Author Archives: GG

Parmesan Polenta Fries

Why are chips always bad?  Have you tried Heston’s triple cooked fries?  All fluffy potato inside and golden crunchy outsides.  These aren’t mere chips, but something to be savoured, served with a dip.  A Hero not a side.

Fabulous as they are, they take a lot of preparation and cooking.  I wanted to create that Hero without the deep fat fryer.  Parmesan Polenta chips is the way to go. Oven cooked with a hint of salty cheese flavour, crispy on the outside, soft textured on the inside.  Serve with hummus, tarragon pesto or cayenne sprinkled mayonnaise.

If you want really fast polenta fries, buy ready made polenta.  Cut into chip lengths and brush with butter or olive oil.  Cook as for the recipe and then sprinkle with parmesan whilst still warm.  Tasty as they are, there’s nothing to beat the dairy packed, made from scratch version.

Parmesan Polenta Fries With Cayenne Mayonnaise

Polenta Parmesan Fries

Makes 18

• 450mls Milk
• 450mls water
• 235g polenta
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 55g parmesan
• 55g melted butter
• Optional additional grated parmesan for serving

Method

• Grease a square or rectangular pan
• Put the water and the milk in a pan over a medium heat and bring to just under a boil, add the salt
• Gradually pour in the polenta whisking as it streams into the pan.  Whilst still whisking, add the parmesan
• Reduce heat if necessary to stop the polenta catching on the bottom of the pan
• Using a wooden spoon stir continually until the polenta thickens and begins to pull away from the edge of the pan. (This can take a few minutes or 15 – 20 minutes as mine did)
• Pour into the greased pan and spread to form an even layer
• Place in the fridge for at least one hour or overnight
• Remove from the fridge and cut into fat chips
• Brush with the melted butter and oven cook on a baking tray for 35 minutes at 210 until crisp and golden – turn half way through cooking
• Remove from the oven and sprinkle with parmesan if using

Parmesan Polenta Fries Great For Dipping

Wild Garlic Leaves In Water

There’s something about Foraging that seems very exciting.  Setting out into the October mist and gathering all sorts of wonderful mushrooms, with their heady fragrance of soft earth and rain.  I’ve done this often, bringing home almost more than I know what to do with.  But the foraging I hanker after, is finding the obscure, that moment of revelation when the ordinary looking piece of grass gives up tiny aromatic herb leaves or the bluebell woods waft with a soft familiar, but yet unidentified smell, announcing the gem of Wild garlic, hidden amongst the fronds of bluebell leaves.  So far I’ve not found my foraging Guru to guide me through the edible and poisonous of the spring greenery and had to buy my wild garlic from Daylesford Organics.  But what fun I’ve had turning it into a a series of delicious delights, using the softer garlic flavour but still keeping a peppery bite. (more…)

Stack of Orange madeleines

Orange cakes always remind me of childhood holidays in france.  Visits to the village boulangerie / patisserie often ended with my taking an orange, glossy topped Madeleine from a jar offered by the friendly owner.   I slowly ate the sticky morsel as we continued our shopping in the local market, savouring every tangy bite.

Rough, wooden bench tables with white or striped canvas awnings ran the length of the main street, each stacked with wonderful fragrant smelling food.  Ripe apricots, just blushed with pink, sold by the crate.  Salty fragrant clams, a choice of pale or dark shelled, piled high beside rubber banded crabs, waving their fettered and useless claws, just waiting for the opportunity to nip.  It was a revelation to me, my aunt who lived in the village, seemed to know all the stall holders and being completely fluent in French, able to chat to them – rapid fire.  Laughing and joking, far too fast for me to understand and anyway, a vocabulary alien to a six year old.  We’d return home laden with produce, and as she and my mother planned the meals to come, I just dreamt of having a jar of those precious Madeleines all to myself. (more…)