Rosemary Lemon Honey Polenta: anti-soggy

Please forgive my ‘Missing In Action’-ness.  I firmly believe that sometimes we all need a break, and that’s what I took.  I want to show you something…

Otter Crest, Oregon

That there is my home.  Not literally, but it was taken in Oregon, my home state, where I went for nearly a month over Christmas.  Here’s another one…

Strawberry Hill

This was also taken on the Oregon Coast.  I love how a little photo-shopping can make it look like there was blue sky….

And here’s what you might see if you went skiing at Willamette Pass Ski Area in the Willamette National Forest…

Odell Lake from the top of Willamette Pass

That’s the view on an exceptionally clear day, right after three days of fresh snowfall.  I don’t know what compels me to slide down a frozen mountain on little waxed sticks – is that not the craziest thing you ever thought of doing? – but I love it, and nothing could ever make hot chocolate taste better than a day of skiing.

As much as I love Oregon, it might have been better to pick a place like Spain or the Sahara to visit for Christmas – somewhere I could get a break from grey skies and rain and cool to cold weather.  That’s what I’ve had, 99% of the time for the past 15 months.  It can wear on you after a while, except when there’s snow.

I want to talk about sogginess.  I never had problems with my lungs, congestion, colds and such but since I moved to England just over a year ago, I’ve had three chest colds.  I have to say, I think it’s because of the weather; and also perhaps because there’s 60 million people on this little island and most of them have at least one car, which means a lot of motorways and fumes and other fun things.

The lungs are one of the sites of Kapha dosha, which is primarily dominated by water and earth.  The lungs, being prone to mucus and the seat of emotions like grief (tears), reflect typical Kapha characteristics, as do the sinunes and throat.  Then of course there’s Vata dosha, ruled by the elements of space and air, which is easily aggravated by cold temperatures, change, movement, ungroundedness.  It’s definitely chilly here, unlike New Mexico, and I’d say that moving across the Atlantic and adjusting to a new culture is plenty of change.

Enter foods like Rosemary, Polenta, Honey, Chickpeas, Ginger, Black Pepper and so on.  All of these are either warming, drying or both and my body has had a remarkable tolerance for them that it didn’t always have in the hot, dry desert of New Mexico at 7,500 feet of elevation.

I should also tell you that I have exciting news: I’m going to be in a DVD about Ayurvedic/Vegetarian cooking, titled after this blog!  I really have a new respect for the idea of ‘going with the flow’ lately because that’s exactly how I came to this opportunity.  This means that in the next month or so, I have to test and perfect 20 – 25 recipes that will be featured.  Luckily, some of them are already on this blog and I don’t have to do any more sorting.  Some like this one are still being worked out – I don’t usually measure, I just chop off the amount that looks right, dice it up and toss it in.  But I love coming up with little flavour symphonies, things that just sing when they’re put together, and finding the best combination does take a little tweaking.  Anyway, what I’m saying is that for recipes like this that will be on the dvd, I’ll give an ingredients list and instructions on how to prepare, but I won’t be doing exact measurements.  I have to give you a reason to get my dvd!

Polenta prep

Polenta with Rosemary, Lemon and Honey

Polenta (about 5-6 cups worth)
butter & olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 minced clove garlic, optional
lemon zest
chopped fresh rosemary
sage (dried is fine)
pine nuts, lightly toasted in the oven beforehand
cheese such as Fontina or Mozzarella or Gruyère
honey

Note: According to Ayurveda, cooked honey is indigestible and therefore a toxin, because if ingested it won’t be processed/digested well and will stay in the body as a contaminant, so I drizzle it on at the end even though ideally for flavour, it would be stirred into the polenta before going into the oven.

Make the Polenta with boiling water, salt and cornmeal, stirring constantly with a whisk as you pour the cornmeal into the boiling water to avoid forming clumps.  Then switch to a wooden spoon and stir almost constantly for 30 – 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, if you’re a good multi-tasker, heat a bit of butter & olive oil together in a small pan and add the onion.  Cook on medium/high until it’s caramelizing, then add the garlic and herbs with a few squeezes of lemon juice to deglaze the pan, and season with salt and pepper.  When you’re happy with the onion, remove it from the heat.

toasty as a yule log

Just before the polenta is done, add the toasted pine nuts, lemon zest, onion mix and about half of the cheese (grated) and stir until well incorporated.  Pour all of this into a baking pan or some similar dish so that the polenta is about 1 inch deep or a bit less.  Sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the top.  Bake in the oven at 400F, 180C for around 25 minutes or until the cheese is browning.  Remove and drizzle with honey.

This would go really well over a bed of sauteed greens such as beet greens or chard, or with a spicey watercress/rocket salad.  It’s another cold, grey, wet day in Warwickshire and I’ve just had a slice of this, heated up in a pan, while my cat and I bake ourselves next to the gas ‘fireplace’ – an excellent source of dry heat.