Italian tostada.

We like to take traditional foods and shake it up a bit the the foods we grew up with. The Italian tostada, is like a polenta chip covered with lentils. mozzarella. cheese, and fruit. It is a snack you will certainly have over and over again. It is a bright change to the traditional tostada. Enjoy.

Step 1: Ingredients:

Tostada base
1 cup tortilla masa flour
1 cup warm water
1 pinch salt
1 pinch baking power

or

Corn Tortillas
Tortillas de Maiz

Serves: makes 12 tortillas

Ingredients

2 cups corn tortilla flour

Pinch kosher or coarse sea salt

1 3/4 cups water (or enough for a Play Doh consistency, may vary with climate)

Toppings
1/4 cup drain cooked lentils
14 cup cheese
1/3 cup salad
1 tablespoon or so fruit.
salt
pepper
etc.

Step 2: Corn tortilla base.

 

 

Add 1 cup warm water, 1 pinch baking soda, and one pinch salt for tortilla masa.
Mix with spoon till incorporateed.
Let siit in refrigerator for a while to rehydrate.
Take some of the mixture and make about a golf ball size golfball.
Squish flat with a frying pan or a tortilla press.

Gently lower ithe pressed tortilla into a screaming hot (oil-less) pan without your hands or finger touching it.
Let it cook for a minute on eash side.
Remove to a warm place till all the the dough is used in making tortllas.

Step 3: Lentils.

Boil lentils til tender. (a little baking soda can reduce cooking time).
Let cool in the fridge before putting in a plastic container.
Remove some lenils with a spider or holed spoon to drain the liquid thoroughly.
Lash with a potato masher or the like.
Put on top of a cooled corn tortilla.

Step 4: Cheese

You can wither use store bought cheese or make your own and freeze for later. (http://www.instructables.com/id/Yet-another-cheese-making-episode/).

Take the stire bought mozzarella cheese and top the lentils.
Optional: maybe a few seconds in the microwave.

Step 5: Salad, fruit and etc.

Add the salad on top,
Spoon some fruit on top of that.
You could add just a bit of pepper andd what ever else suits you.

Step 6: Done.

Hope you enjoy our Italian tostadas. They are great for game day. We had quite a few during the last playoff games. They are a nice change to the traditional pizza and you do not have to tip the delivery person. Yummy yummy yummy!

Simple polenta.

Traditional method to make polenta was to get the water boiling and then slowly add in the polenta. That method now seems archaic to me. Just as slowly adding water or liquid to rice.

Ingredients:
1 - cup corn meal aka polenta
4 - cups water
plus whatever spices and other ingredients you choose to make it sweet or savory.

Method:

Take a large enough sauce pot  and pour in one cup of the polenta.
Add four cups of water.
Stir well till the polenta is absorbed.
Turn the heat on to high. (Watch carefully)
Stir as needed till you get the little volcanoes.
Turn down the heat.
Keep stirring as needed till the polenta thickens up.
Cover and turn off the heat.
Eat when ready.

Note: adding honey can make it sweet and safer than adding sugar.

Polenta con Spinaci.

Yet another variation of polenta.

Depending on who you talk to, the ratio of liquid to the corn meal will vary. Normally I do it one to three, because I like it super thick.  But for this dish, it was one to four. A little soupier for a change. So good when it is warm.

Ingredients:

4 - cups liquid (today I used 2 cups water and 2 cups homemade chicken broth)
1 - cup corn meal aka polenta.
1 - regular can spinach
Heavy dose of Parmesan cheese.

Add spices to taste.
Oregano
Basil
Garlic salt
Pepper

Method:

Add the spinach to the liquid.
Bring the liquid to a boil.
Add the polenta very slowly, so it does not clump too much.
Once the polenta is incorporated, turn down the heat to medium, stir well, but watch carefully.
After a few minutes,Add the spices and the cheese and again stir well.
Turn off the heat and cover it.
Let it sit to finish cooking.

Whole chicken pays for itself.

Last chicken we bought was only 6 dollars.  Generated about a gallon of polenta with only a few cups of corn meal. Polenta sells for about 4 dollars a tube or about 3 cups at most.. A tube is only a few cups of cooked cornmeal.

Polenta frito.

Homemade Frittos aka Polenta frito.

1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon oil

Put the cornmeal and salt into a bowl; pour the boiling water over the cornmeal.
Stir really well and add the oil.
Stir to combine. (If the dough is a little too thin, add more cornmeal, a teaspoon at a time, until it is fairly stiff dough.)
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and put the dough on that.
Put a piece of wax paper on top of the dough so to roll it without the dough sticking to the rolling pin.
Roll it out to about 1/8 inch thick.
Remove and dispose of the wax paper.
Cut it into fritto shaped pieces.
Bake in a 375 degree oven for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.
Let them cool.

Waste not want not.

Decided to make a pizza rather than order one in. You can get yeast that does not need any rising time.

But the I realized I was out of sauce so we made the red sauce.

But then I remembered  there was no cheese either. milk to the rescue.

Everything you needed for pizza. But what to do with the milk whey left over from the cheese making. no problem we just made polenta. We made of pot of it for what the stores sell a small tube.

If course we used the extra red sauce and cheese for the topping on the polenta. We also added green peas for color. Hmmm good.