The grey dreary weather (plus some particularly long naps from Joshua) meant we were cooped up indoors all day so I made some parmesan and rosemary polenta chips (fries) for dinner.
Polenta is an Italian cornmeal made from dried maize and is a carb alternative to pasta or potatoes. I've never used it before and only bought it after seeing polenta chip recipes in the River Cottage baby and toddler cookbook and the Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett Quick and Easy recipe book. They came out really well and were really tasty - I'll definitely start making them for us all more often.
The ingredients were...
100g coarse polenta
one low salt stock cube
30g parmesan, grated
sprig of rosemary, finely chopped
To make...
heated 100g of coarse Polenta in a pan with 500ml of low salt stock
stir constantly until it thickens and has been bubbling and popping for 5 minutes
mix in 30g of grated Parmesan and the chopped rosemary
press the mix into a lined baking tray/dish
chill the mix in the fridge for at least an hour and then cut it into fingers
spray a frying pan lightly with oil and then pan fry the chips, turning regularly, until golden brown
Serve fresh and still slightly warm.
Extra notes and tips
The wet polenta mix is surprisingly thick and sticky. I found it best to use a wet hand to push it into the tray.
Try to make sure the mix is at least 1cm deep in the baking tray so that you can cut nice thick fingers
If you want to cook the chips at a later date you can store the chilled sliced fingers in the fridge or freezer and then pan fry them when you want to eat them
You can oven bake them instead of pan frying if you want - spray the chips with oil, bake at 190'C for 20 minutes. They come out drier and crispier than when pan fried.
