Again with the Mushrooms! Mushrooms are delicious, and we needed something filling, so we made mushroom polenta. This is a pretty basic dinner with a real nice texture and taste, and if you follow the recipe exactly you will have enough for a small army. It can be a meal on its own, or it can be used as a side-dish (for steak, for instance).

********(we lost the cord to our camera, so pictures will come eventually… polenta isn’t very pretty to look at anyway, so you might be better off without them?)

Polenta is just cornmeal cooked in boiling water and/or broth. It is very creamy, but on its own is pretty bland. It can also take a long time to cook (up to hours, depending on the method) and requires constant stirring, which is easily the hardest part as the polenta needs to thicken up quite a bit before it is “done.” That being said, this recipe took us maybe half an hour of stiring, so if you have two or more people, your arms won’t be too sore by the end ;_;

One more word about this dish before I go on with the recipe. If, when deciding to make this dish, presentation is a factor, use yellow corn meal and white mushrooms. We used white cornmeal with dark mushrooms, which made everything…brown–> “Wild” mushrooms such as portabella/crimini and shitake are usually darker in color (brown-black, especially when cooked). Using yellow corn meal at the very least will make the meal more pleasant to look at. The general flavor of the polenta should not change much in either case, the only real factor being of course the type of mushrooms you decide to use.

So, to start off chop up a third of a cup of mushrooms and toss them into a pot with oil for a couple of minutes with a good amount of salt and pepper (three or four pinches of each, to start, add more to taste once you add the polenta), until they are soft; about two or three minutes (but not sauteed). Once they are soft add four cups of water and 3 cups of chicken broth. If you use bullion (or even better, “Better Than Bullion”) you can just throw in 7 cups of water and three cubes/teaspoons of your bullion, as you will need to bring your water to a rapid boil. Add a good bit of onion powder as well (you could also cook some onions at the beginning in the oil for a few minutes before adding in the mushrooms, however we didn’t have any onions AND I don’t think the texture of onions in this dish would have a very good mouth-feel).

Once boiling, slowly and evenly sift in a cup and a third of your cornmeal, while whisking the mushroom soup you have just made. If you do not pour it in evenly, it will clump up. If you end up with big clumps, just think of them as tiny cornmeal dumplings

Once you have everything poured in, switch to a wooden spoon and stir. And stir. And stir. You will want to turn down the heat somewhat, but the polenta needs to remain at a boil. You must constantly stir it in wide steady circles to avoid it from either burning or exploding out of the pot (and potentially burning you or someone else, not to mention make a huge mess). As I said above, this can take up to an hour; it should be pretty thick and it should peel off the side of the pot when it is done.

Once done, pour it in a bowl, or put it on a plate and put a big ol’ steak on it. While it will thicken up pretty quickly, you can reheat the leftovers in a bowl and it will become liquid-ish again, or you can form the remains into patties, balls, or sausage-like tubes and fry them in oil for a different take on this dish.

Enjoy!
–Cory