Tag Archives: polenta

Too Many Teas!

17 Sunday Jun 2012

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…ARGH…so many choices and where in the hell was the one I needed?  For the totally off the wall, random recipe that inspired me to make a special trip to the grocery store to pick up a few ingredients?? 

I am not a hot tea drinker.  There, I said it.  Quelle horreur, right?  I hear about all the wonderful health benefits from drinking tea, a few co-workers have quit coffee and now only drink green tea and on and on.  It’s just not my thing.  I do enjoy a cup of (black) coffee in the morning but I’m not obsessive about it and I’m not homicidal when I don’t have it.  Yes, I do live at Starbucks Ground Zero but coffee is not a ritual for me.  Now, when it comes to tea, I can drink gallons of plain, unsweetened iced tea.  Homemade in the sun with a lemon wedge or Diet Snapple lemon flavor, I’m callin’ your name.

I’ve been getting re-intrigued with raw food lately.  And not the vegetarian or vegan style either, although there are incredible recipes out there across the spectrum.  I say re-intrigued (yes, I think I just made that word up) as I’m making an effort to keep trying new varieties of foods.  To keep varying my diet.  I experimented with raw food a few years ago – maybe even prior to starting this blog I think…probably around 2007-2008. 

Recently I picked up Carol Alt’s newest book, Easy Sexy Raw.  I have her two earlier books as well and I love how they’re all written with both a no-nonsense style and a little humor too.  Food should be fun, not serious!  And ugh, who wants to read and learn about a food lifestyle where the author is preachy or condescending?  What a turnoff.  Carol’s books are educational and such a pleasure to read.   For those of you who don’t know who Carol is, she was a model on countless magazine covers in the 1980s.  She’s also an actress and is probably the most familiar “face” of the raw food movement.  And if you see pictures of her today in her early 50s…wow, still a knockout.  She says she had a very unhealthy diet growing up and during her modeling years and once she later went raw, her health problems vanished and her energy skyrocketed.  Sounds pretty inspirational to me!  We’re never too old to make changes in our lifestyle to improve our health!

So what’s the deal with tea?  Well, the recipe I wanted to try (which I’ll share at the end of this post) called for a quarter cup of Lapsang Souchong tea.  No offense to tea experts out there, but what the hell is THAT?  I probably have tea stashed deep in the dark corners of my pantry but had no desire to dig around and I knew it certainly wasn’t that kind.  And for some reason, as much as I love grocery shopping (really and truly – today was a one of those rare times I didn’t) I didn’t feel like making a long drive out to one of our nearby specialty stores which I was certain would probably have it.  We’re so blessed here in the Seattle suburbs to have Whole Foods, a PCC (co-op), Metropolitan Market, Trader Joe’s and on and on.  And I am very fortunate to have a grocery store that’s a 2 minute walk from my townhouse.  The good old Safeway. 

Getting to that Safeway, however, is a nightmare and by the time I’m in the store my blood pressure is skyrocketing.  What’s the problem?  Well, whether arriving on foot or by car, the street nearby and the parking lot are very unsafe.  The parking lot is poorly designed.  Between people coming and going with carts, small kids, combine that with a Dairy Queen drive-thru lane dumping out in the opposite direction, a McDonald’s drive-thru on another part of the entrance and a busy 4-lane street that’s dangerous to cross on foot (drivers do NOT yield in the cross walk there – it’s bizarre and scary) you have a mess.  It’s just a weird vortex where common sense goes out the window.  And no, I don’t think it’s just me! 

For some reason I decided going to said Safeway today would be a good idea.  They do have a pretty good selection of specialty, natural foods and organic produce.  So off I went…in search of frozen corn kernels (that was easy) some gourmet mushrooms (I choose a small handful of Shiitake mushrooms), and the elusive Lapsang Souchong tea.  The tea was going to be part of a marinade for the mushrooms.  Sounds interesting, don’t you think? 

And then there it was.  The tea aisle.  I was beyond overwhelmed and probably had my jaw on the floor.  I could not BELIEVE how many kinds of tea there were!  The gatherer/cave woman within me freaked out!  TOO MANY CHOICES that I knew NOTHING about!  And that damn Lapsang Souchong tea was nowhere to be found! GAH!  And I realized, given my near total ignorance about tea, that I had no idea what would be a decent substitute!  So I grabbed some Stash green & black tea blend and said hell with it.  Now I’m truly curious how much different this marinade turned out having used another kind of tea. 

And now for something completely different…this recipe is for Lapsang Souchong wild mushrooms with a fresh corn polenta.  Yes, you can make a raw version of polenta!  In fact, as Carol writes, just about any food out there has a raw ‘twin’ of sorts.  She also shows ways to incorporate raw partially into our diet without needing to go 100% cold turkey.  Again, this is part of the reason I love her books and writing style.  It’s not in-your-face, shoveitdownyourthroat.  It’s informative…and funny!

Serves 4 – requires some marinating and soaking time

  • 3 cups wild, fresh mushrooms such as chanterelles, porcini, oyster or trumpet
  • 1/4 cup brewed Lapsang Souchong tea
  • 1/4 cup cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon Nama Shoyu (unpasteurized soy sauce)
  • 1 1/2 cups raw cashews, soaked then dried completely
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 1/2 tsp minced garlic
  • 2 cups fresh corn kernels or thawed frozen kernels
  • Freshly ground black pepper

To make the tea, steep 1 to 2 teaspoons of tea leaves into 1 cup of hot (not boiling water) for about 5 minutes.  Alternatively, steep the tea leaves in room temperature water in the sun for several hours.

Soak the cashews for about 2-3 hours.

To make the mushrooms, use a damp cloth to wipe the caps and stems clean.  If using larger mushrooms, cut them into smaller pieces so they are all uniform in size.  Combine the tea, olive oil and nama shoyu and mushrooms in a large bowl.  Toss and massage with your clean hands to mix well.  Set aside for 15-20 minutes to marinate.  The tea will give the mushrooms a smoky flavor and the oil and nama shoyu will help soften them so they appear to be cooked.

Meanwhile, make the polenta.  Combine the cashews, salt and garlic in a food processor and process into small pieces.  Add the corn kernels and process to mix well.  Season with black pepper.

To serve, scoop the polenta into individual dishes.  Top with the mushrooms and spoon over some of the marinade.

Carol gives a nod to Ani Phyo for creating this recipe.  It’s truly unique!

Now, I admit I blew it somewhat on a few steps, but I’m excited to try again (and not only to see what it tastes like with the rightly intended tea).  The Safeway did not have raw cashews, so I substituted bulk, salted cashews.  I think this was a mistake.  The polenta calls for a little extra sea salt to be added and so that combined with already salty cashews made for too-salty polenta.  Oops. Thankfully I made about 1/4 of the recipe given this was a way off the beaten path experiment for me, so I don’t feel like I wasted a lot of food.   My frozen corn kernels were also not completely thawed, so the polenta texture was not as pudding-like as it was supposed to be.  But boy it tasted GOOD.  And it didn’t take much to fill me up.

I think that’s the idea about eating foods in their natural state…without additional chemicals, fillers or other ways we alter our food, we’re satisfied with less. 

Buon appetito!

Weekend double shot bonus (and encore) recipe: Do or die with the ground beef…

06 Friday Apr 2012

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So to debunk my typical Sunday posting routine, I’m rebelling and re-surfacing (re-bumping, is that a word?) one of my favorite slow cooker recipes I posted last fall.  When you’ve got ground beef thawing in the fridge for the second time around after refreezing it, it’s got to move forward or risk losing its flavor… or maybe that’s just me. Thankfully it’s still sealed up like it was in the grocery store.

Polenta with Bolognese Sauce isn’t the traditional way to welcome Spring, but Spring has yet to officially boing and spring around here.  Cold, biting winds, a few snow flurries even into early April, rain (well, that’s typical) and some nasty flu bugs going around are making it tough to break free from the grips of Winter here in the Seattle area. 

So here’s a hearty meal to fight that off – a Bolognese sauce prepared in a slow cooker and later baked with sliced polenta and some parmesan.  This is glorious and well worth the time – trust me on this one.

Bolognese Sauce
Makes about 12 cups (3 quarts)

2 T olive oil
2 oz pancetta, chopped
2 small, finely chopped yellow onions
2 finely chopped carrots
1 stalk finely chopped celery
3 lbs ground beef
2 C beef broth
1 1/2 C dry red wine
1 can (28 oz) crushed or diced plum tomatoes
1/2 C milk
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Fresh Italian leaf parsley, minced for garnish (optional)   

In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, warm the oil.  Add the pancetta and saute until it begins to render its fat, about 1 minute.  Add the onions, carrots and celery and saute until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add the beef and cook, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon, until it is no longer red, about 7 minutes.

Transfer to the slow cooker.  Add the broth and wine to the pan and raise the heat to high.  Bring to a boil and deglaze the pan, stirring to scrape up the browned bits on the pan bottom.  Pour the liquid into the slow cooker along with the tomatoes and stir to combine.

Cover and cook the sauce on the high heat setting for 4 hours, or the low heat setting for 8 hours.  Add the milk, stirring to combine.  Cover and continue cooking for 20 minutes longer.  Season with salt and pepper.

…now, how do you use this sauce?  Toss it with some fettucine and sprinkle in fresh-grated Parmesan cheese. 

Or try it with Polenta:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Butter a gratin baking dish (I actually just use a 9 x 13 glass casserole).  Take a tube of prepared Polenta (18 oz) and slice it crosswise into slices about 1/4″ thick.  Arrange the slices in the bottom of the baking dish, overlapping them.  Spoon the Bolognese sauce around the slices generously and sprinkle a 1/2 cup of fresh-grated Parmesan cheese.  Bake until the sauce is hot and bubbly, about 20 minutes.  Served with minced fresh Italian parsley for garnish.

Fivenineteen’s notes:  I added a small ‘blob’ of minced garlic for a little extra punch when sauteeing the onions, carrots and celery.  Guessing about 2 or 3 teaspoons.  I just spontaneously grabbed a small caviar-type spoon, scooped up some garlic and threw it into the pan. Love that aroma! Most of you who tune in regularly know I prefer minced garlic in a jar as it’s so much more convenient than peeling/pressing fresh garlic.  AND you won’t notice a difference – promise.

I also recommend adding the crushed tomatoes to the slow cooker BEFORE pouring in the broth and red wine mixture.  It will save you a lot of potential stains and splashes on your countertops and on yourself.  You can also reduce the amount of red wine and broth slightly – maybe a quarter cup total.  I boiled the mixture for quite a few minutes to reduce it down before adding to the slow cooker but there still is a fair amount of liquid remaining even after the slow cooking is finished. 

The flavors are incredible…enjoy!

From the Williams-Sonoma Food Made Fast Slow Cooker Recipes book.

Late Night Mid-Week Slow Cookin’…

09 Sunday Oct 2011

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Fall is here!  Even on a rare sunny day like yesterday it felt different.  It’s crispy outside (or soggy if it’s raining).  It’s getting darker a little earlier than it used to and the shadows are long even midday.  I met up with a good friend on the top of the hill here yesterday very spontaneously for a 90 minute brisk walk.  Leaves are starting to turn, and the tall sunflowers in that corner yard we always pass by are now top heavy and tired from their own weight.

So while I always mourn summer as she melts away into fall, I DO love this time of year for the clothes and food.  Time to bust out the sweaters, boots, leather jackets…oh yeah.  And cooking!  Soups!  Stews!

Last year I purchased a slow cooker for the first time.  I remember our Crock Pot as a kid – my Mom made wonderful chicken dishes all the time – and they seem to be coming around in style again.  Kinda like fondue.  Anyway, mine was free actually.  Remember the Refrigerator Drama from last year?  I got a $100 Sears gift card, one of the few bright spots in that whole episode.  So I used it toward a slow cooker.  Very nice, stainless steel, 3 1/2 quart size.  And my folks gave me a Williams-Sonoma slow cooker recipe book for Christmas.  Love it!

And it was time to bust a move with it again.  Last weekend I had 3 lbs of ground beef in my fridge, just a couple days away from use it or freeze it.  I really wanted to make a Bolognese sauce – the cookbook recipe is wonderful – but, being a smart cook, re-read the recipe.  Ah yes, now I remember:  once you make the sauce it needs 4 hours in the slow cooker on high heat or 8 hours on low heat.  Hmmm…how do I cram that into my crazy week schedule?  I know one cool thing about a slow cooker is you can put everything in it in the morning, turn it on low and come home that night from work with your meal ready!  But for some reason I’ve been a little reluctant to do that.  What if I get stuck at work late or in traffic?  I know they shut off to a low simmer once the timer goes off, but anyway I guess I’m not comfortable with something “cooking” in my house when I’m not there. 

Last week definitely was burning the candle at both ends.  Sunday night was our first hockey game of the season!  Woo hoo!  With a 10:45pm faceoff!  Not so woohoo.  But that’s winter season for ya.  It was awesome seeing my teammates again, meeting a couple new faces and getting back on the ice.  I had not skated since around June and frankly have been woefully lame getting regular exercise.  But I actually skated and played a lot better than I thought I would.  And we had an 8-4 blowout win!

There’s something surreal about leaving the rink after a late game. That night, it was midnight.  Luckily this game was at the rink that’s just a 5 minute drive from my house, so no excuses.   Once I get to the rink, especially for a late game, time kind of stops mentally for me, except for our game clock.  I force myself not to look at the “real” clock…nope don’t need to be reminded it’s 11:30pm or whatever!  Crazy.

Now, it’s uber hard to immediately wind down and get to sleep after hockey, as much as I want to/need to, especially on a Sunday night (errr, early Monday I guess).  So that means an extra cup of coffee at work.  Those of you reading this who play hockey or other late night sports know what I’m talking about!

So Sunday night was out for making the sauce.  Onward to Monday.  Well, I didn’t get home as early as I’d thought, and so I got a late start getting the ingredients ready.  There’s a bit of chopping and prep time, plus you need to brown 3 lbs of ground beef and make a little extra sauce with some deglazing.  I honestly don’t mind doing a lot of chopping/prep work by hand.  Yeah, there are these really cool things out there called food processors, and I actually do own a couple – one large, one small – but when it comes to chopping, slicing or dicing relatively small amounts of ingredients, I’m good with my cutting board and a sharp knife.  My Mom says I’m my grandmother’s granddaughter…on my Dad’s side.  Right down to our mutual love of flour sack towels to get those last drops off of pots and pans after they air dry.

Getting the meat, veggies and deglazing sauce ready was all I had time for on Monday.  Even on the high heat setting, 4 hours in the slow cooker would mean finishing up at 1am.  And I just couldn’t do it.  So I put the cooked meat and veggies in a huge Pyrex bowl, poured the deglazed sauce in it, covered it with foil and put it in the fridge.

Tuesday?  Well, that was a night out with my Silpada team.  We meet monthly and normally are at our team leader’s house, but this time we changed it up and met at Purple, a wine bar in downtown Bellevue.  I loved seeing everybody and relaxing with some wine and munchies.  Someone even sprung for a round of salted caramels for dessert.  WOW.  We definitely were the most bling’d out table, and given it was a little noisy we just had a ton of chitchat rather than any kind of organized meeting agenda, and passed around eachother’s jewelry for everyone to try on.  

I got home at 10pm that night.  So that’s a no-go on finishing that darn sauce.

Wednesday night, anyone?  This HAD to be the night to finish.  I thought it would be OK, but a teeny part of me was worried that the sauce would turn out different or weird having been in the fridge for two days.  But, it turned out great.  Kinda weird getting steaming hot sauce to cool down and get divided up into Tupperwares…at midnight.  Ahh, blissful sleep.

So I learned that slow cooking is MUCH better done on a weekend.  Thankfully this sauce keeps beautifully in the fridge or freezer. (This sauce stores up to 3 days in airtight containers in the fridge or in the freezer for up to 3 months).  But it’s soooo good I bet you won’t be able to keep it around that long!

Here’s the recipe!

Bolognese Sauce
Makes about 12 cups (3 quarts)

2 T olive oil
2 oz pancetta, chopped
2 small, finely chopped yellow onions
2 finely chopped carrots
1 stalk finely chopped celery
3 lbs ground beef
2 C beef broth
1 1/2 C dry red wine
1 can (28 oz) crushed or diced plum tomatoes
1/2 C milk
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Fresh Italian leaf parsley, minced for garnish (optional)   

In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, warm the oil.  Add the pancetta and saute until it begins to render its fat, about 1 minute.  Add the onions, carrots and celery and saute until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add the beef and cook, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon, until it is no longer red, about 7 minutes.

Transfer to the slow cooker.  Add the broth and wine to the pan and raise the heat to high.  Bring to a boil and deglaze the pan, stirring to scrape up the browned bits on the pan bottom.  Pour the liquid into the slow cooker along with the tomatoes and stir to combine.

Cover and cook the sauce on the high heat setting for 4 hours, or the low heat setting for 8 hours.  Add the milk, stirring to combine.  Cover and continue cooking for 20 minutes longer.  Season with salt and pepper.

…now, how do you use this sauce?  Toss it with some fettucine and sprinkle in fresh-grated Parmesan cheese. 

Or try it with Polenta:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Butter a gratin baking dish (I actually just use a 9 x 13 glass casserole).  Take a tube of prepared Polenta (18 oz) and slice it crosswise into slices about 1/4″ thick.  Arrange the slices in the bottom of the baking dish, overlapping them.  Spoon the Bolognese sauce around the slices generously and sprinkle a 1/2 cup of fresh-grated Parmesan cheese.  Bake until the sauce is hot and bubbly, about 20 minutes.  Served with minced fresh Italian parsley for garnish.

from the Williams-Sonoma Food Made Fast Slow Cooker Recipes book.