Monday, July 7, 2008

polenta with beet greens and bleu cheese

hi everyone,

i have enjoyed the posts so far and was inspired to post today since i
had a great lunch using greens from our farm share today.

i purchased a "roll" of polenta from whole foods and cut 3 slices for
myself (about 1/2 inch thick) and sauteed them in a little olive oil in
a nonstick pan for about 3-4 minutes on each side. until they are warmed
through (polenta in this kind of packing is already cooked). this
polenta is located in the dairy case, perhaps near the cheese & tofu.

last night when we were putting away our farm share, i decided just to
wash the beet greens and sautee them (in butter) and put them in the
fridge for use during the week. so the greens were already in the fridge
and i just microwaved them for 10 seconds to bring them to room temp. i
chopped the greens up a bit and put on top of the polenta pieces.

finally, i added bleu cheese. it was really nice combination - the
polenta has flavor, but it's not overpowering. beet greens have a nice
and not bitter taste. very earthy. and the bleu cheese i used was called
costello. it has a lot of flavor and totally made the dish.

my friend ceilidh and i made this once before a few weeks ago with
totally different things on top. the one i remember best was the sauteed
mushrooms and onions with shredded cheddar on top. and sauteed spinach
with a dollop of creme fraiche. you can use anything you have in the
fridge - pesto, feta cheese, avocado, etc.

i didn't feed it to the girls since they saw the mac and cheese in the
fridge and demanded it. but i think they would have liked a slice with
cheese, at the very least.

lastly, i have a method for washing greens from the farm that i like. i
clean the sink and fill it about halfway with cold water and put the
greens in. swish around and then leave them to sit for a few minutes.
the dirt will sink to the bottom and you can scoop up the greens and dry
and bag them, ready to use. last night i did two heads of lettuce
(breaking off the bottom so the leaves would separate). and then used
the same water for the beet greens. i didn't feel like drying and
bagging them, i felt like sauteeing them was just as much work and would
save some time later.

i am posting by email (there is a setting in blogger). hopefully the
picture comes through. if not, i'll add it later.

AMY

3 comments:

Lee Gjertsen Malone said...

That looks great, Amy!

Katie said...

My kids love cornmeal-based food (like corn bread) and I bet they'd really like polenta. I like the idea of using it for a simple lunch. We're not big blue cheese fans, but I bet it would taste good with some other cheese options as well.

Ceilidh said...

yum yum! and, i must say, great photo:-)