’ve always been quite intrigued about polenta. It’s not a food I’ve cooked with often, but my partner is a coeliac and it’s a naturally gluten-free food, so I’m not really sure why I haven’t tried this sooner. I’ve only ever eaten polenta in some kind of fried form at gastro pubs or semi-fancy restaurants so I decided to give that a go. I used an adaptation of a salt and pepper squid recipe and applied it to ready-to-cook polenta. It was rather delicious if I do say so myself. Using the ready-to-serve polenta was so easy and made a simple meat and veg dinner just that little bit fancier. This is a good one to try when you have mates coming over for dinner. They’ll think you’re a kitchen super whizz. For real.
Mint lamb cutlets with pan-fried polenta and green bean salad
Serves: 4
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 25 mins
Total time: 35 mins
Ingredients:
1kg packet ready-to-serve polenta
Vegetable oil, for shallow-frying
Salt and pepper, to taste
8 lamb cutlets
1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to drizzle
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
1 bunch mint leaves, finely chopped
2 tsp caster sugar
500g round green beans
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup shaved parmesan cheese
Method:
1. Open your packet of polenta and cut it into 1cm strips.
2. Heat 3cm of vegetable oil in a frypan. When the oil is hot, cook 5 or 6 polenta pieces at a time, cooking each side for 2 to 3 minutes until golden brown. Drain on paper towel, sprinkle with salt and pepper and keep in a warm oven until ready to serve.
3. Cook your lamb cutlets in two batches in a frypan with a dash of oil. About 2-4 minutes, each side, or until they’re done to your taste.
4. Combine white wine vinegar, mint and sugar in a bowl. Set aside.
5. Steam green beans in stovetop steamer for about 5 minutes. Gently pan-fry the pine nuts in a small frypan for 1 minute or until they’re golden brown and crispy. Place steamed beans, pine nuts, parmesan cheese in a bowl and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.
6. Serve lamb cutlets with mint sauce, polenta pieces and green bean salad on a plate. Bon appetite!
TIP:
Ready-to-serve polenta comes as a pre-cooked brick and is available in the international section of most supermarkets. If you can’t find it, you can make your own by following the packet recipe, pressing it into a brownie pan and letting it cool for several hours.
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Have you cooked with polenta before? How did you find it?
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9 Comments
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Yum! I didn’t know you could get polenta ready to serve. Its a bit of a pain to cook from scratch. I once did it though and cut it into fry shapes and crumbed in more polenta and baked in oven
Delicious!-
Author
It comes in bricks at my local supermarket – that’s why I bought it! Super easy and quick to whip up on a week day!
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Hubby makes yummy polenta – new thing for us too. I had no idea you could buy it ready made! Life changing!
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How cool is it? I just grab it in a brick right at the supermarket!
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You can use dried polenta instead of breadcrumbs. I think I got it from a Jamie Oliver recipe. Toss chicken in polenta, salt and pepper and then fry.
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Oh that’s a great idea! I’m mildly obsessed with it right now.
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I love polenta! I used to cook it all the time. 🙂
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I need to do more things than just deep fry it. Next on my list of things to do.
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Omg it’s so weird reading this. Where I live in Italy is basically the home of Polenta as its a diet staple here. It’s taken me about 3 years to get used to though! There is so much you can do with it and I could basically send you a list of 50 million things to do with polenta lol. Basically here they eat it runny with loads of cheese mixed in (gorgonzola is a favorite here) They also eat it with stewed meat, or sausages. My husband makes polenta chips and serves it with battered fish like fish and chips or pan fried with a large plate of salami and cured meats… the list goes on but I’ll stop now 🙂
