I will admit here at the beginning that I do not have extensive cooking experience. I tend not to make complicated things for the most part, and I rarely cook for anyone outside my immediate family. I am a simple home cook, part of a tradition that goes back as far as humanity, probably.
I’ll be honest; it was difficult settling on a recipe. That’s not to say the cookbook I chose, Cooking in Real Life by Lidey Heuck was lacking in delicious options. It was full of them. But to settle on a recipe that 1. Was within my skill to make and 2. Was something my family (picky kids) might actually try and enjoy was a challenge.
The book!
I finally settled on polenta. I’ve had it a few times but I’ve never made it before. It sounded just complicated enough to be fun but not frustrating. If you’ve never had it, it’s basically a thick mixture of water, corn meal, butter, milk, cheese, and seasoning. The recipe calls for “stone-ground or medium ground” yellow cornmeal. With apologies to Martha Stewart and Julia Child I went ahead and used what I had in the cupboard, which was cornmeal of unspecified ground quality. I also used salted butter instead of unsalted. The culinary police are on their way.
Getting Started!
The polenta was pretty easy to make. My mysterious corn meal mixed in great. While it was simmering I went ahead and grated some fresh parmesan cheese, stopping occasionally to stir what was cooking. This was probably the most labor intensive part of the process.
Any excuse to use the handy rotary cheese grater I’ve had since college!
Next you add the milk and butter….
Yum!
Cook for a little while longer, add the remaining ingredients, let it thicken, and serve! We had ours with fresh rolls and a beautiful lentil veggie stew, but those are recipes for another day.
Outstanding!
I’m happy to report that both stew and polenta were absolutely delicious. The zesty and savory lentils perfectly complemented the rich, creamy polenta. And for an added dimension, I put a little green hot sauce on mine near the end. It added some kick and a very interesting new dimension of flavor to an already excellent dish.
As for the little ones, I did achieve a victory. While the 3-year-old would not go near his, the 5-year-old actually tried the polenta! She didn’t particularly enjoy it, but she tried it and let me tell you that is no small feat.
Based on my impressions so far, Cooking in Real Life seems to be well named. It appears to be meant for home cooks who might be lacking in time or patience, and it delivers. Of course this is just one of many cookbooks recently acquired by your Commerce Township Community Library. They all deserve a look, and chances are we should have something to appeal to just about any kind of cook.
Thank you for reading, and happy cooking!