I
made this dish at our old place before moving, so it has been waiting
for a while to be published. Even though it was made a couple of
months ago, I think it’s still worth sharing. The dish is a polenta
based pizza with vegan chicken style bits marinated in soy sauce,
smoked paprika and tomato purée. The other toppings were roasted
tomatoes, mozzarella and basil. It was a tasty combo with different
textures. You could easily also skip or substitute the mozzarella and
make a vegan version.
I
pre-cooked all toppings and the base before combining. That way you
can be sure that everything is nicely cooked. I marinated the vegan
chicken and then fried it and I roasted the tomatoes in the oven.
It’s
easy to make the polenta pizza base. Just cook the polenta in
vegetable stock with a few added herbs like for example thyme, basil
or wild garlic. Spread the cooked polenta on baking paper. If you use
two baking papers on each side, you can roll it with a rolling pin as
thin as you would like. Let the base cool in the fridge for at least
30 minutes. First pre-bake the base without any toppings for a little
while, then add the toppings and bake until done. It’s a nice
different style of pizza.
This weekend has
been very good so far. We went for a long walk at the harbour
yesterday. It was cloudy and drizzly, but not too bad altogether. We
ended up at a new beer release in one of our favourite bars. The new
beer was a Belgian style cherry and vanilla beer, which was such a
perfect choice for yesterday. Today I need to do food shopping for
next week. I know, it's not so great to do it on a Sunday, but next
week will be busy again, so it's best to get it out of the way. The
shop we are planning to go to is just next to our local park, so it
will also be a nice stroll through the park.
I had this
unopened bag of polenta in my cupboard for a while. I like polenta,
but it's not part of my usual basics, so that's why it was left for a
while. I suddenly remembered that polenta chips would be great for a
change and decided to make them. They are really easy to make and you
can customise the seasoning as you like. I served my polenta chips
with a tomato dip, veggie cheese Schnitzel and side salad. It was a
good combo.
Polenta chips
Ingredients
650 ml vegetable
stock
1 tsp salt
½ tsp ground
black pepper
1 tsp dried wild
garlic
1 tsp garlic
powder
125 g polenta
Vegetable oil for
frying
Method
Heat the vegetable
stock and season it with salt, pepper, dried wild garlic and garlic
powder.
Cook the polenta
in the vegetable stock until done.
Spread the cooked
polenta evenly on a lined roasting tray and let it cool. Chill it in
the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Cut chips from the
polenta and shallow fry the chips in vegetable oil until they are
crispy. Tap any excess oil off with kitchen roll.
After a long while
I made a little cooking video. I only filmed it on my phone and just
a couple of times asked my partner to assist with the filming.
Otherwise I held the phone in one hand and did whatever cooking steps
with the other. It means the quality isn't the greatest by any means, but
it's just a bit of fun. I hope you enjoy watching, and you may not have to
read the method below, if you follow the video. Sometimes it's also
much easier to show the steps rather than writing them down in a nice
and concise way.
The dish itself is
a lasagne with roasted vegetables and halloumi, where traditional
lasagne sheets have been replaced by polenta sheets. I had planned
this dish in my head for a long time, and finally I managed to
execute it. It was a nice task for a Sunday afternoon with the
different steps and very rewarding in the end. It was a really tasty
dish, and I would make it again, if only I have the necessary time.
Any vegetables really that you fancy can be used here, halloumi and
extra mozzarella are optional and you can season your polenta in
different ways.
Have a look at the
video and the detailed recipe can be found below. The video is also onYoutube.
Polenta lasagne with roasted
vegetables and halloumi
Ingredients for about 4 medium
ramekins
Polenta lasagne sheets
650 ml vegetable
stock
1 tsp sea salt
125 g polenta
50 g vegetarian
pasta cheese (veggie parmesan)
Fresh oregano
Fresh basil
Dried marjoram
Filling
3 large romano
peppers
400 g vine cherry
tomatoes
2 shallots
4 garlic cloves
Olive oil for
roasting
Fresh oregano
Fresh basil
Salt to taste
Ground black
pepper to taste
250 g halloumi
Vegetable oil for
frying
100 g grated
mozzarella
Method
Make the polenta
lasagne sheets first, as they need some resting time in the fridge.
Cook the polenta and add the cheese and seasoning. Roll out into
fairly thin sheets once cooled down, which is easy to do between two
baking parchments. Let rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Chop the peppers
into generous chunks and start roasting them in the oven. Add the
cherry tomatoes, sliced garlic and shallot rings later and roast them
also. Season the vegetables.
Slice the halloumi
and fry it in vegetable oil on a hot pan until golden brown.
Cut the polenta
sheets into suitable sized pieces for your oven dish. I even made a
couple of stencils from baking paper for mine, which made it a lot
easier.
Layer the polenta
sheets, roasted vegetables and fried halloumi into an oven dish or
smaller ramekins, cover with grated mozzarella and bake at 200 for
about 30 minutes.
The moment I heard about polenta chips,
I was fascinated by the concept. I don't have many experiences
cooking with polenta or even eating it, but I've always enjoyed it
when it was around. The thought that it would be the ingredient for
some slightly naughty chips was just too much to resist. So I had to
cook some polenta chips.
Couple
of weeks back Felicity Cloake's article How to make the perfect polenta chips was published on the Guardian and that was
the definite sign for me to try to cook them. I was most nervous
about getting the texture right, but it actually turned out very easy
to handle. Felicity, as always, consulted several different recipes
in order to find the best combinations, and I adapted my recipe from
her version following it pretty closely. I made a tomato-chilli dip
to go with the chips, which was a good combination.
Polenta Chips with a homemade
Tomato-Chilli Dip
Polenta Chips
650 ml vegetable
stock
1 tsp sea salt
125 g + 50 g
polenta
50 g vegetarian
pasta cheese (veggie parmesan)
Vegetable oil for
frying
Cook 125 g of polenta in the vegetable
stock until done and mix the grated cheese in.
Spread the mixture evenly into a lined
roasting tray and let it cool. Chill it in the fridge.
Cut chips from the polenta and coat
them with the rest of the uncooked polenta.
Shallow fry the chips in vegetable oil
until the coating is crispy.
Tap any excess oil off with kitchen
roll.
Tomato-chilli Dip
200 g vine tomatoes
1 garlic clove
1 red chilli
Olive oil
1 tsp smoked chilli paste
Cook chopped tomatoes in olive oil
until most excess liquid has cooked off.
Add finely chopped chilli and garlic
into the pan and let simmer.
