POLENTA. NOT Placenta

Every now and then Mr. BM stops at the store late at night (he’s on night shift for a while) to pick up his essentials…pop, chips, chocolate milk.  He’ll call or text and ask if we need anything.
So the other night I said, yes, as a matter of fact, can you please pick up some polenta.
His response?
“Ok, what is it and where do I find it”
So I go over the layout of the grocery store he’s likely to choose, give him the overview, “its a tube, it’ll be yellow, likely in the deli section or the Italian section.”
He comes home, plops it on the counter and says :  “don’t ever make me look for placenta again!”
Pardon?  Placen what?
Apparently he couldn’t remember the name of it and couldn’t find it (even though upon a second trip together I showed him I was right in my estimations of where to look) and had to ask an associate at the store.  He called it placenta, the girl looked at him, shook her head and walked away!
I’m sure at 3:34am a female worker does not think its funny.
Luckily there was a gentleman passerby who overheard, corrected him and showed him where to find it.
Sometimes I wish I was there to see this transpire.

So what is polenta?
Basically it is cornmeal boiled together with water or stock.  It can be eaten creamy as a side dish or you can let it firm up, cut it up and fry it, bake it, top it with whatever.
I decided that I had wanted to use it as an appetizer.  I didn’t prepare it from scratch, you can buy it already prepared.  Did you know though that you can take the prepared packaged polenta and turn it into creamy style again?  You can…that will be another post.

Here is a fairly quick appetizer that can look quite fancy.

It takes about 25 minutes to prepare everything and you only need 4 ingredients (well 7 if you count olive oil and salt and pepper)

You will need:
polenta (pre packaged tube)
vine cherry tomatoes
thyme springs
goat cheese
olive oil
salt and pepper

Start by roasting off your tomatoes. 
Wash the tomatoes and dry them, toss them in 1 tbsp. olive oil and place them on a baking tray.  Lay the thyme over the tops. (season with salt and pepper)
Roast in a 375F oven for about 20 minutes until the are about to pop.

Meanwhile begin frying your polenta.
Cut the tube into 1/2 inch rounds.
Rub with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Place in a non stick frying pan and fry for about 6-7 minutes per side on medium heat.  You are looking for slight browning and crispy pieces.

To assemble, take the polenta rounds top with some goat cheese and place a tomato on top.
Done.
Easy
Tasty

I’m listening to:  Best of You – Foo Fighters

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