3. When ready to serve, spoon onto serving plates and sprinkle with the goat cheese.
gorgonzola polenta
Gorgonzola and polenta are a culinary team like spaghetti and Parmesan cheese. They just go together; maybe it is because they are both native to the area around Milan. Use a young Gorgonzola, aged under six months, so it is creamy and mild. It will melt into the mush, giving it a sophisticated flavor. Serve as a side dish alongside roast meats. Some people like to top the hot polenta with a dab of pesto and some chopped cherry tomatoes seasoned with salt, pepper, and a tablespoon of olive oil.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic (preferred) or on/off
CYCLE: Quick Cook and/or regular or Porridge
YIELD: Serves 6
¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter
1 small white onion (you can use a boiling onion), finely chopped
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup milk
¾ cup coarse-grain yellow polenta
5 ounces Gorgonzola cheese
½ cup heavy cream
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2 teaspoons salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese (optional), for garnish
1. Set the rice cooker for the Quick Cook or regular cycle. Place the butter in the rice cooker bowl. When melted, add the onion and cook, stirring a few times, until soft, about 8 minutes. Add the stock, milk, and polenta; whisk to combine. Close the cover and reset for the Porridge or regular cycle. A few times during the cooking, open the cover and stir the polenta for 15 seconds, then close the cover.
2. Coat 6 cups of a standard muffin tin with butter-flavored nonstick cooking spray or grease them with butter.
3. At the end of the second Porridge cycle, or when the regular cycle completes, stir in the cheese, cream, nutmeg, salt, and black pepper to taste. Using a plastic soup ladle, divide the polenta among the 6 muffin cups, filling to the brim. Let come to room temperature. At this point, you can cover with plastic and refrigerate overnight.
4. Preheat the oven to 400º F. Brush a small earthenware roasting pan with olive oil.
5. Remove the polenta from the muffin tin and place in the roasting pan (not touching each other). Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese on top, if using. Bake until hot, 15 to 20 minutes. Serve immediately, using a metal spatula to remove the polenta from the pan.
villafloriani grilled polenta with sausages
Beth’s dear friend Rosmarie Finger worked for years on an estate called Villa Floriani in Portola Valley, California. Every summer there would be a charity celebrity tennis match on the grounds for the Peninsula Volunteers of Northern California, with a fantastic buffet luncheon for three hundred. Beth was lucky to be invited to a number of these functions and enjoyed the excellent food, prepared by a different chef each year. One year this dish was the main offering and it has become a favorite for summer entertaining. The original recipe is from Northwest food writer and chef Joan Deccio Wickham, who designed the menu that year. The recipe is immortalized in her Italian cookbook The Sporting Gourmet Cookbook (The Sporting House, 1983).
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) or large
(10-cup) rice cooker; fuzzy logic
( p referred) or on/off
CYCLE: Porridge or regular
YIELD: Serves 6
4 cups chicken stock
1⅔ cups coarse-grain yellow polenta
2 small yellow onions, chopped
2 tablespoons fruity olive oil
8 ounces Parmesan cheese, freshly grated, plus more for serving
⅛ teaspoon ground white pepper
6 tablespoons (¾ stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Tomato Coulis
6 medium-size Italian sausages, grilled
1. Place 2 cups of the stock in the rice cooker bowl and add the polenta. Stir for 15 seconds with a wooden spoon or wooden or plastic rice paddle; set aside.
2. In a medium-size sauté pan, combine the onions and olive oil. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring a few times, until the onions are transparent, about 5 minutes. Add the remaining 2 cups stock and bring to a boil. Slowly pour the stock mixture into the rice bowl and stir briefly.
3. Close the cover and set the rice cooker for the Porridge or regular cycle. A few times during the cooking, open the cover and stir for 15 seconds, then close the cover.
4. When the machines switches to the Keep Warm cycle or the regular cycle ends, taste the polenta to make sure the desired consistency has been reached. Add the cheese, pepper, and butter, stirring until well blended.
5. Coat two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans with olive oil. Pour the hot polenta into the pans, filling each about three-fourths full. If you are planning to serve the dish that evening, set aside, covered with plastic wrap, to firm up. Otherwise, cover and refrigerate the polenta overnight.
6. Prepare a grill. For an outdoor charcoal or wood chip fire: When the coals are covered with gray ash, throw a few herb sprigs (like rosemary, if you have some) on top of the coals for extra aroma while grilling. For a gas grill with two burners: Preheat one burner on high, leaving the other side open for the sausages. For a single-burner gas grill:Preheat on high, then lower the flame while grilling the second side of the polenta. Spray the clean grill grate with an olive oil cooking spray and place it 4 inches above the fire.
7. Turn the polenta loaf out onto a cutting board and cut into 1-inch-thick slices. Place the slices on the grill and cook, turning once, until golden brown on both sides. Serve with more grated Parmesan, a ladleful of the coulis, and the grilled sausages.
tomato coulis
This is an excellent all-purpose tomato-herb sauce that is as good hot as it is cold. Use it as a topping for quiche, pizza, sautéed meats, or vegetables.
YIELD: 3 cups
¼ cup fruity olive oil
½ cup chopped shallots
2 to 3 cloves garlic, crushed
One 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes, with their juices
2 tablespoons dry white wine
½ cup chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
10 fresh basil leaves, chopped
Pinch each of fresh or dried thyme, oregano, and marjoram leaves
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1. In a large sauté pan, combine 3 tablespoons of the olive oil, the shallots, and garlic. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring a few times, until the shallots are softened, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, wine, and herbs. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to low. Simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes, stirring a few times. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
2. Pour the sauce into a jar and cover with the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil. Let cool to room temperature. The sauce will keep in the refrigerator for 2 days and in the freezer for up to 1 month.
GRITS
If you have ever traveled in the southern United States, you know about grits. A puddle of hot grits, sometimes called hominy grits (even though they are not from ground hominy at all), is served in every café for breakfast with a pat of butter, syrup, or redeye gravy. Grits are just the coarsest grind of plain old cornmeal, ground from white or yellow corn that is grown in the South, then simmered in water or milk and ending up not quite as smooth as polenta. If the grits are stone-ground, there will be black bits of bran and germ speckled throughout, and they are mighty tasty. These may be labeled “old-fashioned” (see facing box). When you prepare grits, first cover them with water and let the husks rise to the top, then drain and proceed with the recipe. If the grits are degerminated, they will be a uniform color, and come in instant and quick-cooking varieties, which are both chemically enriched. They have different cooking times, with the stone-ground taking by far the longest; the regular cycle handles this automatically when you vary the amount of liquid. Grits are a snap in the fuzzy logic rice cooker using the Porridge cycle. While grits normally need a proportion of 1 cup grits to 4 cups water to soften properly,
the closed environment of the rice cooker prevents a lot of water evaporation, so the ratio drops slightly.
CLICK TO SEE ABOUT OLD-FASHIONED STONE-GROUNDGRITS
traditional grits
If you live outside the southern part of the United States, the only grits you will find in the supermarket will be instant or quick cooking. Luckily, there are excellent mail-order sources for fresh ground grits, including the Old Mill of Guilford in Oak Ridge, North Carolina (910643-4783), and War Eagle Mill in Rogers, Arkansas (501-789-5343). Fresh ground grits are speckled from the bits of grain left over from the milling, so be sure to cover them first with water and let the husks rise to the top, then drain and proceed from the beginning of the recipe. If you want to use quick-cooking grits, just cook for one cycle in the rice cooker and they will still be very good.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic (preferred) or on/off
CYCLE: Porridge or regular
YIELD: Serves 4
1 cup coarse stone-ground grits
3 cups water
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
Ground white pepper
1. If you’d like to remove the husks, combine the grits and some cold tap water in a bowl or use the rice cooker bowl; the husks will rise to the top and can be skimmed off. Drain the grits.
2. Place the grits, water, and salt in the rice cooker bowl; stir for 15 seconds with a wooden spoon or wooden or plastic rice paddle. Close the cover and set for the Porridge or regular cycle. A few times during the cooking, open the cover and stir for 15 seconds, then close the cover.
3. At the end of the Porridge cycle, reset for a second Porridge cycle, giving the grits two full cycles to reach the optimum consistency.
4. At the end of the second Porridge cycle, or when the regular cycle completes, stir in the butter, season to taste with pepper, and serve hot. These grits will hold on Keep Warm for up to 2 hours.
creamy traditional grits: Replace 1 cup of the water with 1 cup whole milk and omit the white pepper. Good served with pure maple syrup and chopped crisp bacon.
traditional grits with cheddar: Add 1 cup coarsely shredded mild or sharp cheddar cheese 10 minutes before the end of cooking. Stir to distribute evenly.
traditional grits with hominy: Add one 16-ounce can whole hominy, drained, rinsed, and coarsely chopped, 15 minutes into the second Porridge cycle or when the water comes to a boil in the regular cycle.
fried grits
You can’t get a more traditional southern breakfast than one with a slice of hot fried grits. This is a great way to use up any leftover grits, but if you are having a few hungry folks in the morning, fried grits, a rasher of bacon, an egg over easy, juice, and hot coffee are a welcome treat.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic (preferred) or on/off
CYCLE: Porridge or regular
YIELD: Serves 6
1½ cups coarse stone-ground grits
4 cups water
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup unsalted butter, margarine, or bacon drippings, for frying
Pure maple syrup, for serving
1. Combine the grits and some cold tap water in a bowl or use the rice cooker bowl; the husks will rise to the top. Drain through a mesh strainer.
2. Place the grits, water, and salt in the rice cooker bowl; stir for 15 seconds with a wooden spoon or wooden or plastic rice paddle. Close the cover and set for the Porridge or regular cycle. A few times during the cooking, open the cover and stir for 15 seconds, then close the cover.
3. When the machine switches to the Keep Warm cycle or the regular cycle ends, pour the grits into a greased 9 x 5-inch loaf pan, filling it up to the top. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
4. The next morning, turn the loaf of grits out of the pan onto a cutting board. With a sharp chef’s knife, cut into ½-inch-thick slices. Heat a cast-iron or other heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Place a knob (about 1½ tablespoons) of the butter in the pan to melt. Lay the grits slices in the pan and cook until brown, about 8 minutes on each side, turning once. Add more butter for each new batch, as needed. Remove from the pan with a metal spatula to a serving plate. Serve with the maple syrup.
creamy old-fashioned grits
Adding a small amount of cream at the end of cooking makes these grits that little bit more special for a breakfast side dish with eggs or as a hot cereal.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic (preferred) or on/off
CYCLE: Porridge or regular
YIELD: Serves 4
1 cup coarse stone-ground grits
3 cups water
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
¼ cup heavy cream
1. Combine the grits and some cold tap water in a bowl or use the rice cooker bowl; the husks will rise to the top. Drain through a mesh strainer.
2. Place the grits, water, salt, and 1 tablespoon of the butter in the rice cooker bowl; stir for 15 seconds with a wooden spoon or wooden or plastic rice paddle. Close the cover and set for the Porridge or regular cycle. A few times during the cooking, open the cover and stir for 15 seconds, then close the cover.
3. At the end of the Porridge cycle, reset for a second Porridge cycle, giving the grits two full cycles to reach the optimum consistency.
4. At the end of the second Porridge cycle, or when the regular cycle completes, open the cover and stir in the remaining 1 tablespoon butter and the cream. Stir quickly, close the cover, and allow the grits to rest at least until the butter melts, about 10 minutes. These grits will hold on Keep Warm for up to 1 hour. Stir before serving.
pumpkin grits
Grits have become a fashionable side dish outside the South, so finally there are creative recipes floating around. Here mashed pumpkin puree, fresh if you can manage it, is added and you have a nice accompaniment to roast pork, turkey, duck, or chicken.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic (preferred) or on/off
CYCLE: Porridge or regular
YIELD: Serves 4
⅔ cup coarse stone-ground grits
1½ cups water
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup cooked mashed pumpkin or other winter squash, such as blue Hubbard or butternut
Freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter
½ cup (4 ounces) grated cheddar cheese
1. Combine the grits and some cold tap water in a bowl or use the rice cooker bowl; the husks will rise to the top. Drain through a mesh strainer.
2. Place the grits, water, milk, and salt in the rice cooker bowl; stir for 15 seconds with a wooden spoon or wooden or plastic rice paddle. Add the pumpkin and a few grinds of pepper and stir again. Close the cover and set for the Porridge or regular cycle. A few times during the cooking, open the cover, stir for 15 seconds, then close the cover.
3. At the end of the Porridge cycle, reset for a second Porridge cycle and cook until the grits reach the optimum consistency, thick like breakfast porridge.
4. When the right consistency is achieved or the regular cycle ends, stir in the butter and cheese. Stir quickly, close the cover, and allow the grits to rest at least until the butter melts, about 5 minutes, and up to 1 hour, if desired.
shrimpand grits
Beth’s Aunt Joan lives in Florence, South Carolina, the heart of grits country. Shrimp and grits is real southern coastal Atlantic country food, but can now be found served at lots of southern parties and in restaurants. Here is an authentic recipe, just the way they like it in the Carolinas, which we made with Old-Fashioned Stone-Ground Speckle Yellow Grits from Blackwell Mills (decorated with a line drawing of a smiling pig in a neckerchief holding a corncob with the saying “Pig Out”) that Aunt Joan sent Beth. The original recipe calls for the grits to be cooked for three hours, so run the gri
ts through a third Porridge cycle, if you wish, for a softer consistency.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) or large
(10-cup) rice cooker; fuzzy logic
( p referred) or on/off
CYCLE: Porridge or regular
YIELD: Serves 6
2 cups coarse stone-ground grits
6 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter or margarine
¼ cup olive oil
¼ teaspoon Texas Pete hot sauce or Tabasco sauce
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon pressed garlic
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon minced fresh Italian parsley leaves
1 teaspoon minced fresh chives
½ teaspoon dried tarragon
½ teaspoon dried chervil
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 pound miniature shrimp (90/110 count), shelled and deveined (you can buy these already shelled; look for P&Ds)
Chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves, for garnish
Chopped fresh chives, for garnish
1. Combine the grits and some cold tap water in a bowl or use the rice cooker bowl; the husks will rise to the top. Drain through a mesh strainer.
2. Place the grits, water, and salt in the rice cooker bowl; stir for 15 seconds with a wooden spoon or wooden or plastic rice paddle. Close the cover and set for the Porridge or regular cycle. A few times during the cooking, open the cover and stir for 15 seconds, then close the cover.
3. At the end of the Porridge cycle, reset for a second Porridge cycle and cook until the grits reach the desired consistency, thick like breakfast porridge. When the right consistency is achieved or the regular cycle ends, hold on Keep Warm until the shrimp is ready.
4. Fifteen minutes before the grits are done, melt the butter in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil, hot sauce, bay leaf, garlic, lemon juice, minced parsley, minced chives, tarragon, chervil, pepper, and Worcestershire, bring to a simmer over medium heat, and add the shrimp. Cook, stirring, until the shrimp turn bright pink on both sides, 2 to 3 minutes.
The Ultimate Rice Cooker Page 26