Fried Polenta and Cheese Sauce Recipe

I was kindly sent some Bart herbs and spices and thought it would be a good opportunity to use them in the polenta.  Polenta is originally an Italian word, derived from the Latin to take the outer husk and to crush the grain. Polenta is coarse, medium or fine ground cornmeal which when cooked in boiling water or stock transforms into a paste due to the gelatination of the starch in the grain. It has a smooth and creamy texture when cooked.

Bart Spices were founded in the 1960’s and have grown to be the second largest supplier of high quality herbs & spices in the UK supplying both branded and private label. Back in the Summer Bart Spices changed their name after 50 years of trading to The Bart Ingredients Company. They have also refreshed and re-designed their packaging and labels. Not only that, they’ve come up with some easy to use containers called  Spoonkler’s (cute name).  I’d not seen anything like this before as I could sprinkle spices out of the jars as normal, but if I needed to there was a second layer that I could pop open to dive into with my spoon.

It meant that I had easier use of the dispensing of spices with just a simple flip of the lid. For me, as well, the labelling seemed much cleaner and clearer with handy colour coding to find categories of herbs and spices more easily.

With my spices and other ingredients at the ready, I was set to make polenta frita.  It’s excellent as an accompaniment to other dishes or on its own. In Brazil we are accustomed to have it as appetiser with drinks like caipirinha, beer or soft drinks.  This dish is a great contrast of textures: the polenta is crunchy outside with a soft inside and is well balanced with the creamy cheese sauce.

Spicy fried polenta and cheese sauce

Serves 6
 Ingredients:
• 1 cup of instant (pre) cooked polenta
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 teaspoon Bart garlic salt
• 4 cups (tea) of chilli water (above) using Bart  chilli flakes
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Equipment:

Big pan, wooden spoon, sieve

Method:

1) First of all, prepare the chilli water: 4 cups of water in a pan, heat it untill almost bubbling. Switch off and add 1 tablespoon of chilli flakes. Let it stand for 1 hour. Drain it and set aside.

2) In a saucepan, place 1 tbsp butter, 1 teaspoon of garlic salt and saute over low heat for a minute.  Add 4 cups (tea) of water when boiling and slowly pour 1 cup (tea) instant polenta, stirring constantly to avoid lumps. Add a bit of salt to taste.

3) Keeping a low heat stir constantly polenta, by + / – 20/30 minutes or until the polenta is fully cooked, very firm and you can see the bottom of the pan. Pour into a greased baking dish, cover with foil and let it cool. Once completely cooled refrigerate it for at least 3 hours to firm completely.

4) Cut the polenta into sticks (with 6 cm long x 1 cm thick) and fry in hot oil until crisp. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese while still hot so it sticks to the polenta.

Cheese sauce
This creamy sauce is loosely based on the Peruvian Huncaina sauce, which is made with queso fresco and aji amarillo. This sauce is  served with boiled potatoes, the famous Pappa la Huncaina. I simplified this recipe using ingredients easy to get hold in the UK like Barts.

Cheese sauce:
Ingredients:

•  4 tablespoons of olive oil
•  1/2 cup diced onion
•  1 tsp of Bart garlic salt
•  50gr of feta cheese
•  4 cream crackers – more if needed
•  1/2 cup cold evaporated milk
•  ½ lime juice
• 1 boiled egg – yolk only
• Bart fines Herbs

Equipment :

Blender, small pan

Method:

1)  Sauté the diced onion, garlic salt, and chilli flakes in the olive oil until onion is softened, about 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

2) Place onion / chilli mixture, yellow yolk (discard the white)  in a food processor . Add the cold evaporated milk.  Mix again.  Obs: Cold evaporated milk doubles in size when blended.

3) Add the feta cheese and crackers and blend until smooth. You should now have a fairly thick sauce. Thicken the sauce with more crackers if needed. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the lime juice at the end and blitz it. Sprinkle the Bart fines Herbs to decorate

4) Serve at room temperature or chilled.