Polenta and Basil and Cheese

I don't remember eating polenta when I was young. If we had spaghetti sauce, or 'gravy' if you're Italian I guess, Mom served it with spaghetti. 

I really, really like polenta. It's good by itself, a sort of variation of grits, and it's great as a base for roasted veggies, or a pork stew, or for any version of spaghetti sauce with a tomato base. If you chill it, it becomes a great side to warm up on a grill or in a cast iron skillet. The toasting of those corn bits gives it a different flavor than the soft version straight out of the pot.

This time we're doing a variation on the chilled polenta. Parmesan cheese, pepper and a bit of butter gets stirred into the soft, hot polenta, and then half of it gets poured into a greased pan, that gets topped with fresh basil leaves (which is why I'm making it now when my basil bush is really producing lots of fresh basil) and some mozzarella cheese, then that is topped with the rest of the polenta.

After that concoction chills to firm up, you cut it into portions and cook it until golden brown on a grill or in your cast iron skillet. The polenta gets a bit crusty and the cheese in the middle gets gooey. I like to heat a little spaghetti sauce in the microwave to spoon over the top since basil and tomato are such a great match of flavors. This can be a side dish or, with a larger portion, a full meal. Imagine that, plus a crisp green salad, maybe tossed with an Italian dressing...bliss! 

Grilled Cheese and Basil Polenta
Based on a Donna Hay (#40) recipe 

3 cups (750ml) water 
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (170g) instant polenta (I used an equal amount of regular polenta and cooked 10 minutes or so)

60g butter, chopped (I only used a tablespoon of butter)
½ cup (50g) finely grated parmesan
 freshly ground black pepper to taste
½ cup basil leaves
1 cup (100g) grated mozzarella
olive oil, for brushing

Place water in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to the boil. Stir in salt. Gradually whisk in the polenta and cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat and stir through the butter, parmesan, and pepper. Pour half of the polenta into a 20cm square pan lined with non-stick baking paper and spread to smooth. (I used a 9-inch round pie pan, lined with foil and then sprayed with olive oil spray.) Top with the basil, mozzarella and remaining polenta. Refrigerate for 45 minutes or until set.
Cut into squares/rectangles/wedges and brush with oil. Heat a char-grill pan or barbecue over high heat. (I used my cast iron skillet, well heated) Cook the polenta for 3-4 minutes each side or until golden and the cheese has melted.

Serve topped with a generous serving of the pasta sauce or a ragu of your choice. A nice green salad completes the meal.

Unfamous Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

 There are a lot of chocolate chip cookies out there and lost of recipes. I've tried at least 5 or 6 of them but still have the original Toll House recipe as my go-to version. Even so, I'm always game to try a different version to see if I can find something better.

Last weekend I was in Redmond, WA, visiting K, A and R and we tried out a recipe that K received from her friend Tyler. He put a lot of time and effort into creating this recipe so that it is an ultimate version, using chocolate chunks rather than chips, plus a sprinkle of sea salt on top which is a nice contrast to the sweetness of the cookie and chocolate. These are pretty large cookies and they do need to chill at least 12 hours and, even better, up to 48 hours, after you have shaped them and before they are baked.

What a great cookie! Eat on still a bit warm from the oven and you get a close to classic Toll House flavor with the advantage of the perfect amount of crisp edges and golden bottom, plus a soft and slightly chewy center, plus lots and lots of chocolate chunks still soft and gooey from their time in the oven. Bliss for cookie lovers. Try it yourself.

We were careful to really follow the recipe, including using Kerry Gold butter and the Ghirardelli chocolate bars, which get hand chopped into just the right sized chunks. We browned the butter, but just lightly brown. We even purchased the real deal Maldon sea salt. The process is just as important as the ingredients, so read the recipe a couple of times and then pay attention and follow along just the way it's written, O.K.?

Here's to happy times eating extraordinary cookies. Thanks Tyler, for the recipe!

Tyler’s Unfamous Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Ingredients

Butter – 220 g (or 2 sticks/1 cup) nice (soft) – Plugra Extra Creamy unsalted or Kerry Gold

Granulated white sugar – 50g ( or around ¼ cup)

Dark brown sugar – 250g (or 1 ¼ cup)

Eggs – 2 large eggs + 1-2 more yolks

Vanilla extract – 4g (or 1 ¼ teaspoons)

Semi- sweet chocolate – 1 lb.- Ghirardelli Chocolate (4 bars)

All-Purpose Flour – 330g (or 2 1/3 cups

Baking Soda – ½ teaspoon

Baking Powder ¼ teaspoon

Non- iodized Salt – 7 g ( or 1 ¼ teaspoons)

Sea Salt Flakes – for topping after dough is mixed- Maldonado brand

 

Instructions

Roughly chop the chocolate bars into ½ inch squares. Transfer the chocolate into a colander or strainer with large holes and gently shake to remove the fine grains/flakes of chocolate so you are left with mostly the large chunks. Save all the sifted flakes and bits of chocolate for another recipe or as topping.

 Optional step: browning butter – this is not required, however it does add a slightly deeper, nuttier flavor to the cookie. In a light- bottomed pan, slowly brown the butter, insuring it does not burn. Once browned, immediately remove from heat and pour into a bowl, allowing the butter to completely cool and re-solidify before the next step.

In a stand mixer bowl, add ‘nice’ butter and the sugars. Using the paddle attachment, cream for 4-5 minutes on medium high.

Add in eggs and yolks and vanilla and cream the ingredients on high for another 1-2 minutes, pausing to scrape down the sides of the bowl halfway through. Creaming times will vary slightly based on the temperature of your ingredients.

Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, and table salt and mix on low for about 30 seconds. Reserve about 15-20 chocolate chunks and fold the rest into the mixture until well distributed.

Using a large ice cream scoop or a ½ cup measure, scoop cookies onto a parchment lined tray. Top with one of two reserved chocolate chunks and sprinkle with flaked salt to taste. Cover and refrigerate for 24 – 48 hours. 48 hours is ideal.

Preheat oven to 355 degrees F. Place cookies on parchment lined heavy baking sheet. Bake only 2 – 4 on a sheet since these are LARGE cookies and need room to spread. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the edges are golden brown, but soft and light colored in the middle. Let cool for one hour.

 Note: Can be baked from frozen – freeze dough balls. Keep dough in freezer while oven is preheating to 375 degrees F. Put directly from freezer into oven once heated to 375 degrees F and bake for 16 – 17 minutes.

First Zucchini of the Season

When you grow a veggie garden from seed or small starts, it's always exciting to see that your plants have started to produce vegetables that you can eat. Sweetie isn't that taken with veggies in general, but he always loves grilled zucchini. We finally were able to harvest a couple of nice ones and grill them to go with dinner. Because of the heat, we ate BBQ ribs from our local market, green beans from a neighbor, and those delicious zucchini! It's summer and this is the best part of it, in my opinion.

No recipe for this, really, because all we do is slice the zucchini lengthwise in two or three pieces (depending on how big they are), spray on some olive oil, sprinkle on pepper and a bit of garlic salt and grill them on both sides. I like mine al dente but they can be grilled longer if you prefer them that way.

Blueberry Season Muffins

July is the time for fresh blueberries in my neck of the woods. One of my favorite ways to enjoy blueberries is in a soft, fragrant, delicious muffin. They don't take long to make or bake and you can enjoy them warm.

A good muffin is tender and has a fairly open crumb, so they aren't really like a cake. Although it helps to have room temperature eggs, you melt the butter so you can decide to have muffins and then make them in a shorter time. Plop the eggs in some warm water while you melt the butter, let the eggs warm and the butter cool a bit while you prep the dry ingredients, warm the buttermilk on low in the microwave just enough to take the chill off, and you are good to go. A small amount of both whole wheat flour and rolled oats make these just a bit heartier than those with just all-purpose flour, plus the flavor improves...a win-win.

I like to sprinkle some sanding sugar over the tops of the muffins before they go into the oven. It adds some sweetness and different texture and is pretty, but it really is optional.

Usually I also include lemon zest for sparkle but didn't have one this time and they were still delicious!

Hearty Blueberry Muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup rolled oats
1 cup granulated sugar
½ tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled a bit
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons egg substitute (or 2 medium eggs)
¾ cup buttermilk
1 cup fresh blueberries
sanding sugar (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F with rack in the middle of the oven. Grease 8 muffin cups or line 8 cups with cupcake papers.

In a large bowl combine the flours, oats, sugars, baking powder, baking soda and salt with a whisk.

In another bowl whisk together the melted butter, room temperature eggs, and buttermilk that is at room temperature.

Add the wet ingredient mixture to the dry ingredient mixture, stirring with a fork for a few strokes; just enough to incorporate 90% of the dry ingredients into the wet.

Add the blueberries and continue gently mixing just until ingredients are combined. Immediately scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin, dividing the batter as evenly as possible among the cups. Batter may come to top of cups.

 If desired, sprinkle a bit of sanding sugar (less that 1/4 teaspoon for each muffin) on top of each muffin's raw dough.

Bake for about 20 minutes, rotating the pan half way at 10 minutes. Muffins are done when the tops are golden brown and when a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean (well, there may be blueberry juice clinging to it, but no uncooked batter, OK?)

Allow the muffins to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove from the pan and cool some more if you can wait that long. Enjoy these muffins while still warm or serve within 12 hours for the moistest muffins. Wrap any remaining muffins airtight and store in the fridge.

Makes 6-8 muffins

Happy 4th of July!