corn fries
A long time ago in blogland, I told you about what I made for lunch, when Lara was out of town. Well, here I am again, a bachelor, with Lara and Anya in Illinois. They get back tonight. I've done nearly zero cooking while they were gone, mostly because I've been working. A lot. Since we're close to finishing our design, a lot of people have been working long hours, so they have the cafeteria bring in supper every night. It's free for us, just kind of a way of saying "gee I'm sorry you're still here at 6pm and plan to be here for a few more hours. We can't pay you overtime, but here's some cafeteria food to keep you going." Anyhow, I try not to do that type of thing when the family is waiting for me to come home, but since they weren't here, I took the opportunity to work some additional hours. (remember back in the day when I would just play computer games when Lara was gone? I don't.)
Anyhow, but now it's the weekend, and I worked on the basement instead of on work. And there was no one to feed me, so I had to feed myself. But I decided to get creative, plus I didn't have much around to work with. I did have some steaks in the freezer, though, and Lara's always on me about how we need to use up some of the meat in the freezer before I go buying more. (but it's on sale. how could I not?) But you can't just eat a big hunk of meat, you need a side dish (beer, evidently, doesn't count.) So here's what I did.
Polenta is Italian for cornmeal. Kind of like how grits is southern for cornmeal. They're the same thing. (Anybody been listening to the NPR show whaddya know, where there's been this controversy over what grits are? Kind of funny. But yeah, they're cornmeal.)
So yeah, to make polenta you take cornmeal and boil it with some chicken broth, simmer 20-30 minutes, and then either eat it or let it cool and do things with it. What I did was to let it cool, cut it into french fry shapes, dredge it with flour, and deep fry it. (I'm all about healthy, as you well know.) After five minutes they were nice and golden, so I took them out and seasoned them with some salt, garlic powder, and paprika.
So were they good? Were they ever! You've got to try it, it puts ordinary french fries to shame. Plus it's polenta, so you can pretend you're eating fine cuisine. I'd take a picture, but I already ate them all.
Anyhow, but now it's the weekend, and I worked on the basement instead of on work. And there was no one to feed me, so I had to feed myself. But I decided to get creative, plus I didn't have much around to work with. I did have some steaks in the freezer, though, and Lara's always on me about how we need to use up some of the meat in the freezer before I go buying more. (but it's on sale. how could I not?) But you can't just eat a big hunk of meat, you need a side dish (beer, evidently, doesn't count.) So here's what I did.
Polenta is Italian for cornmeal. Kind of like how grits is southern for cornmeal. They're the same thing. (Anybody been listening to the NPR show whaddya know, where there's been this controversy over what grits are? Kind of funny. But yeah, they're cornmeal.)
So yeah, to make polenta you take cornmeal and boil it with some chicken broth, simmer 20-30 minutes, and then either eat it or let it cool and do things with it. What I did was to let it cool, cut it into french fry shapes, dredge it with flour, and deep fry it. (I'm all about healthy, as you well know.) After five minutes they were nice and golden, so I took them out and seasoned them with some salt, garlic powder, and paprika.
So were they good? Were they ever! You've got to try it, it puts ordinary french fries to shame. Plus it's polenta, so you can pretend you're eating fine cuisine. I'd take a picture, but I already ate them all.
posted by Steve
1 Comments:
This is something I will love. Good idea. It's kind of like fried mush I guess, but instead of dousing it in syrup, you use ketchup to dip?
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