I have been wanting to make polenta for months now, I had this bag of polenta in my pantry, but did not have the other ingredients I needed to make what I had in mind, so I kept waiting.

Polenta has been a big part of my life, my mom used to make a huge quantity of polenta, spread it on a large wooden surface and served it with a rabbit and tomato sauce. Everyone would take a spoon and eat it from the wooden board.

Polenta prepared in Northern Italy like Lombardia or Friuli is white, it’s served sliced with prosciutto and radicchio. Basically, it replaces the bread in some households. Actually, In Milano, they cook it with milk, and top it with a mushroom sauce, more like a gravy. That is the way I ate it at my childhood friend whose parents were from Milano. I was used to the yellow polenta served with a mushroom, or rabbit tomato sauce. Two different way to prepare it.

Anyway, I found the most interesting mushrooms at the Berkeley Bowl yesterday, and I was so curious about those tiny but still chunky-legged mushrooms, that I just had to buy them. Trying new ingredients gives me some adrenaline rush, and for the particular purpose, that store is perfect.

To be really honest, I am unable to tell you the exact name of those mushrooms, the hand-written sign was unreadable, and I did some research on the web to try to find out their names and I am uncertain of what they’re called. I believe they’re shimeji. Some kind of Japanese mushroom, that has the shape of porcini mushroom but a smaller size. A Heavy stem and a small cap. It has a great flavor and I really liked the mixed flavors of those three different mushrooms.

Going back to polenta, you can buy the pre-cooked or the regular polenta that needs to cook slowly for an hour on medium or even slow heat, so if your wrist is not trained, since you have to stir for the entire hour, you will get a sore wrist and arm. If you are new to polenta and don’t have too much time for preparation and cooking, the pre-cooked kind would work fine. Unfortunately, I only had the regular one, so I had no choice than go the traditional way.

Big polenta eaters like in Friuli, have a special pot with a mechanical arm that stirs the polenta, so you just have to sit and wait.

You might not see it on the picture, but those crostoni have been carved in the middle so you can stuff them with the mushroom sauce.

Ingredients for 4

For the polenta

• about 4 oz. pre cooked or regular polenta
• 1 tbs rosemary, chopped
• 1 tbs parmigiano reggiano, grated
• 3 cups broth
• salt

For the mushroom sauce

• 4 slices pancetta, chopped + 4 slices whole (for decoration)
• 5 well riped tomatoes, chopped seedless
• 1 cup small shitakee, some sliced, some whole
• 1 cup oyster mushrooms, sliced
• 1 cup shimeji mushrooms
• 1 shallot
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tbs parsley
• chili flakes to your taste
• 2 tbs olive oil

For the cabbage

• 1/2 cabbage, shredded
• 1/4 yellow onion chopped
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

First start preparing the polenta. Bring broth to a boil, add salt. Add rosemary, then pour polenta. Stir non stop and cook at very low heat, add water if necessary. If using regular polenta, it needs to cook for at least 40 minutes, always stirring. If using pre-cooked polenta, cook for about 7-10 minutes, and keep stirring. Add Parmesan.

When the polenta is cooked pour in a small deep dish so that the polenta has a thickness of about 1.5 inch. Let it cool. When cooled, with cut circles of about 2.5 inches in diameter. With a teaspoon, remove some of the center of each polenta circle. Drizzle with some olive oil, and brown under broiler for about 5 minutes or until the top of the polenta is golden brown. This broiling part needs to be done at the end, when the tomato sauce and cabbage are almost cooked, or the polenta will get cold.

For the mushroom sauce

Heat olive oil in a pan, add mushrooms. Cook at medium heat, until the water has evaporated, add salt and pepper. Remove from pan and set aside.

In the same pan, add olive oil, add shallot, let it brown. Add chopped pancetta, and brown the mixture. Add garlic and parsley, stir well to get the flavors out, add tomatoes and chili flakes. Cook until the sauce has reduced but do not reduce too much, there needs to be some tomato juice left. Add mushrooms and adjust with salt and pepper.

For the cabbage

Heat olive oil in a deep pot, add onion, and brown it, add cabbage, stir and add wine, salt and pepper. Cover and cook at medium heat until the cabbage is cooked.

Grill whole pancetta slices in a non stick pan.

Serve in a plate with 2 tbs of cabbage on bottom, add polenta crostoni on top. Fill the center of polenta with mushroom sauce. Add 1 grilled pancetta slice on top. Decorate with whole shitakee around the plate.

A good Cambodian friend from High school taught me how to cook a perfect rice in term of rice/water quantity if you don’t want to use a measuring cup and if you don’t want to use your rice cooker. When your rice is in the pot, you need to add enough water so that the rice gets covered by 1cm of water (maybe less than 1/2 inch? which means there is 1 cm of water on top of your rice). That’s the way I have been cooking my steamed rice and the results are always great. Of course, if you have a rice cooker, you can go the easy route and use it, but I love to discover some real tricks rather always use a measuring cup. Actually I rarely do.

The salmon balls are very flavorful due to the peppers and spices and any time I made those to buffet parties, they’ve always been a big hit. The dipping sauce is fragrant and fresh and enhances the balls to the perfection.

Ingredients for 3-4, about 15 salmon balls

For the salmon balls

• 1 lbs of wild salmon
• 1/2 red pepper, finely chopped
• 1/2 red onion, finely chopped
• 1 tbs black sesame seeds
• 2 scallions, finely chopped
• 1 tbs cilantro, chopped
• 1 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tbs sake
• 2 tbs plain bread crumbs
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper

For the mushrooms

• 1/2 lbs shitake mushroom
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1 tbs vegetable oil
• 1 tbs sake
• 1 tbs soy sauce

For the rice

• 2 cups basmati or jasmine rice
• 1 cup coconut milk, unsweetened
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 tsp salt

For the dipping sauce

• 4 tbs sesame oil
• 1 tbs ginger, grated
• 2 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tbs rice vinegar
• 1 tbs granulated sugar
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 2 scallions, chopped

Put all ingredients in a blender and mix until the sauce gets smooth and creamy.

Preparation
Cut salmon in pieces and grind in a mixer. place in a container. Add all the other ingredients. Mix well and form nice round balls, about 1/2 size diameter, place in an oven tray. Pre-heat oven at about 370F and cook salmon for about 20 minutes or until cooked.
In the meantime, prepare the rice. Put rice in a saucepan (I used my rice cooker, so I have been spoiled since I bought it). Mix water, salt and coconut rice. Add to the rice and bring it to a boil, then reduce heat to lowest temperature and cover with a lid for about 15-20 minutes. Remove pot from heat and let it cover for another 10 minutes.
Wash mushrooms and cut in about 4 pieces each. Heat oil in a pan, add 1 shallot, grated ginger, garlic stir for a while, add the mushrooms and sake and soy sauce. Cover and cook at medium heat for about 10 minutes.

In a bowl, add first 3 to 4 tbs of rice, then top with mushrooms and place about 4 to 5 salmon balls ont top. Serve with dipping sauce on the side.