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Grilled and Stuffed Polenta

Pam — Wed, 05 May 2010 02:02:52 +0000

I saw this recipe one day when I was at my friend’s house, and we were watching a cooking program that was preparing this recipe and I was instantly sure that I would test it. I changed some of the ingredients and made the my own sauce. It was delicious, I couldn’t wait until the polenta to stay solid for grilling it, because I was so eager to try it…hehe. I loved it, it’s super easy to make, and is incredibly delicious. I’ll post the polenta recipe that I used, but if you already have one that you like, you can use it. And if you’re like me, I used a lot of mozzarella and bacon, I’m pretty generous…hehe…because I like the grilled cheese that melts on the sides and the polenta with a crunchy crust, ending with tomato sauce and grated cheese on top…yummy.

Grilled and Stuffed Polenta

Ingredients:

Polenta:
1 and 1/2 cups cornmeal
5 cups water
salt and black pepper

Filling:
300g mozzarella, grated
100g fried bacon

Sauce:
1 tbsp onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 cans of peeled tomatoes (blended on the mix)
200g ground beef
Basil, salt and black pepper

Directions:

Polenta:
Bring water to a boil in a large heavy pot. Add salt and reduce heat until water is simmering. Take cornmeal by the handful and add to water very slowly, controlling the flow to a thin stream through your fingers. To avoid lumps, stir quickly with a long handled wooden spoon while adding cornmeal. If necessary, stop adding cornmeal from time to time and beat mixture vigorously. Cook, stirring constantly, 20 to 30 minutes. Polenta will become very thick while cooking. It is done when it comes away cleanly from the sides of the pot.

Spread half the polenta in an dish. Smooth out polenta evenly. Cover the polenta with the mozzarella and bacon. Add the rest of the polenta on top, smooshing it out as best you can. Let cool until polenta solidifies.

Sauce:
In the same pan that you fried the bacon, fry the onion and garlic. Add the ground beef and the tomatoes and let it boil for 30 minutes. Season with basil, salt and pepper.

Grill:
Cut polenta into squares. Brush both sides with olive oil. Place on grill; cover grill. Grill until polenta is golden brown, about 3 minutes per side. Serve hot and with tomato sauce.

Rolled Beef – Not Rolled

admin — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:14:40 +0000

Hehe…I invented this name because the recipe didn’t have a name, because this is another family recipe. In fact I chose this name because it is a rolled beef that actually is not rolled, hehe. Well, I will explain, it’s a recipe for rolled beef that instead of been stuffed, the filling was cooked all together with the beef and the sauce and not inside the beef, did you understand? I love this recipe, especially because of the taste that the sauce gets, and if someone also loves a rolled beef, you’ll love this recipe because it is more practical, you don’t need to waste time stuffing the beefs…hehe. Oh, it’s delicious!

Rolled Beef – Not Rolled

Ingredients:

1 kg of beef cubs (I used topside, but you can use the one that you prefer)
250g of bacon cubs
1 big quartered onion
1 medium green pepper, in cubs
1 big carrot, in cubs
1 red chili, chopped
1 can of tomato paste (340g)
3 cans (the tomato paste one) of water
1 tbsp salt
1 pinch black pepper

Directions:

Put all the ingredients into a pressure cooker, and cook on medium heat for 45 minutes, or until beed is tender.

Bacon Muffins

admin — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:30:48 +0000

Changing a little bit of the traditional sweet muffins, I decided to make a salty one, and I chose this recipe that I found in the book – Le Cordon Bleu. I loved the dough and the flavor, but when I saw the recipe I had decided that I would add more bacon, and perhaps a mozzarella cheese (I think that I used a little bit of parmesan) and some chopped tomatoes, I don’t know why but I forgot. I’ll repeat the recipe for sure, but in the next time I will ameliorate them a little more, but the muffins, the way they are, they are delicious and super soft, it is worth to make them. But if you to want to also ameliorate them, I recomend to add more bacon, maybe some mozzarella or parmesan cheese and some of chopped tomatoes.

Bacon Muffins
(± 12 muffins)

Ingredients:

2 tsp vegetable oil
6 bacon slices, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
300g self-rising flour
75g all-purpose flour
1 pinch of salt
1 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
2 eggs
250ml milk
125g melted butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 210ºC. Grease (or spray with cooking spray) a 12-cup muffin tin, or line with paper liners.
Pan fry the chopped bacon with the oil in a small, heavy saucepan until crispy. Remove with a slotted spoon and let cool slightly. In the same saucepan, saute the onion until lightly brown and tender, and let it cold.
In a large bowl, sift and whisk the flours, salt and parsley together until well-combined. Lightly beat the eggs in a medium bowl. Add the milk and stir to combine. Combine the flour mixture with the milk and add the butter, bacon, onion and with a spoon stir until just combined.
Drop batter by spoonfuls into the greased muffin tin, filling each cup 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Baked Mac and Cheese with Bacon

admin — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:34:33 +0000

This recipe is for those lazy days, it’s simple to make and don’t take long to cook. So, if you need a tasty, simple and easy meal, this recipe is perfect.

Baked Mac and Cheese

Ingredients:

400gr elbow macaroni (al dente)
900g heavy cream
8 tbsp shredded parmesan
300gr shredded mozzarella
100gr shredded cheddar
250 g fried bacon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
salt and black pepper
chopped parsley

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente.
Mix all the ingredients. Season with salt, parsley and pepper. Fold the macaroni into the mix.
Bake for 30 minutes.

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

admin — Mon, 04 May 2009 00:54:33 +0000

After reading some recipes of the famous Spaghetti alla Carbonara, this is my version and I can say that the thing is good… hehe. I really liked the recipe, although I have read that in the Italian traditional recipe the heavy cream is not an ingredient, but I chose to make the one that have the cream because I love it. Recipe Approved !!

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Ingredients:

500 g spaghetti
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
200 g pancetta or slab bacon, cubed or sliced into small strips
300 ml heavy cream
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
3 eggs
1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more for serving
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Prepare the sauce while the pasta is cooking to ensure that the spaghetti will be hot and ready when the sauce is finished; it is very important that the pasta is hot when adding the egg mixture, so that the heat of the pasta cooks the raw eggs in the sauce.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until tender yet firm (as they say in Italian “al dente.”) Drain the pasta well, reserving 1/2 cup of the starchy cooking water to use in the sauce if you wish.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a deep skillet over medium flame. Add the pancetta and saute for about 3 minutes, until the bacon is crisp and the fat is rendered. Toss the garlic into the fat and saute for less than 1 minute to soften.

Add the hot, drained spaghetti to the pan and toss for 2 minutes to coat the strands in the bacon fat. Beat the eggs and Parmesan together in a mixing bowl, stirring well to prevent lumps. Remove the pan from the heat and pour the egg/cheese mixture into the pasta, whisking quickly until the eggs thicken. Thin out the sauce with a bit of the reserved pasta water, until it reaches desired consistency. Season the carbonara with several turns of freshly ground black pepper and taste for salt. Mound the spaghetti carbonara into warm serving bowls. Pass more cheese around the table.