The Ultimate Rice Cooker (43 page)
2. At the end of the Porridge cycle, reset for a second Porridge cycle. At the end of the second Porridge cycle, or when the regular cycle completes, open the cover and add a couple of grinds of black pepper and the butter. Stir quickly, close the cover, and allow the polenta to rest at least until the butter melts. This polenta can be held on Keep Warm for up to 2 hours. Stir before serving.
2. At the end of the Porridge cycle, reset for a second Porridge cycle; the polenta needs two full cycles to lose its raw, grainy texture. At the end of the second Porridge cycle, or when the regular cycle completes, taste the polenta and make sure the desired consistency has been reached. Stir in the butter and cheese, if using (if you are chilling the polenta for frying or grilling, or using it under seafood, like grilled pesto prawns, the cheese is not necessary).
3. This polenta will hold on Keep Warm for up to 1 hour, if necessary. Add a bit more hot water if it gets too stiff. Stir before serving.
The French also make cornmeal mush, which was originally brought to their country by the armies of the king of Spain in the Middle Ages. Made in all regions of france, the most famous polenta preparation is Savoy mush, and French polenta can sport toppings and additions like roasted game, stewed prunes, cheese, a variety of meat and vegetable sauces, meat pan juices, and truffles, and sometimes is an addition to soup.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) or large
(10-cup) rice cooker; fuzzy logic
( p referred) or on/off
CYCLE: Porridge or regular
YIELD: Serves 6
2 cups coarse-grain yellow polenta
3 cups water
3 cups chicken stock or milk
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Freshly grated nutmeg
6 ounces goat cheese, crumbled, for garnish
1. Place the polenta and water in the rice cooker bowl; stir for 15 seconds with a wooden spoon or wooden or plastic rice paddle. Add the stock and salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste. Close the cover and set for the Porridge or regular cycle. About every 20 minutes, open and stir for 15 seconds, then close the cooker.
2. At the end of the Porridge cycle, reset for a second Porridge cycle; the polenta needs two full cycles to lose its raw, grainy texture. At the end of the second Porridge cycle, or when the regular cycle completes, taste the polenta to make sure the desired consistency has been reached. This polenta will hold on Keep Warm for up to 1 hour.
3. When ready to serve, spoon onto serving plates and sprinkle with the goat cheese.
Gorgonzola and polenta are a culinary team like spaghetti and Parmesan cheese. They just go together; maybe it is because they are both native to the area around Milan. Use a young Gorgonzola, aged under six months, so it is creamy and mild. It will melt into the mush, giving it a sophisticated flavor. Serve as a side dish alongside roast meats. Some people like to top the hot polenta with a dab of pesto and some chopped cherry tomatoes seasoned with salt, pepper, and a tablespoon of olive oil.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic (preferred) or on/off
CYCLE: Quick Cook and/or regular or Porridge
YIELD: Serves 6
¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter
1 small white onion (you can use a boiling onion), finely chopped
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup milk
¾ cup coarse-grain yellow polenta
5 ounces Gorgonzola cheese
½ cup heavy cream
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2 teaspoons salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese (optional), for garnish
1. Set the rice cooker for the Quick Cook or regular cycle. Place the butter in the rice cooker bowl. When melted, add the onion and cook, stirring a few times, until soft, about 8 minutes. Add the stock, milk, and polenta; whisk to combine. Close the cover and reset for the Porridge or regular cycle. A few times during the cooking, open the cover and stir the polenta for 15 seconds, then close the cover.
2. Coat 6 cups of a standard muffin tin with butter-flavored nonstick cooking spray or grease them with butter.
3. At the end of the second Porridge cycle, or when the regular cycle completes, stir in the cheese, cream, nutmeg, salt, and black pepper to taste. Using a plastic soup ladle, divide the polenta among the 6 muffin cups, filling to the brim. Let come to room temperature. At this point, you can cover with plastic and refrigerate overnight.
4. Preheat the oven to 400º F. Brush a small earthenware roasting pan with olive oil.
5. Remove the polenta from the muffin tin and place in the roasting pan (not touching each other). Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese on top, if using. Bake until hot, 15 to 20 minutes. Serve immediately, using a metal spatula to remove the polenta from the pan.
villafloriani grilled polenta with sausages
Beth’s dear friend Rosmarie Finger worked for years on an estate called Villa Floriani in Portola Valley, California. Every summer there would be a charity celebrity tennis match on the grounds for the Peninsula Volunteers of Northern California, with a fantastic buffet luncheon for three hundred. Beth was lucky to be invited to a number of these functions and enjoyed the excellent food, prepared by a different chef each year. One year this dish was the main offering and it has become a favorite for summer entertaining. The original recipe is from Northwest food writer and chef Joan Deccio Wickham, who designed the menu that year. The recipe is immortalized in her Italian cookbook
The Sporting Gourmet
Cookbook
(The Sporting House, 1983).
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) or large
(10-cup) rice cooker; fuzzy logic
( p referred) or on/off
CYCLE: Porridge or regular
YIELD: Serves 6
4 cups chicken stock
1⅔ cups coarse-grain yellow polenta
2 small yellow onions, chopped
2 tablespoons fruity olive oil
8 ounces Parmesan cheese, freshly grated, plus more for serving
⅛ teaspoon ground white pepper
6 tablespoons (¾ stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Tomato Coulis
6 medium-size Italian sausages, grilled
1. Place 2 cups of the stock in the rice cooker bowl and add the polenta. Stir for 15 seconds with a wooden spoon or wooden or plastic rice paddle; set aside.
2. In a medium-size sauté pan, combine the onions and olive oil. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring a few times, until the onions are transparent, about 5 minutes. Add the remaining 2 cups stock and bring to a boil. Slowly pour the stock mixture into the rice bowl and stir briefly.
3. Close the cover and set the rice cooker for the Porridge or regular cycle. A few times during the cooking, open the cover and stir for 15 seconds, then close the cover.
4. When the machines switches to the Keep Warm cycle or the regular cycle ends, taste the polenta to make sure the desired consistency has been reached. Add the cheese, pepper, and butter, stirring until well blended.
5. Coat two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans with olive oil. Pour the hot polenta into the pans, filling each about three-fourths full. If you are planning to serve the dish that evening, set aside, covered with plastic wrap, to firm up. Otherwise, cover and refrigerate the polenta overnight.
6. Prepare a grill.
For an outdoor charcoal or
wood chip fire:
When the coals are covered with gray ash, throw a few herb sprigs (like rosemary, if you have some) on top of the coals for extra aroma while grilling.
For a gas grill with two burners:
Preheat one burner on high, leaving the other side open for the sausages.
For a single-burner gas grill:
Preheat on high, then lower the flame while grilling the second side of the polenta. Spray the clean grill grate with an olive oil cooking spray and place it 4 inches above the fire.
7. Turn the polenta loaf out onto a cutting board and cut into 1-inch-thick slices. Place the slices on the grill and cook, turning once, until golden brown on both sides. Serve with more grated Parmesan, a ladleful of the coulis, and the grilled sausages.
tomato coulis
This is an excellent all-purpose tomato-herb sauce that is as good hot as it is cold. Use it as a topping for quiche, pizza, sautéed meats, or vegetables.
YIELD: 3 cups
¼ cup fruity olive oil
½ cup chopped shallots
2 to 3 cloves garlic, crushed
One 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes, with their juices
2 tablespoons dry white wine
½ cup chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
10 fresh basil leaves, chopped
Pinch
each
of fresh or dried thyme, oregano, and marjoram leaves
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1. In a large sauté pan, combine 3 tablespoons of the olive oil, the shallots, and garlic. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring a few times, until the shallots are softened, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, wine, and herbs. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to low. Simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes, stirring a few times. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
2. Pour the sauce into a jar and cover with the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil. Let cool to room temperature. The sauce will keep in the refrigerator for 2 days and in the freezer for up to 1 month.
GRITS
If you have ever traveled in the southern United States, you know about grits. A puddle of hot grits, sometimes called hominy grits (even though they are not from ground hominy at all), is served in every café for breakfast with a pat of butter, syrup, or redeye gravy. Grits are just the coarsest grind of plain old cornmeal, ground from white or yellow corn that is grown in the South, then simmered in water or milk and ending up not quite as smooth as polenta. If the grits are stone-ground, there will be black bits of bran and germ speckled throughout, and they are mighty tasty. These may be labeled “old-fashioned” (see
facing box
). When you prepare grits, first cover them with water and let the husks rise to the top, then drain and proceed with the recipe. If the grits are degerminated, they will be a uniform color, and come in instant and quick-cooking varieties, which are both chemically enriched. They have different cooking times, with the stone-ground taking by far the longest; the regular cycle handles this automatically when you vary the amount of liquid. Grits are a snap in the fuzzy logic rice cooker using the Porridge cycle. While grits normally need a proportion of 1 cup grits to 4 cups water to soften properly, the closed environment of the rice cooker prevents a lot of water evaporation, so the ratio drops slightly.
CLICK TO SEE ABOUT OLD-FASHIONED STONE-GROUNDGRITS
If you live outside the southern part of the United States, the only grits you will find in the supermarket will be instant or quick cooking. Luckily, there are excellent mail-order sources for fresh ground grits, including the Old Mill of Guilford in Oak Ridge, North Carolina (910643-4783), and War Eagle Mill in Rogers, Arkansas (501-789-5343). Fresh ground grits are speckled from the bits of grain left over from the milling, so be sure to cover them first with water and let the husks rise to the top, then drain and proceed from the beginning of the recipe. If you want to use quick-cooking grits, just cook for one cycle in the rice cooker and they will still be very good.