I had two corn cobs that I had no inspiration on how to prepare, so after going through Plenty the book of Yotam Ottolenghi, I came across an interesting idea…using fresh corn to make polenta. Why not? This intrigued me so I decided to use his idea to prepare the polenta (except that I did not add feta in the polenta), then made a sauce with wild mushrooms, pancetta and tomatoes, a more traditional sauce, that of course could be used on regular polenta (his recipe is made with an eggplant sauce).

The flavor is quite surprising, the corn being sweet, when it’s crushed its sweetness is amplified, so in that sense, it’s different from regular polenta made with corn flour. I liked the texture but I thought the sweetness of the corn was a little too much for me, since sweetness is not my “element”. I think it’s worth trying and definitely a lighter alternative to regular polenta.

Ingredients for 2

• 2 corns on the cob
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 2 tbs pancetta, chopped (optional)
• 1/2 shallot, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tsp parsley, chopped
• 1 tsp basil, chopped
• 2 tomatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 cup of mixed wild mushrooms, cut roughly
• parmesan shaved
• truffle oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Start preparing the polenta. Cut the corn from cob and cook in water for about 10 minutes (the water needs to cover the corn). Drain and keep water. Blend corn in a blender, adding some water if it gets too thick. Place back in the pan and cook for another additional 15 minutes, adding water if it thickens too much. Adjust with salt. Add 1 tsp butter at the end of the cooking process.

In a pan, heat olive oil, cook pancetta until crispy, then remove from the pan. In the same pan, add shallots and let them sweat. Add herbs and garlic and cook for a few minutes at low temperature until fragrant. Add mushrooms, salt and pepper and cook until water evaporates. Add tomatoes and cook for a few minutes until soft and no water is left in the pan. Add pancetta and mix well.

Pour some polenta in a deep plate, top with a few tablespoons of mushroom sauce. Add parmesan shavings and drizzle with truffle oil.

]]> http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2013/06/fresh-corn-polenta-wild-mushrooms-sauce-with-herbs-and-truffle-oil/feed/ 0 http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2013/01/appetizers-for-florence-polenta-crostini-with-shrimps-wrapped-with-pancetta-kale-and-roasted-red-pepper-coulis/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=appetizers-for-florence-polenta-crostini-with-shrimps-wrapped-with-pancetta-kale-and-roasted-red-pepper-coulis http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2013/01/appetizers-for-florence-polenta-crostini-with-shrimps-wrapped-with-pancetta-kale-and-roasted-red-pepper-coulis/#comments Wed, 09 Jan 2013 22:57:46 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=15582 Crostini per Fiorenza – Crostini di polenta con cavolo nero, gamberi e salsina di peperoni (Canapés de polenta avec chou frisé, crevettes enroulées de pancetta et coulis de poivrons grillés)

My Friend’s Julia mom, Florence a delightful lady from Paris came for a visit to the Bay Area during the holidays. She is an attorney in Paris but cooking is her hobby when she has time to spend in the kitchen. She wanted to learn some new tricks and recipes she could use while having her large family and friends for dinner (she has six children and and seven siblings).

While in San Francisco, I took her shopping to Berkeley Bowl and then spent the rest of the day preparing a four course meal for the rest of the family who joined us for dinner. I promised that my next recipe would be just for her, I wanted to make something easy, that could be a perfect canape, or appetizer for her large gatherings. Et voilà, c’est fait! Florence je pense que vous apprecierez ces canapés faciles à faire, goutûs et avec une pointe d’originalité.

Florence had all the qualities to be an excellent cook, she is curious, has lots of energy and is an excellent listener, so maybe good attorneys are great cooks after all!

These crostini can also be served an appetizer with a small side of green salad, you can of course adapt their size to the occasion. For canapes use, make them a slightly bit smaller than if you would serve them as an appetizer.

For an easy process, use express polenta, the one that cooks fast.

Recipes for me are versatile and are just ideas, you don’t need to replicate them exactly. For example here if you prefer to use roasted red peppers, you could. I like to combine different textures, so that’s why I made a coulis, just to complement to grainy texture of the polenta, the leafy spinach and crunchy and sweet shrimp.

If you read French, La cuisine du marché avec Silvia is a little note written by Florence to describe her little cooking experience in San Francisco. Lovely isn’t it?

Ingredients for 12 canapés

• 1 pint water (or 500 ml) salted water
• 4.4 oz (or 125 g) pre cooked polenta
• 12 shrimps, uncooked
• 12 slices pancetta, thin sliced
• 1 garlic clove, diced
• 1/2 bunch kale, stems removed

For the roasted red pepper coulis

• 1 large bell red pepper
• 1 garlic clove
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• 1 tbs olive oil
• cayenne pepper to taste
• salt and pepper

Preparation

For the polenta

Bring a pint of water with salt to a boil. Pour polenta gradually, and stir well for about 3 minutes until the polenta thickens. Remve from heat and spread over a flat food surface in about 1/2 inches (1 cm) thick circle. Smooth the surface with a spatula. Let it cool and refrigerate for about one hour until the polenta is hard. Using a round 2 inches (or 4 cm) cookie cutter, cut polenta disks. Sprinkle with olive oil and broil under broiler or grill until the top is golden brown.

For the kale

Remove stems from kale and cut in about 2 inches pieces. Heat olive oil in a pan, add garlic clove and stir, add kale and cook until it wilts, adjust with salt and pepper

For the shrimps

Wrap one pancetta slice around each shrimp. Saute in olive oil until both sides are golden brown.

For the coulis

Place pepper under broiler, and char broil until the skin darkens. Proceed the same way on all sides. Remove from oven, let cool. Peel and remove seeds. Cut in small pieces and mix in a blender with garlic, oil, cumin and cayenne pepper. Adjust with salt and pepper.

Place one kale leaf on top of polenta, then add shrimp and top it with pepper coulis. Serve hot or warm.

I tried many versions of split pea soup and this one is my favorite. You can keep it vegan if you don’t add the pancetta at the end, so it’s versatile. You can use bacon instead of pancetta, or just nothing at all…it’s all up to you. I usually don’t soak peas in water as some people do with legumes to soften them and decrease cooking time. If you don’t add salt to the water, the peas cook quite fast. I blended in this version, but you can serve it unblended too, which adds texture to it.

Thinking about it, soups are my favorite things to eat (along with pasta) and nothing better to eat during cold winter days. This soup is hearty and simple, quite nutritious too. You can serve it with grilled country bread and it’s a meal in itself. Split pea soups are popular in France too (soupe de pois cassés) and cooked with ham (petit salé) or sausage, usually with smoked meat. In Italy smoked meat is not too used (except for regions bordering Austria). So here you can just use your imagination and make your own version of zuppa di piselli spezzati!

Ingredients for 4

• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 celery stalk, chopped
• 1/2 leek, chopped
• 1 branch thyme
• 10.5 oz (or 300 g) split peas
• broth as needed
• 2 slices pancetta (optional), diced
• salt and pepper

Preparation

In a pot, heat oil, then add onion, soften them add garlic then add the rest of the vegetables and thyme. Cover with broth and let cook at slow heat for about 40 minutes or until the peas are tender. Cook pancetta in a pan until crisp. Adjust with salt and pepper and serve hot with pancetta on top.

I was listening to Yves Montand’s classic song “les Feuilles Mortes” translated by “Autumn Leaves” but it literally means “Dead Leaves” and it never fails, I get tears in my eyes…that song makes me shiver. And yes, automne (fall) is coming…and I felt this soup really is a nice representation of fall, with its yellow and green colors.

Originally I bought this squash to stuff with a goat cheese mousse…it did not make it. I tried to resist for days to not cut it. It was too beautiful to cut and would have been such a great dish if I could have stuck to my plans…but no, I wanted a soup, and the only thing that was left to turn into a soup was this baby. So here. Morale of the story, don’t be too rigid, sometimes you can change plans.

I never get tired of soups, they can be blended, in chunks, cold, whatever, I love them…besides when they’re as healthy as this one, I love them even better, because I do watch roughly my calories intake and my weight. They say French women don’t get fat, well the bad news is, they do get fat, if they eat a lot…They do not have a particular nor wonderful metabolism (and the truth is that I am not even French, I just pretend, because I am just a confused woman).

So my question is why not eat delicious gourmet dishes that are most of all a bundle of health and nutrition (hope my English makes sense). The pancetta is optional, I love its crunchiness on top of the soup though.

The yogurt touch at the end is somehow a substitute to crème fraîche. In France we usually add 1 tbs crème fraîche in any velouté to make it even more velvety (velouté). Yogurt works perfectly fine here, let’s make it light, fat does not necessarily mean flavor anyway. Now do I sound like those “freaks” who watch every little bite they eat and do not enjoy anything always counting calories and talking about non-fat? Please say no, because I am really not, if you know me.

The roquefort tartine is a nice addition to the soup, they really make a pleasant combination of flavors, but you need good walnut bread to truly enjoy the roquefort. Obviously you don’t need to have a tartine to enjoy the soup, but the combination is something to absolutely try. Melting roquefort on walnut bread is a real treat.

I got a little frustrated with my camera today, obviously I am no photographer, I could not shoot anything despite the great light I had coming from the bay window, everything turned out awful, just two shots out of 30 came out just ok and not even great. Too bad you cannot see the white dash of yogurt in the middle of the bowl because of the angle. I have no idea why some days where light is great I get terrible shots and days where it’s all grey, I get decent bright pictures. Is there a little demon in my Canon? Could be. Maybe taking one class or two where I bought this camera would not hurt.

Ingredients for 4

For the soup

• 1 leek
• 6 large sunburst squash
• 1 onion
• 3 tbs fresh oregano, chopped
• 1 tbs olive oil
• vegetable broth
• 4 tbs plain yogurt
• 4 slices of pancetta (optional)
• salt and pepper

For the roquefort tartine

• 4 tbs Roquefort cheese (or any blue cheese)
• 4 slices walnut bread
• pepper

Preparation

Wash leek and cut it in medium size chunks. Wahs squash and cut in quarters. In a large pot, heat olive oil, add onion and let it cook until it becomes transparent. Add 1 1/2 tbs oregano, cook for a few minutes, then add squash and leeks. Cook for another 10 minutes at medium heat, stirring. Add broth. I never measure broth. I add enough so that it covers the quantity of vegetables and that is the perfect quantity for a veloute. Add salt. COver with a lid and cook at medium heat until the vegetables are soft and cooked, about 30 minutes.

Blend using a hand blender or mixer.

In a small bowl, add yogurt and the remaining chopped oregano

In a non-stick pan, cook pancetta until it gets crunchy.

Cut roquefort in slices and place on top of bread. Broil until the cheese has melted.

Serve soup in bowls, adding a tbs of yogurt/oregano mixture in the middle of the bowl and top with a slice of pancetta. Serve with roquefort tartine on the side.

In France we don’t have something called brunch, we either have breakfast or lunch. Brunch is an Anglo-saxon concept, and I like it.

There is a restaurant in Sausalito (San Francisco North Bay), called Le Garage where I really like to have my brunches on Sunday, it’s facing the marina and has a huge outside patio, they serve really good mouillettes with prosciutto and asparagus.

Mouillette in French means a small and long piece of bread you dip in oeuf à la coque. Oeuf à la coque literally means Egg in its shell, implying with soft yolk. If the yolk is hard, then it becomes oeuf dur (hard egg). The English translation I found for oeuf à la coque is boiled egg, but I don’t think it’s really that accurate. Oeuf à la coque is a part of every French kid childhood and I remember mine with those two eggs waiting for me on the kitchen table before I would leave for school in the morning.

What’s great about mouillettes is that you can add any side dish you like and make a great brunch with all kinds of combination you like.

I found the cutest mini yellow carrots at the Berkeley Bowl and had to buy them, so then ended up wrapped in pancetta, not a bad way to end. You can also use asparagus instead of carrots, they’re great too, or serve it with thinly sliced prosciutto, you can use your imagination and combine ingredients you like.

Ingredients for 2

• 4 eggs
• 2 heirloom tomato
• 2 cups rucola
• 6 small yellow carrots
• 6 slices pancetta
• rock salt
• Kosher salt and pepper
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar
• parmigiano reggiano shaved
• Grilled baguette cut in  3 inches long sticks

Preparation

For the eggs

Place eggs in a pot of water, start counting 3 minutes from the time the water starts boiling. Remove from pot (it’s better to cook the eggs at the end).

For the carrots

Boil carrots in water, when cooked wrap one slice of pancetta around, add pepper and place under broiler until all sides are grilled.

For the tomatoes

Cut tomatoes in small cubes, add olive oil, toss and sprinkle with rock salt and pepper

For the salad

Sprinkle rucola with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, a little salt, and shave some parmesan on top.

Serve each item in a large plate, dip your mouillettes in the egg and enjoy!