Gorgeous gluten-free grub: Julia Gillard and polenta chips

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Julia Gillard and polenta chips

As I watched the ABC News on the dumping of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for Julia Gillard last night, I was madly stirring polenta in a saucepan on the stove. As we were out of potatoes to accompany the steak, I had a brainwave to make polenta chips. Well, it was a good idea but the thing about polenta is that the cooking of it takes serious commitment. As Stephanie Alexander says on page 347 of her wonderful book, The Cook's Companion: "To make polenta the traditional way you will need a large, heavy saucepan - and patience. Not only patience to stir the mixture, but patience to clean the saucepan."

So while I listened to Julia's impressive speech and shed a tear with Kevin over his sudden dumping, I stirred and stirred my one cup of yellow polenta into the four cups of boiling water. The idea is to keep stirring until the wooden spoon stands up on its own accord in the mix. After 20 minutes my wooden spoon was still a bit like the leaning tower of Pisa, but I decided that was enough. I added more than a half a cup of grated parmesan cheese, chopped fresh rosemary and two large dollops of margarine (it was meant to be butter) and called it a day with the stirring.

By this stage the news had left Julia and Kevin and was on to the World Cup. I spooned the polenta mix out onto a tray to cool. After about 10 minutes or so I cut it into strips with a wet knife (as Stephanie Alexander advised) and basted with olive oil and laid in a baking dish. I popped the dish in the oven for about 20 minutes at about 200 degrees C. Towards the end I turned the oven on to grill to crisp things up. While they ended up looking more like Fish Fingers than chips, or wedges rather than fries - my parmesan, rosemary polenta chips were a nice change to potatoes or rice on the day Australia had its first woman Prime Minister.

For everything you need to know about cooking polenta - a gluten-free Northern Italian speciality - go to page 347 of Stephanie Alexander's book, The Cook's Companion, the complete book of ingredients and recipes for the Australian kitchen.

2 comments:

Jenny PJune 25, 2010 at 1:18 AM
Sounds like it was a memorable cooking moment on a day I'm sure we'll all remember where we were when we heard that a woman finally made it to the top job and it was Julia!
Yes, I'm delaying packing but I had to add my two cents worth.
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ThereseJune 25, 2010 at 2:02 AM
Yes it was a momentous day Jen - it's great to have a woman PM, and Julia is very impressive, but I still felt sorry for Kev. Have a wonderful trip. Look forward to hearing about it on your return. Au revoir
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What I am cooking

On the menu at the unveiling
The night Sister Wendy popped by to unveil our artwork, I made two types of rice paper rolls - Prawn and avocado and tandoori chicken. I can't remember where I got the recipe for the prawn and avocado rolls but the tandoori chicken ones came from Wheat & Gluten Free by Jody Vassallo and Dianne Boyle. While they are a bit fiddly to make, and by the end I felt a bit like I had repetitive strain injury, they were both delicious. Here are the recipes.

Tandoori chicken rolls
Ingredients: 150g dried rice vermicelli, 325 g gluten-free Greek style yoghurt, 3 tablespoons gluten-free tandoori paste (Patak's is GF), 750g skinless chicken thigh fillets, cut into bite-sized pieces, 24 small rice paper rounds, 16 cm in diameter, 24 fresh mint leaves, 3 tablespoons gluten-free mango chutney.
Method: 1. Put the vermicelli into a bowl, cover with boiling water and allow to stand for 10 minutes or until the noodles are soft. Drain and cut into short lengths.
2. Combine 260 g of the yoghurt and the tandoori paste in a bowl. Add the chicken and mix to combine. Spread the chicken out on a foil-lined baking tray. Cook under a grill preheated to high, turning a couple of times, for 5-10 minutes or until tender.
3. Soak a rice paper round in lukewarm water (I added a bit of boiling water to help along) until soft and place on a clean, dry tea towel. Top with 2 teaspoons of the noodles and 2 pieces of chicken. Dip a mint leaf in the remaining yoghurt and place on top of the chicken, followed by a small spoonful of mango chutney. Roll up to enclose the filling. Cover with damp absorbent paper while you prepare the remaining rolls. Serve with extra chutney.
Prawn and avocado rolls
Ingredients: about 30 baby prawns, one avocado, two limes, mint leaves (roughly chopped) and coriander (chopped leaves only).
Method: Prepare rice paper rounds as in above recipe. Place a couple of prawns and sliced avocado on the rice paper. Add a squeeze of lime over the avocado (it adds to the flavour and stops the avocado from going brown), followed by some chopped mint and coriander. Roll up to enclose the filling.

Stephanie Alexander's Bolognese Sauce
Stephanie's bolognese (pertaining to Bologna in Italy as opposed to bolognaise) made by Bruce for the first time was a hit at the artwork unveiling. It is from her book, The Cook's Companion, the Complete Book of Ingredients and Recipes for the Australian Kitchen. Bruce reckoned the inclusion of pancetta gave it the edge. As we had a big group we quadrupled the ingredients. The only thing we left out was the two teaspoons of plain flour. I suppose we could have used gluten-free plain flour but in my experience very rarely do dishes like bolognese or bolognaise need flour. So here is the recipe.
Ingredients: 1 onion, finely chopped, 1 stick celery, finely sliced, 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 400 g minced beef or veal, 100 g pancetta or smoked streaky bacon, chopped, half cup of dry white wine, salt (I don't think it needs salt), freshly ground black pepper, freshly grated nutmeg, 2 cups of veal or chicken stock or tomato juice (we used chicken stock), 4 ripe tomatoes or 1 x 400 g can peeled tomatoes in juice, pureed (we used the can variety although couldn't get pureed and remember to check the can as some can tomatoes have thickener in them), 2 tablespoons tomato paste, 1 large sprig thyme, 1 bay leaf.
Method: Saute onion, celery and garlic in oil in a large saucepan until softened. Add minced meat and pancetta and fry until meat breaks up into small lumps. Add wine, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Mix well, then increase heat and boil to evaporate liquid. Add stock, tomato, tomato paste and herbs. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour, stirring from time to time. Taste for seasoning.

My sister gave me Seriously Good! Gluten-free Cooking by English chef Phil Vickery for Christmas. In March this year Coeliac UK announced that Phil was their new Food Ambassador. The book is full of delicious-looking recipes. The first one we (or I should say Bruce) tried recently was Phil's Slow-cooked Indian Lamb Korma, which is on page 81 of the book. With six tablespoons of double cream, the dish is quite rich. But it's also very flavoursome with lots of herbs and spices including ground coriander, hot chilli powder, turmeric, cinnamon, cardamons, garlic and ginger. A hearty meal for a cold winter's day or night.

Jody Vassallo's Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cake
I have made this cake about seven times now and it is always a hit as the hazelnut meal makes it a little bit different from all those flourless chocolate cakes out there in cookbook land. It appears in Jody Vassallo's cookbook Wheat & Gluten Free, which is sponsored by The Coeliac Society of Australia Inc. Here is the recipe:
Ingredients: 250g dark cooking chocolate, chopped, 2 tablespoons milk, 120g hazelnut meal, 125g caster sugar, 6 eggs, separated.
Method: Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Line a 20cm spring form tin with baking paper. Put the chocolate and milk in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Do not let the base of the bowl touch the water. Stir over medium heat until the chocolate has melted. Set aside to cool slightly. Put the chocolate mixture, hazelnut meal, sugar and egg yolks into a bowl and mix to combine. Whisk the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and spoon into the prepared tin. Bake for 45 minutes or until firm. Allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes. Serve with fresh berries. Serves 8.