Crunchy Polenta Anyone?

It's the Friday night of a short, but also long week. I took Monday off, so Tuesday through Friday more than made up for business in terms of one less day of the week. I'm tired, hungry, and anxious to get into the kitchen. This week I'm tackling a handful of recipes from  Backstage Pass and today's recipe is actually two recipes from page 106 that were prepared for a Melissa Etheridge show.

I picked up something at my local grocery store called "restaurant blend mushrooms." By the time I got them out of the package, I suspected it was the large grocery chain's way of repackaging all those fancy shrooms that don't sell: shiitake, oyster, porcini bella, and just yer regular white button shrooms. They're on the way towards bad, but still useable for a home cook. I chopped them up and set aside as the polenta needed to be cooked first.

"Restaurant Blend" Mushrooms

As recommended, I sprayed a 9x9 pan and set aside. I added olive oil, minced garlic, and diced onion to a hot pan and sauteed. When those were nicely browned I added in some white wine...

Oops, no white wine in the house. So I added some extra vegetable stock...err, chicken stock. Then I added the reduced the heat and slowly whisked in the cornmeal. It incorporated nicely and even started to thicken.

I added more stock and more cornmeal, incorporating after ever addition. And it looked creamy and kind of pastey, just like the cookbook suggested it should look. I spread the polenta into the prepared pan and looked at the directions.

Ivan Inspects Polenta

What? I'm supposed to chill a couple of hours? No way! Not tonight. Both me and the polenta need to get a move on. The polenta went into the freezer to cool off a bit, and I forged forward with the mushrooms.

The mushrooms went into the pan with some olive oil and a whole lot of minced garlic. Once tender, I added some sherry.

At this point, the recipe recommends flambing. I figured the landlord might not want to hear that the place was burned down by a gutsy but inexperienced cook flambeing mushrooms, so settled for a steady bubble. One of these days, I'll flambe. But the stove is literally pushed up against the wall. So no flambe for me - yet.

After the sherry had cooked down a bit, I added in chopped parsley and two tablespoons of butter. I simmered until the butter was melted and started to lick my lips in anticipation.

I returned to the freezer to take a look at the polenta. It was cooled off, but no where near the consistency that it needed to be to grill. In fact, it was more cornmeal mush than firm polenta. Hmmm.

Despite my better instincts, I spooned some of the polenta into a dish, and topped with sauteed mushrooms, Asiago cheese and chopped parsley.

The polenta was unpalitable and chewy/crunchy, not creamy and smooth. So I definitely had a big fail there with making my own polenta. Must try that again I can tell there's good flavor in there, but not enough for me to keep eating mouthfuls of crunchy stuff.

On the other hand, the sauteed mushrooms knocked my socks off. After I got rid of the poor polenta, the mushrooms were used in a Saturday morning omelet and then in a soup a couple of days later. You just can't beat fresh garlic, butter, parsley, and mushrooms. And the mushrooms gave me an idea of (provided the polenta was just so) just how good this recipe might have been. Sigh.