Quick Trick Wonders

Perhaps my favorite topic in all of cooking is the eponymous quick trick wonders. What do I mean? Major cooking shortcuts! Cheats. Deceptions. Bending the rules. Unless you're like me and your rules are to do what's easiest and tastiest. Then these wonders fit right in.

One of my favorite quick tricks is polenta. It takes hours to make soft, creamy, smooth polenta from scratch. And that hard polenta from the store is convenient but is just not as good as when it's soft. So here's the trick: corn is corn. The hard polenta is the same darn stuff as the soft polenta. So just reverse it! Turning those polenta logs into great soft polenta couldn't be easier. Literally all you have to do is grate the log like a huge piece of cheese, except it grates really easily. Then put the gratings in a saucepan over low heat and moisten it with either water, stock, milk or cream – really only a quarter cup is needed. Then slowly cook it at that low heat until it's soft and beautiful, and add flavors along the way. You have to remember salt, but taste it as you salt it. I like using water at first and then thickening with a little light, whipped cream cheese later, maybe a quarter cup of each. I also like adding a little Dijon mustard and Worcestershire sauce to give it a little tang, and the mustard, help as a thickener. Stir it every so often so it doesn't stick and when it tastes cooked and is smooth (maybe 10-15 minutes tops) it's done. Then add a little pat of butter or Smart Balance and let it melt in, to really top off that smoothness and creaminess. Beautiful, divine, soft polenta in 15 minutes!

I made this recently with another quick trick: wonton wrappers as ravioli-like noodles. They taste like fresh pasta and only take 45 seconds to cook in lightly salted and oiled boiling water (so those delicate wrappers don't stick together). I made an open-faced ravioli with these wontons, a nice scoop of my soft polenta, and a beautifully-flavored medley of sliced Brussels sprouts, shallots and leeks.

A gourmet looking and tasting dish in less than a half hour due to my quick tricks. I have many more that I have already and will continue to share, and in case you have any you'd like to share, I am always looking to add to my quick-tricktionary.

Polenta Feastette

What could be more Christmas appropriate than polenta? Lots of things, you say? I decided that an Italian feastestte (my Mom’s famous phrase) of polenta with tons of toppings would be a perfect Christmas dinner for Julia's Mom and our siblings (except for Jacob to whom we all wished a Happy Birthday). I served the polenta buffet-style with opening bites of Caprese salad skewers and pizza bombs. The skewers were just four mini mozzarella balls, four grape tomatoes and 3 basil leaves with salt and pepper. Simple, classic and always tasty. The pizza bombs came from a recipe – a bad recipe – and though they tasted good were a pain/mess to make and did not come out right. I'll spare you the details since I wouldn't recommend them.

The real winner was the polenta itself. Instead of the painstaking traditional way to make polenta, I used a far easier no-stir, no-stick way – in my slow cooker. I got up around 9:30 in the morning and added 3 cups of medium ground cornmeal into my slow cooker and then added more than ten cups of cold water. I probably would have put eleven or twelve cups but I reached my cooker's capacity and needed room to stir and add a couple more ingredients like three teaspoons of salt and three tablespoons of canola oil. I stirred this whole mixture with a whisk until everything was well incorporated, put on the lid and turned the cooker on low. I was estimating it would be done within six hours but was going to eyeball it. I wanted soft yet thick polenta. From there I gave it a stir with the whisk every hour or so to keep everything incorporated and checking on the consistency. It thickened beautifully and with about an hour left added a few tablespoons of Smart Balance (or butter) and a little more salt since I tasted it and it needed a little more. It seemed just about done around five and a half hours and I switched the cooker to warm to keep it warm yet firm it ever so slightly.

When all my toppings, which I had been whipping together in the final hour or so, were ready, we poured the whole vat of polenta onto our huge platter and garnished with some grilled store-bought hard polenta slices (for fun mostly) and served it buffet-style.

Oh and what were these elusive polenta toppings?

Cold: Cherry tomatoes halves, Roma tomato slices, Radish slices, Kalamata olives without pits, Roasted red pepper slices, Sundried tomatoes, Medium Salsa, Fontina cheese, Reggiano Parmesano cheese, Ricotta cheese, Chives

Warm: Marinara sauce, Red pepper alfredo sauce, Red onion sautéed slices, Grilled Haloumi cheese, Grilled baby zucchini, Grilled patty-pan squashes, Sautéed baby Portobello mushrooms, Crispy diced bacon, Grilled asparagus tips, Seared chicken thighs, Olive oil roasted garlic

Everyone came up for firsts, seconds and as much as they wanted – it made a lot of polenta, and the toppings were aplenty. Everyone got to customize their meal to their tastes, habits and hankerings. It was awesome and I loved it almost as much as our guests loved it.

Don’t let this meal sound elusive to you – with a little coordination it was actually one of the easier party meals I’ve ever pulled off.