Polenta Cakes

There are two kinds of polenta in life. Creamy polenta, like grits, should collapse when ladled directly on a plate. Firm polenta is usually served shaped and is often fried to crisp the top and bottom. These would be the latter kind. From Thomas Keller's French Laundry cookbook, these polenta cakes are the kind of thing I usually think of as a restaurant dish, but it turns out are perfectly accessible and manageable to make in the home, especially for company.

This polenta cake recipe we paired with TK's fantastic short ribs, and the very rich sauce and very rich polenta really gave a wonderful restaurant quality feel. Although not a weekday item, they make a decent company side, because you have to chill them down and wait, and preparing things ahead is the key to successful dinner parties. You can even pre-cut the circles using a biscuit cutter, cookie cutter, or baking round, put them on a plate, and then just fire them up on the stove a few minutes before serving. And since the nature of the recipe kinda forces you to make a lot (you have to harden the polenta in a baking dish prior to cutting the cakes, and baking dishes can only be so small), it makes sense for guests, or to make some for now, and save the rest for a second meal later.

If you're not like me and don't have things like mascarpone cheese on hand (shocking, I know), you can try substituting equal parts cream cheese and sour cream. All this being said, just like sour cream is just not the same as creme fraiche (though easily substitutable for), nothing is truly like mascarpone. Just make sure to adjust any necessary firming times. Make sure to use regular polenta, not instant polenta. Extra fine polenta that is low in starch and has not been processed is also useable and will speed up your cooking time.

Polenta Cakes

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups chicken stock

3 cups water

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

1 1/2 cups polenta

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 tablespoons marscapone

2 tablespoons minced chives

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Flour

Instructions

1. Bring the chicken stock, water, and garlic to a boil in a saucepan.
2. Whisking constantly, pour in the polenta.
3. Return the liquid to a simmer and cook the polenta over very low heat, stirring occasionally, for 25 to 35 minutes, or until the polenta is thick and smooth.
4. When the polenta is cooked, stir in the marscapone, butter, chives, and salt and pepper to taste.
5. Spread the polenta in a 9 x 13 inch baking pan. Let it cool to room temperature.
6. Once cooled, cover the surface of the polenta directly with plastic wrap to seal off air and refrigerate. Allow plenty of time for the polenta to fully firm up (at least three hours).
7. With a 2-inch round cutter or biscuit cutter (or similar size), cut 8 rounds into the firm polenta.
8. Heat about 1/8" of canola or vegetable oil in any ovenproof skillet to medium heat.
9. Add some flour to a round cake pan and gently coat the pieces of polenta with flour. Shake off any excess.
10. Add floured polenta round to the skillet and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side (until evenly browned on both sides and hot. If they brown too quickly (before the center is hot), the pan can be placed in a 350 degree oven to finish cooking.
11. Serve warm. Any leftover polenta can be saved for three days.

Frogmore Stew

Not really a stew at all, but rather a boil of potatoes, corn, shrimp and spicy-smoked sausage, frogmore stew is a very traditional Southern dish, indigenous to the Carolinas but common along the Gulf coast as well. Traditionally, all of the ingredients are boiled in heavily-seasoned water, strained and eaten family-style. My mom likes to make frogmore stew for dinner at the height of summer. It’s a great way to highlight the amazing corn available in July and August, and the heat in the dish can make even the hottest summer night seem cool by comparison.

My version of frogmore stew is a bit more refined than the original. To build my boiling liquid, I start with a base of chicken stock and water, which I slowly simmer with onions, tomatoes, roasted red peppers, herbs and spices until dark and heavily flavored. Because I put so much work into my boiling liquid, I figure it would be a shame not to serve it. So I serve individual portions of the corn, potatoes, shrimp and sausage in wide bowls with some of the boiling liquid ladled over.

I recommend Andouille sausage for this recipe. You can substitute another spicy sausage for the Andouille, but make sure whatever sausage you use is spicy enough to sufficiently flavor the boiling liquid. If using a milder sausage, add additional red pepper flakes to the broth in step 3. Similarly, I recommend using head-on shrimp for this recipe. The heads add great flavor and brine to the boiling liquid. If you’re not using head-on shrimp, consider adding some additional salt to the boiling liquid in step 4.

Serve with crusty bread and remember to put out an extra bowl for shells and corn cobs.

Frogmore Stew

Ingredients

2 pounds Andouille sausage, or other spicy sausage

2 large red bell peppers

olive oil

8 cups chicken stock

8 cups water

2 medium onions, peeled and halved end-to-end

1 large tomato, cored and cut into 1-inch chunks, or 1 16 ounce canned-diced tomatoes, drained

6 garlic cloves, smashed

10 sprigs fresh thyme

6 bay leaves

1 tablespoon whole black pepper corns

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Kosher salt

10-12 small new red potatoes, halved

4 ears corn, husks and silver threads removed and broken into 2-3 pieces each

2 pounds shrimp, shells and heads on

Instructions

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and pre-heat oven to 425F. Poke each link of sausage several times with the twines of a fork, and place on a non-stick baking sheet. Lightly oil the peppers with the olive oil, and place on the baking sheet with the sausages. Place the baking sheet in the oven and roast for 20 minutes, or until the peppers are beginning to blister and the sausages are deeply browned.

2. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and allow the peppers and sausages to cool. When cool enough to handle, cut the sausages on the bias into 2-inch pieces and set aside. Cut each pepper into 6 or 8 pieces, making sure to remove any seeds, and set aside.

3. Put the chicken stock and water in a large stock pot, along with the onions, tomato, roasted peppers, garlic, thyme, bay, black pepper corns, red pepper flakes and salt to taste. Place over medium high and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat and simmer for one hour, skimming off any foam that rises to the surface.

4. Strain the boiling liquid through a fine mesh strainer into a large bowl. Discard the solids. Taste the boiling liquid to make sure that it is heavily seasoned. Add additional salt as necessary.

5. Wipe out the stock pot and then strain the boiling liquid through a fine mesh strainer back into the stock pot. Straining twice will result in a cleaner liquid. The boiling liquid can be set aside at this point for several hours until you’re ready to prepare the stew.

6. Bring the liquid to a gentle boil over medium to medium-high heat. Taste the liquid again. If it seems over-reduced, thin it out with a little water. Add the potatoes to the liquid, partially cover the pot and boil for 15 minutes, adjusting heat as necessary to maintain a gentle boil.

7. Add the corn and sausage to the liquid, partially cover the pot and boil for 10 more minutes, or until the potatoes are fully cooked.

8. Add the shrimp to the pot and cook, covered, for another 3 to 5 minutes, or until the shrimp are just cooked.

9. Place one piece of corn in each of four wide bowls, along with a few pieces of potato, a few pieces of sausage, and several shrimp. Ladle a little of the boiling liquid over each bowl, and serve immediately.

Gazpacho Andaluz

This soup is a good example of why Cooks Illustrated is a special magazine. I have very mixed feelings on gazpacho. A good gazpacho can just taste so freaking good. A perfect fresh cold soup for a hot day that really lets ripe tomatoes shine and do their thing. The problem is that 80-90% of the gazpacho served in this country is basically watery salsa, which is not so great as a soup, and not concentrated enough for a tortilla chip. It has the consistency of baby food, no real distinct flavor, and is not really filling at all as a soup. That stuff I can't even finish. This is in a completely different category. Most importantly, it is strained, so it is a silky smooth soup that referred to as 'creamy' though it lacks any cream-like ingredients. It will knock your puree of salsa version of gazpacho on its feet with a slight vinegar bite and a little subtle heat from the serrano chile.

Juices extracted by salt

And absorbed by bread

This is also the kind of recipe where following the process leads to a good result, and the steps matter. Salting the vegetables and allowing the vegetable juice to be strained out then absorbed into the bread and re-added to the puree adds to the volume of intense fresh vegetable taste and ensures the garnish chunks of veggie don't add excess moisture at the end. Seasoning at the end won't break down the cells in the same way. Slowly adding the olive oil into the running blender ensures a fully creamy and blended consistency. Adding too much at once will cause oil to bubble up in the soup. Adding it correctly in a drizzle leads to the effect that the initial pink color of the blended veggies will turn to orange as the oil is slowly added. Letting it all sit for awhile allows the flavors to marry and enhance. 

Ideally, it should sit overnight, but we have definitely made it early in the morning for an evening dinner and it's been stunning. Just give it a couple hours, and remember to taste right before you serve to adjust seasoning, though it probably won't need much more than the small drops of oil and vinegar served on top, and with pepper and diced veggies to be passed around for diners to garnish as desired. You can substitute red wine vinegar for sherry vinegar and HALF the amount of table salt for the kosher salt, but I prefer kosher salt. We have fairly consistently chosen chives as our herb of choice for this recipe. I imagine basil would add quite different notes, but you really just can't go wrong with chives.

Creamy Gazpacho Andaluz

Ingredients

* 3 pounds (about 6 medium) ripe tomatoes , cored

* 1 small cucumber , peeled, halved, and seeded

* 1 medium green bell pepper , halved, cored and seeded

* 1 small red onion , peeled and halved

* 2 medium garlic cloves , peeled and quartered

* 1-2 small serrano chiles , stemmed and halved lengthwise

* Kosher salt (or half the amount of table salt)

* 1 slice high-quality white sandwich bread , crust removed, torn into 1-inch pieces

* 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil , plus extra for serving

* 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar, plus extra for serving (or red wine vinegar if you need a substitute)

* 3 tablespoons finely minced chives (you can substitute parsley, or in a pinch basil leaves)

* Ground black pepper

 Instructions

Roughly chop 2 pounds of tomatoes, half of cucumber, half of bell pepper, and half of onion and place in large bowl. Add garlic, chile, and 1½ teaspoons salt; toss until well combined. Set aside. Cut remaining tomatoes, cucumber, and pepper into ¼-inch dice; place vegetables in medium bowl. Mince remaining onion and add to diced vegetables. Toss with ½ teaspoon salt and transfer to fine-mesh strainer set over medium bowl. Set aside 1 hour. Transfer drained diced vegetables to medium bowl and set aside. Add bread pieces to exuded liquid (there should be about ¼ cup) and soak 1 minute. Add soaked bread and any remaining liquid to roughly chopped vegetables and toss thoroughly to combine. Transfer half of vegetable-bread mixture to blender and process 30 seconds. With blender running, slowly drizzle in ¼ cup oil and continue to blend until completely smooth, about 2 minutes. Strain soup through fine-mesh strainer into large bowl, using back of ladle or rubber spatula to press soup through strainer. Repeat with remaining vegetable-bread mixture and 1/4 cup olive oil. Stir vinegar, minced herb, and half of diced vegetables into soup and season to taste with salt and black pepper. Cover and refrigerate overnight or for at least 2 hours to chill completely and develop flavors. Serve, passing remaining diced vegetables, olive oil, sherry vinegar, and black pepper separately. See how adding the oil in a drizzle takes the pink puree and makes it orange?