With it being National Vegetarian Week I wanted to try something new for my lunch. I knew straight away what I wanted to make. I found my River Cottage Veg cook book and rummaged through the pages for a recipe I had earmarked to make, Chilli, cheese and rosemary polenta with tomato sauce.
The recipe only needed a few ingredients which I already had in. Olive oil, chilli, garlic, rosemary, polenta and cheese.
I sliced the polenta into fingers and fried in a little oil until the outsides were crispy. When I cook some tomorrow I'm going to try them baked in the oven on a tray as I found the crispy edge stuck to the frying pan. They were really tasty with a simple tomato sauce that was recommended to accompany them.
I then decided to make a loaf I had seen on a blog I follow. I copied the recipe out but forgot to make a note of who's blog I found it on. I have been searching through some blogs to try and find it but have had no success yet. When I come across it I shall edit this post and add a link to the blog with the recipe if you want to try it.
Edited - Found it! Here's the link for the cheese and lentil loaf
So this is what I made. A cheese and lentil loaf which looks a disaster in my photo. I made the mixture a bit too sloppy so when I came to take the loaf out of the loaf tin it collapsed! I scooped it all back into the tin and baked on a low heat until it had set completely.
I had too much mixture to fit all in the loaf tin so I did what the owner of the recipe does and put the remaining mixture into puff pastry to make lentil sausage rolls. They came out good.
Yesterday I had a portion of the lovely chilli I made Monday with couscous. I really enjoyed it so tonight I shall have a portion on some pasta seeing as I'm making the rest of the family bolognese on pasta. Going good so far is my vegetarian week. Any of you doing veggie food this week because of National Vegetarian Week?
I'm keen on the polenta you made. Any chance of you giving us the instructions? It looks really delicious and I've never cooked polenta.
ReplyDeleteAs a nanny in the 90s I spent a great deal of time in Ascona in the south of Switzerland. We used to eat in a small grotto restaurant each day that only served polenta. However each day the polenta was different and I loved it!
Hi Frugal Down Under,
ReplyDeleteHeat 2 tbsp oil in a frying pan and gently cook 1 grated clove of garlic and 1 finely chopped chilli for a couple of minutes. Add a tablespoon of finely chopped rosemary and remove from the heat.
In a saucepan add 800ml of hot water pour in 150g polenta in a thin stream, stirring all the time. Cook for 5 minutes stirring often. Stir in the garlic, chilli and rosemary mix. Add 100g grated strong flavoured cheese and plenty of salt & pepper.
Tip polenta onto a try and allow to cool. When cold slice into fingers and fry in a little oil for 2 minutes each side. Serve with a simple tomato sauce.
That sounds a really tasty way of doing Polenta, I think I'll give it a go. I've avoided it up to now as Ihad heard it was really bland, but this way should liven it up a bit.
ReplyDeleteI'm just getting on with eating normally through National Vegetarian Week, I eat this way all the time, but I guess I should do a post mentioning it on my Blog.
Although my cat is most definitely NOT joining in, he's just walked past the kitchen window with a baby rabbit in his mouth, poor thing is dead so there's nothing I can do :-(