”, but had a change of heart at the last moment. As you know, I’m a homeschooling mom, and I recently taught my son the joys of probability. Now, now ... no groaning. Math is your friend, your compadre, your kemosabe. I’m pushing it, aren’t I?I don't think I'd have to push these appetizers onto anybody. They are soooo goooood! I love appetizers. There’s something wonderful about sampling finger food, no matter if it’s a tried and true thing like shrimp cocktail or something more intricate like phyllo tartlets. Appetizers can take the place of a meal, too; and because you're nibbling here and there, you can enjoy some guilty pleasure by sampling bits of this and that without overloading your plate or your metabolism.

Today’s recipe at It’s All Gouda is a scrumptious, savory polenta appetizer that can be prepared in so many varieties -- it’s hard to pin down all the combinations that you can create. I started with 3 different cheeses and 3 different meats, which gave me 9 different meat/cheese pair combinations to make. Go ahead ... make a probability tree ... you’ll come up with 9 pairs as well.Anyway, with Easter around the corner, I thought I’d have a go at preparing some gluten free finger foods. I’ve always hosted an Easter brunch at my house; however, this year will be the first time it will purposefully include some gluten free offerings. I’d recently received a glorious package of goat cheese from Ile de France, and thought I’d revise an appetizer that I’d made for years that includes goat cheese and onions. These are really, really easy to make, but they do take time. It would be fun to make these delightful rounds with your kids, or with your guests for that matter, as everyone can design their own.Helloooo, beautiful! Basically, these gorgeous, circular beauties bites consist of a firm polenta base, topped with the most amazing, crispy fried onions, your choice of cheese, your choice of meat, and then drizzled with gorgeous chive oil. In the past, I’d made these using either thick pita bread or pizza dough, and they turn out wonderful that way, too. They are soft, chewy, crispy, creamy, salty, and mmm, mmm, good!

You start by making a basic, seasoned polenta, and spread it out on a sheet pan to cool and firm up.When cool, cut into small rounds using a glass or cookie cutter. Then either pop under the broiler or pan sauté to produce a golden crust. Set aside.

Meanwhile, slice an onion into very thin, half rounds. Sprinkle with some sea salt. Sauté in olive oil and butter until just starting to caramelize. Then turn the heat up, and fry until crispy. NOTE: These are addicting. Make extra. Trust me. You’ll be nibbling on these as you cook. It’s not possible to ignore them.

Next, prepare your protein. I used prosciutto, which didn’t need any prep work other than to open the package. I also microwaved some thin bacon until crisp, and very quickly seasoned and fried some super thin strips of steak on top of the stove. You could, of course, use left over grilled steak, sliced ultra thin.Now, set out your cheeses. I used my lovely goat cheese from Ile de France, some creamy brie, and a lovely, crumbled gorgonzola. Feta would be wonderful here, too, but I didn’t use Feta this time. If I had, that would increase my probability to 12 pairings. Ahem.You could also just serve a vegetarian version of just cheese and onions. That changes our probability options as well!

Time to assemble your rounds. Heat the oven to 375. Line a baking sheet with foil, and place all your golden polenta rounds on the foil. Top each round with one type of cheese (don’t combine the cheeses). Then put some of the crispy onions on top of the cheese. Pop in the oven for about 10 minutes. Remove, and top each round with your choice of meat (don’t combine them). Drizzle with a chive oil made from pureeing chives in olive oil. It’s amazing.Garnish with chopped tomatoes and serve warm.

These lovely savory polenta rounds are gluten free, all the way. Take care, though, as not all corn meal products are gluten free, and not all gluten free eaters can eat corn. We have no problem with corn. My youngest appetizer eater, the gluten free girl, gobbled these up like there was no tomorrow.They will find their way onto my Easter buffet. What’s your favorite appetizer?

Podium Worthy Polenta

Are you enjoying the Olympics? In keeping with the Olympic theme of meals around the world, tonight’s culinary adventure honors the Italian athletes competing in the 2008 Beijing Games. As I write this, Italy can boast 3 Gold Medals, 3 Silver Medals, and 2 Bronze Medals in the areas of Fencing, Judo, Archery, Cycling, and Shooting. Athletes with names such as Maria, Giulia, Marco, Giovanni, Margherita, Mauro and more have stood on the podium to receive their world recognition. I just love these names …especially because I have relatives who boast the same ones!

I'm a star spangled girl that boasts an Italian heritage (notice how I manage to squeeze that fact into just about every post? ;-D), so preparing an Italian meal was a piece of cake. My roots are Southern Italian and so tonight we dined on food that would feel right at home on my relatives’ tables. Our gold medal meal consisted of a lovely Parmesan and Pecorino Polenta topped by a marvelous Meat and Mushroom Ragu. Accompanying those star performers was sliced Italian Sausage that was first poached and then pan grilled. Green beans with a delicate butter garlic sauce rounded out the meal.

Before I begin, let me just ask you a quick question. Do your pots and pans all fit nicely on your stove top? As my children get older, I’ve been slow on the uptake in figuring out that I need to be preparing larger portions for my own little Olympians. Now that I’ve finally stepped up to the podium, I find that I’m using all four burners on the stove for every meal. Sometimes the pots and pans fit nicely, other times not so much. I have an electric stove with the standard 2 small – 2 large burner set up.

Inevitably, I need 3 large burners and one small. *Sigh* I still regret not getting that gas line run and getting a gas stove. This one may be pretty to look at, but a) I’ll never get a black topped stove again, and b) I prefer stoves where the control panel is across the front, not in the back where I get to singe my arm whenever I adjust the temperature! My old stove was a stainless drop in and very easy to clean. This one is both black and stainless, and the black shows every little speck of everything. See the ragu splatters on the back control panel? I do use the grill year round, and that frees up the burners, but I don’t grill every night and so I need to get creative here. My family won’t eat casseroles (you know … because the food touches), so that is out. I take advantage of the crockpot, too, but don't want crockpot meals all the time. My cooking comfort zone is using the cooktop. I think about my friend Marjie and how she literally manages to prepare meals for her family of 11. As I rearranged and shoved and rearranged my fridge to accommodate a week’s worth of groceries, I remembered her post where she showed how she fits in all the food to feed her gloriously large family. I fear that I covet her kitchen! How do you juggle cooking on your stove/cook top?

Back to tonight’s menu. I adore polenta and can pretty much make it in my sleep. The homemade version is infinitely better than the ready made stuff, and doesn’t really take long at all. I’ve seen recipes where they want you to cook it for 45 minutes stirring constantly or some such thing. Who has time to do that? Here’s how I was taught to make it. Now you, too, can enjoy this yummy golden goodness in about the same amount of time as it would have taken to make pasta.

Paula’s Podium Worthy
Parmesan and Pecorino Polenta

2 ½ cups of milk (I use 1%)
½ cup of cream
½ cup of chix broth or water
1 chicken bouillon cube (yeah, I know it’s like a salt lick, but it works here)
2 Tablespoons butter
Dash White Pepper
Dash Season Salt
Dash Garlic Powder
Dash Onion Powder
1 heaping cup of Corn Meal (Yep, just regular yellow corn meal works great here)
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
¼ cup grated pecorino Romano cheese

In a 3 qt non-stick sauce pan, combine the milk, cream, broth or water, bouillon cube, butter, pepper, seasoned salt, and garlic and onion powders. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Watch it carefully when it starts to bubble because it will boil over quickly. As soon as it has reached a rolling boil, take it OFF the burner. Turn off the stove. Very slowly, WHISK in the corn meal. (Do not whisk in the cornmeal while the pot is still on the stove … it will bubble up and could splatter and burn you.) After it has been whisked in, stir in the cheeses. You can serve immediately - creamy style. If you want to cut out shapes as I did, you can pour it out to cool and firm up, and then you can cut into shapes.

If you want to cut out shapes, butter an oblong baking dish.

The bigger the dish, the thinner the polenta. Sometimes thin is good; sometimes thicker is good. I did thick.

Once you have buttered the dish, pour in your polenta.

Butter the back side of a spoon, and using the buttered side,

spread the polenta out evenly into the dish being sure to press down firmly.

Let sit for at least 10-15 minutes.

Try not to sneak a bite. I tried not to and, um, failed. Hey, I was …um … I was testing for seasoning. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Just testing to make sure it was seasoned correctly.

Ahem. Moving on. The polenta will firm up as it sits. After waiting 10 minutes or so, cut into shapes. You can use a knife, a biscuit cutter, or as I did, a cookie cutter.

My kids chose the star shape in honor of the Olympic stars. Just press and release just as you would with cookie or biscuit dough. Cute, huh?

That’s it! In just beyond the time it takes to boil water, you could be having polenta instead. If you want fancy shapes, it takes just a little longer. I usually just spoon it up, but today was a special exception. And, feel free to jazz up your polenta. Do you prefer spicy foods? Add some hot red pepper seasoning. Want to create unique flavors … add a smokey cheese or pungent cheese like smoked gouda or gorgonzola. Polenta works great layered in casseroles, too. And, if you are lucky enough to have leftovers, you can fry it up in the morning to go with your eggs. Yum, yum, yum!

Yuuum! Talk about a star spangled meal! This Podium Worthy Polenta pairs well with just about everything, too. Veggie sautés, meats, poultry, fish, ragu’s, and plain ol' butter … they all go great with this. Try it and let me know what you think! And, as usual, this is gluten free all the way, baby!

Turn in next time when our culinary adventures continue with meal homage’s toward China, France, and more!