I made this. It was amazing! I made the polenta exactly how it was done in the video except you don’t mention how much polenta to use so I guessed and used 1 1/2 to the 7 cups of liquid. It held up in the oven and was very light and fluffy. I cheated with the sauce and used a jar of Arrabiatta and served it with grilled green peppers, onions and mushrooms. Thanks for posting this.
Grilled is the way I like it.....about 1/2" thick, with a roasted red pepper sauce. (Those mild, red bell peppers) That's how my favorite Italian restaurant makes it & I was able to reproduce it at home. Served as a side rather than an entrée . Goes great with a roasted, marinated, herbed pork loin. Well, any roasted meat, really. Yum.
I was craving shrimp and grits something fierce, but was cooking for someone who refused to even *try* grits. So I made a batch of this polenta, plated it up, and my grits-hater loved it! I haven't tried the sauce (yet), but the polenta itself has become a great "back-pocket recipe" for me.
Some of ATK's recipes are perfect as written and this is one of those. It does take a few hours to put together but its easy and there are few ingredients. 600 cal and $1.50 per serving. I can see putting grilled shrimp next to this. The red sauce will be great for other recipes, too. BTW, if you don't have a 8x8 square pan, use a 9 inch round pan. They are the same size.
What a great tutorial! Bryan and Julia, the energy in this video is fantastic! Bryan, I love the demo and when you brought out the chilled polenta from the refrigerator it reminded me of the way my Portuguese grandmother would serve polenta. She served it cold and hers had tiny bits of chopped steamed kale inside. You made this perfectly and I'm excited to make this. Thank you both again for a fun and informative video.
I love Mike's Kitchen. It's my first destination every time I go home. Their polenta is the best! We found this because we were thinking about their polenta and were looking up recipes- our jaws dropped when we found this! Their food is the best, and now I'll be making some of it in Los Angeles.
I made this about a year ago and it was a hit among my family. I made the red sauce to order, however, I made the polenta a little differently because it wound up being two meals....the first one was mushroom ragout and polenta. Since I had polenta left from that, I made this recipe using the red sauce....talk about tasty.
I made this & froze the individual squares of polenta in freezer bags. When you want to serve them, pull out from the freezer the night before to defrost in the fridge. The next day,
JUST when I was wondering if people ever sub Cornmeal for Polenta ... I find this! Just made Ragu tonight .. and tomorrow, yep, Polenta using Cornmeal. For the purists, I will gladly eat what you leave behind. UPDATE: After YEARS of having my polenta turn to mush, I followed your recipe and made this yesterday. LIFE CHANGER!! This is the best polenta ever. A couple of days ago, I made ragu ... and the combination of these two has me ALMOST being an honorary Italian ... almost!! Thanks!!
Red sauce is a play on the red sauce from Hazan. Use crushed tomato, is the same as his combo. Garlic powder and sugar???? Will taste like Campbell’s cream of tomato soup.
Crushed tomatoes would be fine, but it isn't the same as the sauce + puree combo. Not nearly as smooth. Which would be a selling point for a lot of people, so there you go.
I made the baked polenta dish and here are my notes: 1. Be careful. The oil has a higher smoking point than the butter, so its easy to burn the butter. 2. The texture is very fluffy. Think of a corn gnocchi. 3. The cakes don't have a lot of flavor to them and a tomato sauce didn't make up for it. I would suggest a sausage or lamb ragu. I might even cut the cakes and pan sear the slices.
Waltham1892, yes! Pan searing with butter works so much better in this recipe than baking. And yes, you have to slice your polenta thinner for that. Another option is to fry some bacon first and then sear your polenta slices in bacon grease. Serve with fried bacon and some fresh cheese (like curds or cottage or even cream cheese) as a side. Delicious.
The reason you use oil and butter is because the oil helps prevent the butter from burning. In the old days, for browning meat they added twice the butter as oil, but thanks to all the bs over animal fats, today it's more common for twice the oil to be used. But it's becoming more common for a 50/50 mix now.
@@lordgarion514 If you like dishes with mild flavors, change nothing. I'm not one of those so I'm trying this with a lamb ragu next week. The polenta cakes have potential, they just need some tweeking.
This guy didn't use and egg & the bricks didn't melt. I don't use egg either, but I DO refrigerate the finished polenta in the pan overnight. I grill mine & have never had a problem. Try the recipe again and make sure to follow the recipe EXACTLY.
They probably removed the onions. They can be used with something else. I use them in with the meat I'm roasting , and is what I serve with this polenta....which I slice & grill. Tastes great with fish & seafood as well.
I make grits every Saturday morning using the polenta style ground yellow corn. I think the yellow corn adds a more nutty flavor. I use either chicken stock or liquid from rehydrated mushrooms for half of the wet ingredient with water for the other half. I'll add butter, salt and some dried Italian seasoning.
Interesting red sauce. The onion halves are used to infuse their flavor into the tomato sauce but aren't chopped or pureed and added to the final red sauce? Is this typical of East Coast marinara sauces?
They showed how to *MAKE* the VFW chef's sauce.....but if using a store-bought sauce, my preference would be a chunky style. But there are no rules.....it's up to you.
They leave certain deatails out so if you want the full recipe, you have to pay to join. Generally polenta is 1 part, per four parts liquid. So, 2 cups looks about right.
I've eaten there! Didn't try the polenta, though. Didn't appeal to me then. Still doesn't. But there are other specialties there that really did it for me. ;) I make a couple (or three) polenta casseroles that set up fairly well, but the texture of "the brick" isn't for me. Nevertheless, thanks for this! Brings back some great memories.
@@joeblow4053 I went there for the fried calamari with the warm pepperocini and garlic "salsa." There was some other draw, but all I could think about ever after was the calamari and salsa. ;)
America's Test Kitchen -- whenever I watch this I wonder if they immediately cut, scream at the second person, and re-shoot if the second person looks at the camera. "ONLY I CAN LOOK AT THE CAMERA!!"
I've used a metal whisk occasionally & it hasn't hurt my pot. That said, you can buy a nylon whisk on amazon. They're not great with thick batters but are fine for cooked sauces in nonstick pots & pans, etc.
one of the main reasons why i watch 🇺🇸 Cook’s Country 🇺🇸 ( ATK ) is in hopes that i get to see Bryan … he is so fine and all man … ☺️ #BryanManCrush ( yeah, i’m sure he’s straight 😏 )
Yum!! So, just looked at recipe. I can do this. But why does it have 1238 mg of sodium . . . Per portion?!? Is there any way to cut that back? (I want to live longer so I have to watch my salt. 🤔😩
T&L's Nana I think the high sodium content is because Romano cheese is high in salt. I guess if you eliminated the additional salt in the recipe, it would reduce the sodium level somewhat. In general, ATK does use a lot of salt. But I’ve seen worse. Although I love Lidia, she always says, let’s add some salt, and then throws a fistful into her dish!!
@@wotan10950 It seems that most chefs use a relatively large amount of salt. I understand how this can really enhance the taste of the dish. Personally, I've trained my palate to not expect the salty flavor and so will use less of it.
Use unsalted butter, reduce the amount of cheese, and either reduce/ eliminate the salt or use a salt substitute. Also, those servings were massive. Eat a smaller portion. I find grilling enhances the flavor of firm polenta.
