My first mouthful of Polenta seemed to me to be a heavenly cross between cheese grits and cornbread stuffing — two of the most perfectly delicious dishes in the world (especially to a Southern girl.) From that one scrumptious bite, I was hooked — and you will be, too. That’s why polenta will play a part in what’s for dinner tonight.

Polenta has a reputation for being difficult because it takes some time to cook properly (no, you can’t use the instant stuff — that’s not learning how to cook; it’s just learning how to open packages). And tradition holds that it must be stirred constantly to acquire the proper texture without scorching.

However, with a nice, low, even heat under a sturdy pan, you can let your polenta simmer gently while you prepare something to accompany it, giving only the occasional stir to keep things moving along smoothly.

We’re going to let this meal be a little bit more freeform than usual. We suggest your favorite roast or chop with a nice, savory sauce (a mushroom glaze, perhaps?) served over our delicious, creamy Gorgonzola Polenta. For a vegetarian version, serve it alongside Oven-Roasted Asparagus with Dijon Lemon Sauce or Roasted Root Vegetables. Or go spicy with Arroz con Pollo.

Following the Gorgonzola Polenta recipe will help you get a nice grasp on the basic process for making a classic creamy polenta. When you’re ready to branch out, you can start adding in your own flavors and additional textures.

Here are some basic tips, though, that hold true for any polenta attempt:

• Keep an eye on it! Even though you don’t really have to keep stirring continuously if you keep the heat low to medium low, you still need to watch the liquid level.
• Don’t microwave it.  There seems to be a big push lately in favor of microwaved polenta. But anyone who’s ever microwaved anything knows things just don’t turn out quite right when they’re nuked. They may still taste OK, they may even be delicious … but microwave foods rarely taste like the real thing. At least give your polenta a chance the first few times, and clear off a stove burner.
• It’s not grits. I love grits. You (should) love grits. But polenta and grits are two different things. Polenta still retains a husk in a way that grits do not, and it requires a slightly longer cooking time. You can serve the two dishes in similar ways. But respect their differing heritages when learning how to prepare them.
• It doesn’t have to be bland. People will tell you polenta is nothing but cornmeal mush, and that they ate it as kids and hated it. But don’t judge a food by someone’s else’s (or your own) childhood impression of it. One of the reasons why people feed bland foods to children is because kids often reject usual or intense flavors they later grow up to love. Tired parents default to feeding youngsters foods that are inoffensive yet boring … and those kids grow up to hate those same boring foods. (You often can feed kids interesting foods by getting them involved in the process… but that’s fodder for a different blog.) Your polenta can be creamy and intensely flavorful. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.

Once you’ve mastered the basic polenta recipe, you can move on to more interesting textures and uses. Try our Polenta and Tomato Lasagna. Or find your own creative ways to work it in — we’ve even seen mention of firm polenta as a “crust” for a pizza-style casserole.

Happy Eating… and Pleasant Polenta!

So, we talked about gnocchi and how to avoid ending up with flavorless lumps. If you need a little bit of visual reinforcement, this may help:

And for an even-simpler step-by-step look, check out our tutorial, here.

It’s all ground corn - grits, polenta, cornmeal - but what makes it so different that each is not a substitution for the other?
Corn Grits - Southerners would tell you that this is an oxymoron like “Great Depression” or “Jumbo Shrimp”. 

Corn grits are made from dried, ground whole kernels of corn.
Hominy Grits - Most believe that true grits can only be made with hominy.  Whole kernel corn is soaked in a lye solution for several days until the skins and germ loosen and the corn is about double in size.  The hominy is then coarsely ground to produce hominy grits.

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Before you finish your shopping for the holidays, check out LearningHowToCook.com for gift ideas for your favorite cook (or for yourself).  Our new article features unusual, but highly useful, tools that will make cooking an absolute breeze!  We find that, although the gift is important, the gift of ease and convenience is the greatest gift of all.

Question:  What is that white film on the outside of grapes?

Answer:  Although it appears to be some sort of pesticide residue, the white film on the outside of grapes is a naturally occurring wax.  The grapevines produce it to protect the grapes from loosing moisture.  So, although we always encourage you to wash every fruit and vegetable you eat, you don’t have to go crazy scrubbing individual grapes.  It is not harmful at all.

Holiday baking season is here!!!

Although the use of fresh vanilla beans does enhance the flavor of baked goods, they can get pretty pricey.  Online deals for whole Madagascar vanilla beans provide a lower price for buying in bulk but, even then, they come out to over a dollar each.  So if you are going to splurge on whole vanilla beans for your holiday baking, at least get the very most out of them you can.

*Once you have split the bean pod and scraped the seeds out to use in your baked product, place the seed pod into a zip-top bag with enough granulated sugar to cover.  After a few days, this sugar will be vanilla scented and flavored.

*You can make your own vanilla extract - 1 cup of vodka and 3 split and scraped vanilla beans left in an airtight container for 2 months will produce the tastiest vanilla extract!  The darker it gets, the more flavor it will have.

Roasted squash exemplifies everything right with winter vegetables.  Not only is it an “mmmmmmmm” inducing addition to soup and casserole, but it stands alone as a healthy side dish as well.  With only a drizzle of olive oil, some salt and pepper you can transform this ordinary vegetable into a winter staple.

To learn how to clean and dice butternut squash, click here to go to our step-by-step pictorial.  Once it’s cleaned, toss the cubes in a bowl with some oil, salt and pepper.  Spread it onto a baking sheet and roast it 20 minutes at 400 degrees.  This is as simple as it comes!

No matter if you call them chickpeas or garbanzo beans, they all look the same ground up with garlic and tahini.

You can make this recipe as a healthy alternative to mayo on a roasted veggie sandwich.  It is a key component on a meze plate (Greek for appetizer).  But, if you really want to knock the socks off a house full of football fans, this is the fanciest and best tasting bean dip any of them will ever taste!

Hummus

2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 tablespoons roasted or chopped garlic
2 tablespoons Tahini
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
Kosher salt, to taste

1 pinch of red chile flakes, to taste

Place the chickpeas, garlic, tahini, cumin and lemon juice in the bowl of a food processor.  Puree until smooth.  Slowly drizzle in the olive oil until incorporated.  Season to taste with chile flakes and salt.  We like to garnish with a few more whole chickpeas and some chopped parsley.

October 24th is National Bologna Day

Would you believe that one of the most popular deli meats in the world is the inspiration for bologna?  Mortadella is an Italian cold cut that originated in the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, Bologna.  It has been made there since the late 1300’s.  It is a key component to (what I would call) the greatest American invention - the muffuletta sandwich.

So I guess that means that my bologna has a first name, it’s M-O-R-T-A.  Which would also mean that my bologna has a second name that’s D-E-L-L-A.  Because those Italians have a way with   b-o-l-o-g-n-a.

You can make this recipe as a healthy alternative to mayo on a roasted veggie sandwich.  It is a key component on a meze plate (Greek for appetizer).  But, if you really want to knock the socks off a house full of football fans, this is the fanciest and best tasting bean dip any of them will ever taste!

How do YOU clean a pomegranate?  If your answer sounds anything like, “I just drink the juice, the fruit is too much work,”  don’t give up on this healthful delight!  With antioxidant, anti-viral, and anti-tumor polyphenols, they are worth the work!  But you don’t have to stain everything (including your skin) within a 10-foot radius just to get to the juice-filled jewels inside.

The stain-free way to clean a pomegranate is to cut it in half and immerse the halves in water.  Start breaking the halves into sections.  The white bits and tough outer rind will rise to the top to be thrown away and the seeds will sink to the bottom.  Meanwhile, your hands stay clean and you can eat pomegranate seeds by the handful without thinking about how painstaking it was to get them out of the fruit!