[Sca-cooks] Which is which?

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Sue Clemenger wrote:
>
> Oh, make me drool before breakfast.....I've been thinking of making up
> some polenta, having both cornmeal and semolina in my cupboard....Do you
> add the mascarpone to the batter, or do you slice up the polenta, fry it
> and add the mascarpone afterwards? Recipe, please? <g>
> --Maire (who likes mascarpone with just about anything.....)

Heh heh (read in nervous, itchy Jean Shepherd voice). Embarrassing as it
is to relate, here's what we did in a restaurant I worked at.

We made a very basic polenta in bulk. We might have gone crazy and added
some salt. Probably. This was prepared before service and allowed to
cool to room temp (under plaswrap so it remains moist and skinless). For
service, we would take maybe 3/4 cup of the cooled polenta and put it in
a plastic bowl, add a drizzle of decent EV olive oil (probably
Colavita), a tablespoon or so, and a dollop of mascarpone, maybe 1/4
cup, stirring it all together. We would then heat it in _THE MICROWAVE_
for a minute or two, at which point the polenta was hot, had sweated
just a bit of the olive oil to form a lubricating layer between the
polenta and the plastic. This would enable us to swirl the polenta
around in the bowl, and shape it into a ball without actually touching
it. The cheese gave it just a bit of elasticity, almost a poi texture.

Served sprinkled with chopped parsley or fresh herbs de provence,
surrounded by something silly and effete like sauteed chicken oysters
with demiglaze...

The whole microwave-in-plastic-bowl thing is kind of embarrassing, but
it was really good, in spite of itself.

Adamantius
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com