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.

Santana's Southwestern Stir Fry

I'm cooking a few things from Backstage Pass: Catering To Music's Biggest Stars, and today it's the Southwestern Stir-Fry on page 162. It was made for Carlos Santana at a show near San Diego. It's a hot and spicy dish, and I should have known better.

I'm an admitted wimp when it comes to heat. If the recipe calls for a quarter teaspoon of cayenne pepper, I sprinkle an itty bitty bit because even a quarter teaspoon is usually too much. As a co-worker says, "I'm a delicate flower."

I figured I'd tone the heat of the dish down and be good to go for a scrumptious dinner. First, though, I had to mix up some chili powder. This is an easy spice mix to make:

1 part paprika (I used a smoked paprika)
2 parts cumin
1 part cayenne
1 part oregano
2 parts garlic powder

Mix it up and you've got about a quarter cup of chili powder made to suit your heat tastes.

Then I prepped the vegetables. Like most stir-frys I could see that this one would go very fast once I started putting things into the heat. The red onion, carrot, and red pepper were chopped in no time. I didn't have any zucchini, baby corn, or tomato; instead I used some spinach and (gasp) canned corn.

I put the water on to boil for the rice, and turned the heat on the burner for the stir-fry. I thought about using a regular olive oil, then turned to the Persian Lime Olive Oil given to me for Christmas. I pulled the top off the bottle and breathed in the olive and lime flavor - and into the pan it went to heat up.

The rice went into the water, the top went on the pan, and I pulled it off the burner to sit for the short amount of time it would take to heat up the stir-fry. Yeah, I did use Minute Rice. Sue me.

I added the garlic and spices to the hot pan and stirred for a little bit.

The smell was fabulous - that lime with the flavors of cumin, oregano, paprika, and cayenne. I wasn't worried, I could control the sense of heat with no problem.

Then I dropped in the julienned carrot and red pepper along with some red onion and shook the pan around. The aroma finally hit my nose - and I coughed. I really am that sensitive to heat because the combination of spices was getting to me.

I sauteed the vegetables until they were wilted a little and added the spinach and corn. These also were shook in the pan until wilted and warmed.

By then the rice was water logged, literally swimming in water. Apparently I'd added the wrong amount of water. I got out a slotted spoon and ladled some rice onto a bright yellow plate then added the spicy vegetables. Goat cheese and sliced almonds were added - and boy, did it look good!

Unfortunately, it was much too spicy for me. I did have several mouthfuls, but couldn't hack eating the rest because the flavors were too intense.  I can say that the veggies were cooked just right and, I might make the recipe again - with significantly less cayenne pepper. Anybody want some Southwestern Stir Fry?