Weeknight cooking Part 2 of 3: Polenta with Sage, Goat Cheese, and Mushroom Ragout.

It happened to snow the night I made the ragout, which seemed fitting for this "Porridge of the evening". I guess this label doesn't sell it. Let me work on it. 

Anyways, a warm mushroom ragout was just what the doctor ordered. Cheesy, warm and subtle in its range of flavours, I enjoyed it for dinner and for lunch the next day. "Yuppy slop" Is that better?


From: Cavich, C. (2008). High Plains: The Joy of Alberta Cuisine. (pp.108-9). Calgary, Canada. Fifth House Publishers.

Serves 4 as an entree or 8 as a side

Ingredients 

Polenta

• 1 cup instant polenta
• 4 cups water
• 1 t salt
• 1 T butter
• 200ml goat cheese
• 1 T chopped fresh sage leaves

Mushroom Ragout

• 8 cups sliced mushrooms
• 2 T butter
• 1 cup minced white onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/4 t ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup vegetable stock
• 1/4 cup whipping cream
• sprigs of fresh wild or garden sage

Method

Bring water to a boil in a large pot and add salt and butter. Slowly add the polenta to the pot in a steady stream, whisking as you go to prevent lumps from forming. Remove from heat and stir in the goat cheese and sage. Keep warm.

To make the ragout, melt butter in a wide pan and saute onion and garlic until soft, about 5 minutes.  Add sliced mushrooms to pan with salt and pepper and cook until mushrooms give up their liquid and begin to soften.

Add stock or wine, increase heat, and simmer until liquid in the pan is reduced by half. Stir in cream and bring to a boil. Cook 1 minute until ragout is thick.

Serve polenta in deep bowls, topped with the mushroom ragout. Garnish each bowl with a sprig of fresh sage. 

Pork Tenderloin with Figs & Polenta

I cannot reduce sauces. I boiled the crap out of this sauce and still couldn't get it to the consistency required. This isn't the first time, but this time I didn't have the energy to fake it and add a corn starch mixture so at least it looked like I knew what I was doing. If you have any advice, I'm all ears.

Ok, let's move on to this dish's evaluation. This is my first experiment with instant polenta (only had the ready-made produced before) and I liked the result. I would guess my reaction had something to do with the pound of parmesan I added to it, but let's not begrudge our perky polenta. Searing the tenderloin definitely helps retain more moisture, so my resulting pork was lovely. The red wine sauce and fig combination was also notable. I deviated from the recipe for a few reasons: one, it was in Polish. Thanks Google translator for getting most of the recipe converted to English, but there were a few key areas where I had to guess what was happening next. Two: I couldn't get my hands on any fresh figs. Caramelizing dried figs didn't sound like a good fit, so I ended up sautéing them with onions, which was a decent trade off. Two thumbs up from this end. Hope you enjoy this entree too!

Adapted from: http://zmagazynu.blogspot.kr/

Serves 4

Ingredients

Pork Tenderloin

• 350 g pork tenderloin sliced into four steaks
• salt and pepper to season
• 1 T olive oil

Fig & Onion Melee

• 4 dried figs, halved
• half an onion
• 1 T olive oil

Sauce

• 1/4 cup dry red wine
• 2 T red wine vinegar
• 1 T balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 T sugar
• 1 1/2 cup beef stock
• Pepper to season

Polenta

• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup polenta
• 1/4 cup parmesan
• 1 T mascarpone cheese
• 1 t olive oil
• salt to season

For the Pork

Preheat the oven to 350F. In a skillet, heat the olive oil. Season the pork well with salt and pepper and set aside for 15 minutes. Place in the heated skillet, searing each side for about 2-3 minutes. Place in a baking dish, in the oven for about 10 minutes.

For the Melee

Heat the oil in a skillet on medium heat. Add the onions and saute for a minute. Combine the figs, mixing well until they soften, about 4 minutes.

For the Sauce

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil until the sauce has thickened and is about a third of the original volume. Add the figs and onions to the sauce before serving.

For the Polenta

Bring the milk and water to a boil. Slowly pour in the polenta, stirring continuously. Once the polenta is added, turn off the heat and add the parmesan and mascarpone. Finally, add the olive oil and season with a little salt. 

Pork with Gorgonzola Sauce & Wine-Sauteed Portobello Mushrooms with Polenta

This was the entree that went with the scallops and yes we actually moaned when we ate this meal. Hello rich food! Actually, the only thing rich on this plate is the gorgonzola sauce. This sauce was the highlight of my Christmas vacation. We made so much of it that I had plenty to top grilled vegetables with it, baked spuds and other items. Definitely worth the experiment!

http://www.epicurious.com

Ingredients

Pork

• 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 T dried thyme
• 2, 3/4-pound pork tenderloins
• 
  

Gorgonzola sauce

• 1 T butter
• 1 T all purpose flour
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 1/4 cup canned low-salt chicken broth
• 1 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese 

Pork

Oil large rimmed baking sheet. Whisk Dijon mustard, olive oil and thyme in small bowl to blend. Sprinkle pork tenderloins with salt and pepper. Heat heavy large nonstick skillet over high heat. Add pork and sear until brown all over, turning occasionally, about 10 minutes. Transfer seared pork to prepared baking sheet. Spread Dijon mustard mixture over all sides of pork. (Can be prepared up to 2 hours ahead. Refrigerate pork uncovered.)

Preheat oven to 425°F. Roast pork until thermometer inserted into thickest part of meat registers 150°F, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand 5 minutes.

Sauce

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in heavy small saucepan over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon flour and whisk 1 minute. Gradually whisk in whipping cream, white wine and chicken broth. Boil until mixture is thick enough to coat spoon, whisking frequently, about 1 minute. Add crumbled Gorgonzola and whisk until cheese is melted and smooth and sauce is reduced to desired consistency, about 5 minutes.

Slice pork and transfer to plates. Ladle some sauce over pork. Serve, passing additional sauce separately.

Wine-Sauteed Portobella Mushrooms and Polenta

Adapted from: Martha Stewart Living. October 2007 p. 102.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 portobello mushrooms
• 1 garlic glove, coarsely chopped
• 2 T coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1 t kosher salt
• freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/8 cup and 1 T of olive oil
• tube of ready-to-serve polenta (feel free to prepare your own. I wasn't able to find anything but the ready-made variety)

Method

Toss portobellos with garlic, herbs, salt, pepper, vinegar, and 1/8 cup of oil in a large bowl. Let stand at room temperature, tossing occasionally for 1 hour. Pour portobellos and marinade into small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until reduced by half, about 10 minutes. Stir in remaining tablespoon of oil and remove mushrooms only from pan.

Slice polenta into 1/2 inch disks and place in pan on medium heat. Coat with remaining vinegar and oil mixture in pan. Let simmer for 3 minutes on each side. Place the polenta on a plate and the portobellos on top. Add the sauce over the combination and garnish with chopped parsley.