Pan-Fried Polenta with an Orange, Candied Almond, and Red Onion Salad

Oh another night of simplicity and creativity. The plan was to go to the Farmer's Market (Sunday) and pick up a piece of fish to pair with an orange, candied almond salad that I had been envisioning in my head. I was very close to not even leaving the house for the Farmer's Market given the bleak day - cold and rainy - leaving was the last thing that I wanted to do. However, knowing that Derek was still down for the count with a back injury, dinner was going to have to be my responsibility that night so leaving the apartment would be inevitable.

Against my will, I piled on warm clothing and headed out for the market - ready to do a quick trip to pick up my short list of items. Unfortunately, to my disappointment, the farmer's must have had the same dilemma as I had just recently had, with most of them deciding to stay warm and forfeit the market. There was no fish guy, no oranges, and hardly any lettuce available. What a waste of time. Thank you Safeway for being right across the street so I could eat that night.

Still, no protein on hand (as we have removed Safeway from our meat vendor list) so I had to be creative. How about polenta? Cheap, easy...and on hand at home...great.

I decided to do a pan-fried polenta with a semi-homemade tomato sauce (semi because I used canned tomatoes - not fresh - probably best this time of year). It turned out surprisingly well - the sauce was delicious. Here's what I did:

Fire-Roasted Tomato Sauce

Ingredients
1 Tbsp. EVOO
2 Tsp. butter
1 medium cipollini onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic
1 can diced fire-roasted tomatoes
1/4 cup water (more or less depending on how thick you want it)
1 bay leaf
2-3 sprigs fresh thyme
1/2 tsp. sugar
salt and pepper

Over medium-low heat, heat the butter and oil in a saucepan. Add the onions and cook for about 20-25 minutes in order to caramelize the onions. Be sure to stir frequently so that the onions do not burn. Add the garlic and saute for about a minute.

Add the tomatoes (juices and all), water, sugar, bay leaf and thyme. Simmer for about 20 minutes. Using an immersion blender, blend the sauce to remove any tomato chunks until the sauce has reached your desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper.

I served this with the pan-fried polenta made by cooking the polenta stove-top according to directions (about 25-35 minutes for the regular polenta, not quick-cooking) - stirring very frequently. Then I spread the polenta into a lightly greased pan (about a 9 x 9 glass baking dish) and let it cool (stuck it in the refrigerator) for about 40 minutes to an hour.

From the pan I cut the polenta into triangles (cut into squares and then in half. In a pan I heated a generous amount of butter and let it heat. Once hot (but not burnt) I added the polenta and pan-fried for about 6 minutes per side, until the surface was nicely browned.

To serve I placed some tomato sauce on the bottom of a plate and topped it with one polenta triangle. Added some sauce to that and propped up another triangle.

(polenta does not look too browned here...probably should have used a better batch for the blurry photo - not like it matters anyhow...where is my good camera!!!)

This could have used some cheese to make it extra delicious but for using just ingredients on-hand, I was completely surprised by how good it was.

Served with a salad of butter lettuce, segmented oranges, thinly sliced red onions, and candied blanched almonds (made by heating sugar and water in a pan and then adding the almonds, cooking until coated and very slightly toasted. NOTE: do not try to eat the sugar off of the spatula during cooking - I suffered a burnt roof of my mouth for three days from that mistake.... Dressing was fresh orange juice, splash of grapefruit juice, honey, champagne vinegar, EVOO. Made it again for lunch later in the week and gosh - what an incredible combination - especially with some avocado added in to make it a complete meal!