Off-the-cuff Creamy Chicken Polenta Casserole

The last time I made lasagna, I made double the amount of béchamel and had about 1/2 a quanity left over. Now, I couldn’t possibly let all of that creamy goodness go to waist. Really, it doesn’t require all that much imagination to come up with something to do with a cream sauce. What doesn’t taste good enveloped in creaminess?

The recipe for the becahmel is included in the link to lasagna recipe from The Silver Spoon, but here it is on it's own.:

Béchamel Sauce (beschiamella)
Serves 4
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2-1/4 cup milk
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour. Pour in all the milk, whisking constantly until it starts to boil. Season with salt, lower the heat, cover, and simmer gently, stirring occasionally, for at least 20 minutes. Béchamel sauce should not taste floury. Remove the pan from the heat.Taste, add salt if necessary, and season with pepper and/or nutmeg. If the sauce is too thick, add a little more milk. If too runny, return to the heat and add a pat of butter mixed with an equal quantity of all-purpose flour. Making this delicious sauce, considered a basic sauce because of the numerous variations to which it has given rise, is an essential skill for anyone keen to cook. For a richer béchamel sauce, replace half the milk with the same amount of heavy cream; for a lighter béchamel sauce, add half milk and half water

I took the need to use up this béchamel as one of those opportunities to use up anything else that happened to be lying around. I had some mushrooms that needed to get used up soon or risk spoiling. I also had a bunch of frozen spinach hanging around in the freezer, along with some onions, garlic, and chicken. Additionally, I had a tube of polenta from Trader Joe’s. Those polenta tubes an awesome pantry staple. You simply slice up the polenta, grill it up and top it with some protein and whatever vegetables you have around to sauté. So really, I already had the basis of a good meal. Adding the béchamel made it something a little more special.

I simply grilled up the chicken, and then shredded it into pieces once it cooled. While the chicken cooled, I sautéed the mushrooms, onions and garlic. Once the mushroom were cooked through and the onions were translucent, I added in the spinach (which had been defrosted and drained).

I let that cook together for a few min, then added the shredded chicken back in along with the béchamel, and stirred it all gently to combine. I also stirred in salt, pepper, and little garlic and onion powder. Add whatever you have that you think will go well.

I then coated the bottom of a shallow, oven- safe pan with olive oil and layered the polenta rounds at the bottom. (This time I didn’t grill or fry them. I just sliced it and put it straight into the pan.)

The spinach, chicken and béchamel mixture went right on top. I capped it all off with a little parmesan and popped it in the oven at 350°.

I started it out covered, and took the cover off half way through, checking in on it every so often. After about 30 min, it was nice and a little bubbly, with hints of brown on top.

Completely delicious, creamy dreaminess.

Molto Bene Lasagne alla Bolognese

Lasagna is a classic crowd pleaser. My version is taken from the The Silver Spoon, which is basically Italy’s answer to the Joy of Cooking. It touts itself as the bible of Classic Italian cooking. I haven’t made all that many recipes directly from it yet, but just flipping through it makes me hungry and it provides all kinds of inspiration. This recipe is decadently delicious and in very little need of alteration.

Although I do highly recommend investing in the book, I found an easy to download pdf copy of the recipe that was published on Budget Travel.

To start, let me comment that this recipe claims to serve four people. Perhaps they mean 4 large Italian men that haven’t eaten in ages -- like hours. I have easily fed twice that many people with this recipe. This is particularly if you are also serving anything else along side. A simple salad, garlic bread, and wine is simple and lovely.

As for the recipe itself, I really don’ think I changed it all that much. However, I did up the quantity of béchamel used. The recipe calls for one quantity of béchamel, but I think another half quantity will give you a more luscious texture – and really isn’t that what we all want? I probably do also use more cheese than called for. I love nutmeg, so I tend to go a little heavier with that as well.

I also prefer the Bolognese sauce to be a little on the saucier side and just a tad more heavy on the tomatoes. I don’t mean that I go for a Chef Boyardee, sloppy-joe style lasagna. However, I do think a little more moisture is called for here, so I use more of the strained tomatoes. I also often like to mix in some canned diced tomatoes for a little more chunky effect. The liquid in the tomatoes come in also can help up the moisture content of the sauce. (On rare occasion, at this point I will find that I’m still not happy with the moisture level. If I’m completely out of all other liquid tomato products, I have mixed in a tiny bit of jarred tomato sauce - and I do mean a very tiny bit. But ssssssssshhhh! Don’t tell the Italians!)

While we’re on the subject of the Bolognese, the recipe calls for “a scant 1/2 cup dry white wine.” Let’s be honest, no cup of wine of mine has ever been scant. I kept myself from going over-board so that it wouldn’t make the sauce to thin. (I want there to be more liquid, but I don’t want it to be too thin either.) As always, a mélange of spices were also mixed in – a little onion powder, a little garlic, powder, probably some oregano, and of course the requisite salt and pepper.

Let me turn you on to a little cheat for when you’re pressed for time – No-boil lasagna noodles. You don’t have to pre-cook these at all; just layer them dry, straight from the box. I know Barilla makes them, and I think I even found a generic version at Von’s the last go around. These will save you like 30 min. (Although for fun, one day I’d like to take the scenic route and try making the noodles myself.)

Now lets move on to methods of layering. My personal preference is put a little sauce on the bottom, then set down a layer of noodles. I think this particularly important if you’re using the no-boil variety. From there I layer as recommended, with a meat layer followed by a béchamel layer, and sprinkle on the Parmesan, and repeat.

I then like to finish with another layer of pasta, and final flourish of béchamel and parmesan.

I can go either way on the copious use of butter. If you’re feeling decadent and devil-may-care, by all means go for it. It feels just gloriously sinful to dot butter all around the lasagna with your fingers. However, if you trying to keep this dish in same solar system as healthy, I’ve also just dotted a little but of butter across the top layer and it came out absolutely fine.

One more tip. Make sure your timer works. One of the great things about lasagna (just as with other casseroles) is that it’s pretty much a completely make-ahead dish, so you can just tend to your guests until the timer rings to call you back to the kitchen. However, if the damn timer doesn’t work, the plan fails. I bring this up because my kitchen timer decided to crap out on me the night I made this lasagne for a group of couples from G’s business school. The result was a lasagna with a lightly crisped top. Not inedible, but not exactly what I wanted to serve when I was aiming for that happy roar from the crowd. Thankfully, I think I redeemed myself a little when I made this for Supper club in March. Mmmmm . . . deliciously bubbly cheese, and un-crispy noodles. YUM!

P.S. When I googled this recipe trying to find an easy link for your reference, I happened upon another woman’s blog entry describing her experience with dish. Her blog is actually completely dedicated to this cook book- Exploring the Silver Spoon. Check it out if you’re interested. Funny thing is that she has a lot of the same tricks up her sleeve.

Tapas Night!

Working on a film has kept me apologetically MIA on the writing front for the last couple of months. However, it doesn’t mean I haven’t been cooking.
Time to catch up.

For our March Supper Club, Spanish cooking was the theme. Right away, I knew I’d have to make Tortilla Española – a personal favorite. For the uninitiated, it’s basically a frittata loaded up with potatoes and pretty much whatever else you want add to it. I’m pretty sure that this dish makes an appearance on the table of just about every household with any kind of Spanish link in its chain. It’s super homey, easy, filling, and cheap. It’s also good just about anytime of day, hot or cold.

I have particularly fond memories of making a picnic lunch out of cold Tortilla Española on my friend Ele’s family’s boat one beach trip in Venezuela. And of course, while the flavors are most pronounced when it’s warm, it is fantastic to pick and nibble at straight out of the fridge.

It had been a while since I’d made it, so I needed a reference point. Mr. Mario Batali provided the needed support. I used the following recipe he provided to Food and Wine Magazine as my guide:

Ingredients

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/4 pounds red bliss potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/8 inch thick
(Note: I used Russets and they worked fine. Also, as a general rule I don’t peel potatoes. I like the flavor of the skin and don’t usually mind the texture in most dishes, so I personally find it a waste of time 9 times out 10. I just washed thoroughly and did a cursory peeling of the most blemished spot. If you really don’t like the texture or are a slave to aesthetics of a pristine potato, by all means, peel away.)
1 onion, halved and thinly sliced
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
8 large eggs

Directions

1. Preheat the broiler. Heat 1/4 cup of the olive oil in a large cast-iron skillet. Add the potato and onion slices, season with salt and pepper and cook over moderate heat, stirring frequently, until the potatoes and onion are tender but not browned, about 15 minutes.



2. In a large bowl, lightly beat the eggs and season with salt and pepper. Scrape the potato mixture into the bowl, being sure not to leave any in the skillet.


3. Return the skillet to the heat and add the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil. Add the egg mixture, spreading it out in an even layer. Cover and cook over low heat until the tortilla is set on the bottom and the edges, about 10 minutes.


Transfer the skillet to the oven and broil 8 inches from the heat just until the top is set, about 1 minute longer. Set a large plate over the skillet and carefully invert the tortilla onto the plate.

Let stand for 5 minutes. Cut into wedges and serve warm or at room temperature.

Make Ahead - The tortilla can stand at room temperature for 3 hours before serving.

As you can see, it is a very simple recipe and Iron Chef Batali clearly knows what he is doing; thus, I only altered the recipe in a few small ways.

1) Poor G was forced to stay home from supper club this month to study and he was
going to be left all alone at home with nothing to eat while I headed off to feast.
(Well, that is if you don’t count the full fridge and pantry.) To assuage my guilt, I doubled the recipe and made him a whole Tortilla of his own.

If you want to make a large quantity for a bigger party, doubling the recipe really was not much more difficult. It just requires having and manning two skillets at once. You could make one, transfer the tortilla to another plate, and begin again in the same skillet, but I do think it would take a long time.

Another method you could employ to make a larger quantity without remaining a complete slave to the stove, is to lay out the sliced potatoes on a baking sheet and begin the cooking process in the oven. I've had success with the method in the past as well.

2) In step one, Mario says not to brown the potatoes and onions. Personally, I really like the flavor of onions that have begun to caramelize. Thus, I cooked the onions separately. Once they started to reach the consistency and flavor I was looking for, I added them in with the potatoes.



3) Pay attention, because this is key:

BACON!!!

I came to love bacon late in life, but now appreciate it in all its glory. It is a great flavor enhancer and a little goes a long way. Three strips of good quality applewood smoked bacon crumbled up into a tortilla will take it from yummy to decadent.

In my opinion, the best way to get bacon just right is to cook it in the oven.
(I personally tend to overcook bacon when I cook it in the skillet. A very kind butcher at a Whole Foods in Florida turned me onto to oven method for preparing pancetta. I now use it for both pancetta and bacon with far greater success than when I go the stove top route.) To cook it in the oven, simply lay strips flat on a baking sheet that has a lip and place it in at 400°F and bake for 15 -20 minutes, or until it has begun to brown and is crisped to your liking. At this point, remove very carefully from the oven. The fat will have begun to render and those hot juices will be swimming around the pan. Now, don’t go dumping the melted fat down the drain either. This is a precious treasure trove of flavor. Very carefully pour the fat into your skillet and substitute this for some of the olive oil in which to cook your potatoes and onions.

Crumble up the bacon and mix it in with the potatoes and onions, just before adding the egg mixture. Proceed cooking as directed from here. I like to serve the tortilla with a little sour cream. If you can find it, sprinkle a little smoked paprika (pimenton ahumado in Spanish) on top for a little extra flavor boost. The smoky quality enhances the flavor of the bacon another notch.

Enjoy alone or with other tapas. A glass of wine or sangria and friends to toast with are an absolute must!