BAHHH I guess I am getting my favorites out of the way first. This is SO GOOD. I'm used to making fairly simple food, with ingredients that sort of go together instead of playing off each other. The contrast between the three elements of this dish is phenomenal. It blew my mind. EAT IT.
It's also very rich to eat as a meal, which I did, but it's an awful lot of fuss and timing for an appetizer. I guess you could get the sauce done ahead of time, polenta all chilled and cut, and pears cut up as a last thing; then saute the pears and polenta at the same time (if you have confidence you can keep track--scary!) while heating up the sauce. But it's risky. But so good! Maybe eat just a little bit of this with a nice green salad or something. Yeah. That'll happen.
The polenta by itself is unbelievably good. Make extra and eat a bowl of it before putting the rest in the fridge to chill.
Notes: I cut the polenta into squares several inches; it was also fairly thin, less than half an inch, so I only seared the top and bottom, not the sides. It was delish this way but I imagine that a bigger, creamier center in cube form would be marvelous.
I also used plain ol' bleu cheese because I had it on hand and was dying to make this, and it was marvelous. I imagine gorgonzola would be wonderful too! Subbed veggie stock for chicken and can't imagine there was a difference. Add the cream first; I added the stock, and since I halved the recipe and there was so little of it, it did something strange with the roux and I think the texture was a little off as a result.
Try to get the top of the polenta as smooth as you can when putting it in the pan to chill; it will make for a crisper, more beautiful seared piece later on.
To the food!
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