Blue Apron and Polenta Cakes
So by now I'm thinking everyone has heard of Blue Apron - a direct-to-you, easy-to-prep, meal in a box. I had the opportunity to try a week's worth of meals FREE thanks to Amanda who hooked this girl up with a trial.
I waited patiently for weeks and weeks for the right combination of recipes that piqued my interest - how it works is they feature different recipes each week and you can elect to skip weeks if you're going to be out of town or aren't interested in any of the recipes for that week.
Seeing as how I feel I'm pretty proficient in cooking, I didn't want to waste my voucher on any super-simple recipes. I wanted to try something new and exciting! What's great about Blue Apron is that each recipe comes with a card and all the ingredients you'll need to make it. That way, you can keep the recipe for future use if you love it and if you don't, you're not stuck with an entire bottle of spice/sauce that you'll never use again. The ingredients are pre-portioned, so no waste!
I decided to make my move when this week's recipe appeared: Arepas de Carne Molida with Avocado and Pickled Jalapeño. Yum (check the link for the recipe)! Unfortunately, what happened was the masarepa (or maize flour) had spilled during shipping and I wasn't able to salvage it. No worries, Blue Apron took care of me with a generous credit, but that still didn't solve my problem for making dinner that night.
Then, I thought maize is corn, corn flour is essentially corn meal... I have corn meal! So I decided to make polenta and the day was saved! Not only that, but it reignited my love for polenta and how versatile it is!
I'm hoping everyone has corn meal in their pantry. I'm also hoping everyone uses it for more than just dusting pizza stones. This recipe is super easy and you can adjust to make soft or firm polenta. The latter is typically my drug of choice - it's easy to portion and freeze and you can pan fry it or grill it to get a nice crispy outer crust, which is a nice contrast to the soft and creamy insides. If you want to keep the polenta soft, just add more hot water to the recipe below until you reach the desired consistency.
You Will Need (for 6 servings):
1/2 cup corn meal
2 to 2 1/2 cups water (use 2 cups for firm polenta)
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon butter
Bring water to a boil, add salt and then slowly add corn meal while stirring constantly. It will thicken in about 2-3 minutes, but make sure it's soft enough to stir. Adjust water accordingly and add salt, pepper, and any other ingredients you'd like! I added crushed red pepper and some grated parmesan to mine. Be creative! I was thinking of tackling a pesto-version in the near future!
At this point, if you're making firm polenta, you will need to shape it and refrigerate it to chill for a few hours and up to 3 days.
Once chilled, it's time to put it all together! Cook up the polenta cakes in a frying pan or on a grill. These polenta cakes are so versatile. You can certainly serve it with sautéed spinach and tomatoes, or with an egg and the fixings for breakfast.
To solve my dinner problem - I followed the recipe as suggested for the ground beef and making the pickled onions. I topped all of that on top of my polenta cake and made some guacamole to go with it and some matchstick radishes to top it all of for some crunch.
For the polenta cakes, I'm a stickler for uniformity, so I actually sprayed a glass beer mug that would give me even-sized circles when slicing, poured the soft polenta mixture in, topped it with some plastic wrap and let it chill in the fridge for a few hours before slicing into it.
It was a really early dinner, so by the time dishes were done Zac and I were ready for an encore! We headed down to Whiskey Jar for drinks and some noshes to celebrate him finding a place in Cville!
Their Moscow Mules are strong aaaaand delicious! Shout out to the complementary peanuts and house pickles that kept me in my seat and off of the bar top.
Their asparagus appetizer was awesome! Grilled (and not overcooked!) and seasoned asparagus with gorgeous crispy onion strings. And I loved the grilled lemon they served with it!
I waited patiently for weeks and weeks for the right combination of recipes that piqued my interest - how it works is they feature different recipes each week and you can elect to skip weeks if you're going to be out of town or aren't interested in any of the recipes for that week.
Seeing as how I feel I'm pretty proficient in cooking, I didn't want to waste my voucher on any super-simple recipes. I wanted to try something new and exciting! What's great about Blue Apron is that each recipe comes with a card and all the ingredients you'll need to make it. That way, you can keep the recipe for future use if you love it and if you don't, you're not stuck with an entire bottle of spice/sauce that you'll never use again. The ingredients are pre-portioned, so no waste!
I decided to make my move when this week's recipe appeared: Arepas de Carne Molida with Avocado and Pickled Jalapeño. Yum (check the link for the recipe)! Unfortunately, what happened was the masarepa (or maize flour) had spilled during shipping and I wasn't able to salvage it. No worries, Blue Apron took care of me with a generous credit, but that still didn't solve my problem for making dinner that night.
Then, I thought maize is corn, corn flour is essentially corn meal... I have corn meal! So I decided to make polenta and the day was saved! Not only that, but it reignited my love for polenta and how versatile it is!
I'm hoping everyone has corn meal in their pantry. I'm also hoping everyone uses it for more than just dusting pizza stones. This recipe is super easy and you can adjust to make soft or firm polenta. The latter is typically my drug of choice - it's easy to portion and freeze and you can pan fry it or grill it to get a nice crispy outer crust, which is a nice contrast to the soft and creamy insides. If you want to keep the polenta soft, just add more hot water to the recipe below until you reach the desired consistency.
You Will Need (for 6 servings):
1/2 cup corn meal
2 to 2 1/2 cups water (use 2 cups for firm polenta)
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon butter
Bring water to a boil, add salt and then slowly add corn meal while stirring constantly. It will thicken in about 2-3 minutes, but make sure it's soft enough to stir. Adjust water accordingly and add salt, pepper, and any other ingredients you'd like! I added crushed red pepper and some grated parmesan to mine. Be creative! I was thinking of tackling a pesto-version in the near future!
At this point, if you're making firm polenta, you will need to shape it and refrigerate it to chill for a few hours and up to 3 days.
Once chilled, it's time to put it all together! Cook up the polenta cakes in a frying pan or on a grill. These polenta cakes are so versatile. You can certainly serve it with sautéed spinach and tomatoes, or with an egg and the fixings for breakfast.
For the polenta cakes, I'm a stickler for uniformity, so I actually sprayed a glass beer mug that would give me even-sized circles when slicing, poured the soft polenta mixture in, topped it with some plastic wrap and let it chill in the fridge for a few hours before slicing into it.
It was a really early dinner, so by the time dishes were done Zac and I were ready for an encore! We headed down to Whiskey Jar for drinks and some noshes to celebrate him finding a place in Cville!
Even more incredible was their dessert!!! Their pecan pie was just that - ALL PECAN. No layer of goopy syrup, just chock-full of pecans and a very thin layer of crust - almost like a phyllo crust. It reminded us a lot of another one of my favorite desserts - baklava. And that beautiful silky smooth scoop on top? Bourbon vanilla ice cream. I know. My jaw dropped when they set that in front of me and it's pretty much been hanging open ever since.
Happy Weekend!
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