I thought Adelaide shuts down early on a regular basis. After 6pm, pretty much nothing is open except pubs and cafes. But Easter proved me wrong?even more things were closed, if possible, including the grocery stores and the Central Market. I love the Easter bunny and Jesus and everything, but I have needs, and sometimes those needs involve me buying a quart of lemon sorbet WHENEVER I NEED IT. So like, every other day. Chicago knew how to treat a lady. It knew I needed 24 hour establishments like, every other block, and it delivered. Adelaide knows how to treat a step child, and let me tell you, it involves a cage. And no food. It is so funny how I never really need anything until the store is closed, and then life cannot go on without it. My partner was quite consoling, though. Ever see a 26 year old breakdown over a loaf of ciabatta? Fun times. This is a nice little creation I made in the middle of writing two papers. I had to cupboard fish, thanks to the closed grocery stores, but this is what I came up with: pan-fried parmesan polenta cakes with caramelized onions, portabella mushroom and sun dried tomatoes.
FYI- this is not a recipe blog. You will get no exact recipes with measurements from this lady. I am lucky I have the patience to make it in the first place. I have adult ADD. Deal with it. But I will explain how I did it. The polenta is from scratch, just a little chicken stock, polenta and parm (typically I would add heavy cream, olive oil and butter, but I?m trying to make it IBS friendly). I whisked it together for about 20 minutes to cook out the raw cornmeal flavor, and then spread it in a well greased pan and placed it in the fridge until it solidified, around 30 minutes. I saut?ed the rest until the veggies were soft and brown, and then I hit it with the balsamic and cooked it a bit more until the vinegar evaporated. I took the polenta out of the fridge and cut it into squares, and then pan fried it in a really hot pan with oil and butter until each side browned. Then I stacked ?em, put the sauce on top, and threw a little basil in the mix and another splash of balsamic. Good stuff. I made it twice in the same week and I?m having it for lunch today. Life is good. ~LTG
