Terre Pruitt's Blog

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Posts Tagged ‘polenta fries’

Roasted Polenta

Posted by terrepruitt on October 24, 2018

I like polenta, but oddly enough, I am talking about the kind that is in a tube. I am not sure I have tried the mush type — oh wait, I think I had a taste of some at a restaurant and it was delicious. But I don’t make that kind. I have only cooked with the tube kind. It is very firm and a bit rubbery. It can be sliced. I imagine it can be made into the mush kind with enough liquid. But, if you’ve read more than one of my posts about food you know I love to roast things. I love to put things in the oven and then be able to do something else while it is cooking. Well, I posted once about Polenta “Fries” so my Cubed Polenta is not that different. But the “fries” were really french fry-like, whereas the polenta cubes were more like my roasted potatoes. They were very good, as least I thought so.

The same cooking method applies the only difference is the way you cut the polenta.

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https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1952/43727227090_e0299cdb90_o.jpgPolenta Cubes

1 tube of polenta
olive oil
season salt

Preheat the oven to 450° F. Cut the polenta out of the plastic. Then cut the polenta into small even cubes. Cut the whole tube into equal sized cubes. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Then spread the cubes out on the pan. Sprinkle with a little oil. Sprinkle with the season salt. Place pan in the oven. Let the polenta bake for 15 minutes. Then take the pan out of the oven and stir the cubes around. Put the pan back in the oven for another 15 minutes. Then check the polenta. If they are done to your liking, take them out and serve. If you want them cooked more, flip ’em or toss them on the pan, then put it in for 10 (or whatever) minutes.

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Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFit, City of San Jose Exercise Classes

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFit, City of San Jose Exercise ClassesIf you cut the cubes even then the whole pan should cook pretty much the same. When I do potatoes for some reason I end up with really small ones and big ones and they don’t all cook even so I have some that start to burn before the others are cooked. With the tube it is easier to cut them all the same size. I buy the basil garlic polenta in a tube. I like it to start off with flavor.

As I said, the cubes are more like potatoes, in fact my husband kept calling them potatoes. A little bit different texture and consistency but ok.

The problem with me typing up my blog before dinner is I end up wanting the food I am writing about. Sometimes I can make it because I have it, but presently I do not have any polenta . . . but I see a trip to the store in my future.

In my Polenta Fries post I asked for ideas for tubes of polenta, I didn’t get any . . . so hence, cubed polenta.

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Bake Polenta “Fries”

Posted by terrepruitt on June 17, 2016

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, PiYo, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitWhen I make burgers I want fries.  Potato “fries”.  Even though, I don’t fry things . . . I bake ’em, I love fries with my burgers.  I do love baked “fries”.  But I also don’t always like to have potatoes because we are having buns.  I don’t do my burgers protein style.  Half the fun of a burger (to me) is the bun.  Often times I will make other types of fries, like Baked Golden Beet “Fries” or Squash Sticks (even though I breaded these).  Now, I don’t really think of corn as a vegetable, I mean, I know it is a vegetable, but I think of it as a starch.  I think of potatoes and corn in the same kinda category.  So, this isn’t really a great replacement for potatoes fries . . . if I am thinking starch, but they were good.  My husband really liked them.  I made polenta fries.

I had purchased a tube of polenta a week or maybe more ago.  The idea for which I bought the polenta changed.  Do you ever do that?  Buy an ingredient for one thing but then change your mind.  Then you are stuck with that ingredient wondering what to do with it.  I turned to Google  looking up how to cook tube polenta.  If you look up polenta it has ideas on how to cook the porridge style polenta.  Usually polenta is corn meal mush.  But if you buy it in a tube it is a solid.  My search led me to Our Everyday Life that gave three different ways to cook polenta from a tube, oven fries was one of them.  I didn’t even read the full recipe because I figured I could do it.

Here is what I did, next time I will use less oil . . . and now that I look at the recipe on the website it calls for no oil, but I want crispy fries so I will continue to use oil, just less.

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Oven Polenta FriesDance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, PiYo, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFit

1 tube of polenta
olive oil
garlic salt

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Preheat the oven to 450° F.  After cutting the polenta out of the tube cut the tube in half, then cut the polenta into 1/4 of an inch strips.  Try to cut the whole tube into equal sized strips.

Then spread the strips out on the pan.  Sprinkle with a little oil.  Sprinkle with the garlic salt.  Place pan in the oven.  Let the fries bake for 15 minutes.  Then take the pan out of the oven and turn the fries.  Then put it back in the oven for another 15 minutes.  Then check the fries.  If they are done to your liking, take them out and serve.  If you want them cooked more, flip ’em or toss them on the pan, then put it in for 10 (or whatever) minutes.

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Of course ovens vary and people desires of doneness varies so keep an eye on them and cook them to your liking.  Also, try your favorite seasoning.  Mine is garlic salt.  Presently I have garlic salt with parsley in it, so that was good.  Also . . . I used garlic basil polenta.  Again, I didn’t buy the tube for the fries so it was not a plain flavor.  But I might try that next time.

As with many of my food posts, I didn’t plan on blogging about this.  I did snap a few pictures after they had already been baking, but I didn’t document it from the beginning, but really that would have just been the tube of polenta.  I did take a few shots of them on my plate, but I really like my husband’s shots, so I am using his, too!

What do you do with a tube of polenta?  Share, please, I need some ideas!

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