Homemade Vegan Corn Dogs - Yes Corndogs

Drum roll please....

Here are some awesome homemade vegan Corn Dogs.

I had seen vegan corn dogs a couple of years back on a fellow bloggers blog and was mighty curious about them. I had thought it was literally sweetcorn deep fried in batter, then told it was a hot dog sausage covered in golden corn batter and then deep fried.  Very popular in parts of America. 

I have been waiting for an excuse to make them and a little while back when I had a full house of guests the opportunity to make these vegan Corn Dogs were presented to me. had not int

I do have have a deep fat fryer, I do but i don't cook in it often to merit it taking up valuable space in the kitchen.  So made these vegan corn dogs in a deep wide pan, three at a time .  My guests all stood around me and watched me in amazement as I made these vegan corn dogs and took pictures.   

These pictures belong to them, as my hands were busy. 

Vegan Corn Dog drowning in  yellow cornmeal batter

I was pleasantly pleased with the result as well as the fact, that they tasted delicious.  D wants me to make them again, and I have vowed to but I need 4 more people in the house to justify it.  Do you want to be my guest?!  

vegan Corn Dogs sizzling in the hot oil

I am sharing these with Inheritance Recipes co hosted by Solange at Pebble Soup and Coffee and Vanilla as the vegan Corn Dogs will be made every time I have a particular crowd of friends over.

Other Vegan Corn Dog recipesVegan Crunchy Corn Dogs from VegSpinz
Baked Corn Dogs from Go Vegan Meow

Vegan Jackfruit Pulled 'Pork' Tomato Ragu over Soft Polenta

I saw a meat version of meat version of Ragu and Pulled Pork on blogosphere a couple of weeks back and it got me thinking that I could do this with Jackfruit. Plus it was a different way to enjoy both Jackfruit and polenta.  We only ever eat polenta as part of my vegan Mexican Tamale Pies, so wanted to try it differently.  

Here is Polenta in bowls topped with the vegan Jackfruit Pulled 'Pork'.  Drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil and tuck in immediately.  

Savoury Mosaic Polenta Cake with Black Pudding

Its been a while since I have cooked with polenta.  Its often Polenta Chips or my favourite Mexican style Tamale Pie , and then other times  maybe a gluten free Polenta Pizza, or simply as polenta bites a sort of free-style rough gnocchi. 

I wanted to be creative with this time round and decided to make a Savoury Polenta loaf studded with diced red, green and orange pepper.  Then I remembered having picked up a vegan Black Pudding and decided to incorporate that into the loaf and this was the result.     

It looks just like a gold churned butter slab or Mexican style cheese, but wait .... 

Slowly slice into it and surprise.

D loved it and said I could even try these with the vegan chorizo I make at home.  Or if you must other sausages would work too I am sure; or not, you can make this Savoury Mosaic loaf without the vegan black pudding.  Just experiment that is what I do. Sometimes they work, sometimes they do not.    

Tamale for family and friends

This vegan Mexican Tamale dish is one that I make almost every month, sometimes twice.  Its a firm favourite with my husband and younger family members likes nephews and nieces.  Regular readers will have seen Tamale appear on my blog in different guises, as a pie see here and or served in individual dishes see here, often served with a lovely green salad. 

There will be days when we will have it for Saturday or Sunday brunch instead of a veggie fry up, but not this time.  I decided on making a much larger version that could be brought to the table. 

My brother is by no means a vegetarian, or vegan for that and would never dream of becoming either, I served him Tamale when he came over for a short visit that ended up being a couple of hours and he totally loved it.  He said he really did not note much difference between the soya mince or the real minced stuff.  I really do think this is one dish that meat-eaters would be more then happy to try, especially if they like a little spice too. 

For the recipe follow this link.  
The only thing to note is that this Tamale was made in a large casserole dish, the polenta flowers are optional.

Polenta Kale Wedges with Chilli Cumin Carrots

There are a number of vegetables that I truly miss growing, courgettes, tomatoes, Swiss chard and curly kale.  Oh how I came to like curly kale. 

Well yesterday I got ever so excited when I saw a bundle of curly kale, I snatched a bunch.   You can of course find them at supermarkets, but its already torn and shredded.  I want it whole, the whole leaf so that I can make some kale chips,.  Kale chips are super pricey in the health shops and yet like most things, so cheap to make at home, providing of course you can get the ingredients.  And this weekend I was fortunate to do so.  The crispy kale chips will appear on my blog in the next few days, but today I want to share these Polenta Kale Wedges.

Vegan Mexican Tamale Bean Pie

The girl from Mexico approves of my Mexican Tamale Bean Pie, other than it could have been a touch hotter and spicier and of course, traditionally its wrapped and cooked in corn husk, it got the thumbs up.  It made my day. 

I make this Mexican Tamale Bean Pie all the time, partly because its an easy dish to make, partly because I like eating it too.  I have posted it on my blog before, see this link, but it has changed a lot since then - before it was suitable for vegetarians, this one is suitable for vegans, though there is nothing stopping you from putting a handful of grated cheese on the top then putting it under the grill to melt or even topping it with a fried egg or two, but too be honest with you it doesn't need either.  It s quite tasty without the additional toppings mentioned. 

I am sharing one of these pies with One Ingredient hosted this month by Laura of How to Cook Good Food and Nazima of Franglais Kitchen who are featuring my favourite ingredient chilli this month. Also the soy mince, kidney and black beans in this vegan Mexican Tamale make this post suitable for My Legume Love Affair 57, this popular, legume-centred event was created by Susan, The Well-Seasoned Cook, and is now run by Lisa of Lisa's Kitchen.  This March it is being hosted by PJ of Seduce Your Tastebuds.  

Vegan Mexican Tamale Bean Pie
Serves  4 - 6 depending on the size of your pie dishes
Ingredients
for the pie filling
2 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium onions, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
50g – 75g jalapeno from a jar, minced
Pinch of chilli flakes
350g reconstituted organic  soy mince
400g can chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato puree
400g cooked black and kidney beans
300g vegetable stock
Salt and pepper to taste
for the polenta topping200g quick cook polenta800ml water
4 tablespoons fresh coriander
Method for the pie fillingHeat the oil in a large pan and fry the onion and garlic until softened slightly. Add the jalapenos, chilli flakes, soy mince, tomatoes, tomato puree, beans, stock, lemon juice and remaining coriander and cook on gentle heat for 30 minutes until thick like stew. Season to taste and pour into an ovenproof dish.
Preheat the oven to medium to high. 
for the polenta topping
Either cook polenta acording to packet instuctions Or
Boil the water, then slowly pour in the polenta whisking all the time, until it begins to thicken and splutter. Stir in 2 tablespoons of the coriander and salt to taste. Evenly pour over the pie filling and smooth. Bake in oven for 20 minutes or so.  Serve immediately. 

 

Polenta 'Doughnut' with Puy Lentil Cabbage

Ah the polenta 'doughnut'... I have used it as a cunning ploy to grab your culinary attention!  Ha ha.

Other than cutting it in a circle and then a hole in the middle, its really just pan-fried firm polenta.

What really matters here is the way I have cooked the cabbage with puy lentils.  Its simple, but its a really good accompaniment.  I should know as I've featured its at least twice on my blog, see here and here.

Puy Lentil Cabbage
Serves 2 (can easily be doubled)
Ingredients
60g puy lentils
2 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
½ Savoy cabbage or other green cabbage, core removed, shredded or sliced
Salt and pepper to taste
Method
Cook the lentils in water until tender. Drain and set aside.
Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the garlic and fry for a few seconds, then add in the cabbage and season to taste. Put the lid on and cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently until the cabbage is tender. Then stir in the puy lentils.
Keep the heat low to keep warm and make the pan fried polenta. Serve as soon as the polenta is ready.  Its equally good with potatoes, or stirred into some plain white rice.

Little Owl in my tiny garden

Yesterday morning, I hear D calling out to me and telling me to look out of our flat window at our wind battered garden fence. I couldn't quite see what he was pointing out at, squinting my eyes and trying to follow his directions and then I suddenly my eyes did - Wow - it was one big bird, about 8 inches tall. First we assumed it was the Sparrow Hawk as we've had them in the garden before, then on closer look with our binoculars we saw that it was actually an Owl. Yes an Owl. Whilst I was admiring its feathers, getting annoyed that a passing commuter train would come by and startle it, but even when a train did pass by, the owl sat patiently. D ran to fetch one of our bird watching books. From the feathering, colours and size we confidently identified it as a Little Owl. Later in the evening, D rang one of his avid bird watching friends to boast about the Little Owl in our garden on the edge of Glasgow. His mate, would not believe him saying 'you sure it wasn't a Little eared owl?!' No Sir, we are positive it was a Little Owl. We regret not taking a photograph of the Little Owl, but we were both just too excited and humbled that our garden continues to be an attractive location for birds passing by. The image is taken from a 1960s copy of the Readers Digest Book of British Birds.
We polished of the last this 'Lemon Blueberry Polenta cake'. Last week, whilst catching up with my blog reads, I was tempted by two good looking Polenta cakes. The first was the Kitchen Maids Berry Polenta cake. Kitchen Maid wrote that the polenta in the cake gave the 'cake a fantastically gritty texture'. I liked the sound of that, plus I had quick cooking polenta and frozen berries in the freezer to use up. Then I visited Cake in the Community and saw this zingy Lemon polenta cake. Chocolategirl64 wrote 'if you try to imagine what lemon curd would taste like in cake form, this would be it'. Lemon is a flavour my husband loves, so I was I was torn between the two recipes. So I sort of combined the recipes: Lemon from one and frozen (blue) berries from the other.
Its not the most well presented cake, but this Lemon Blueberry polenta cake had a splendid gritty texture from the polenta and almonds, sweetness and flavour from the zingy lemon and zappy blueberries. It was delicious.

Lemon Blueberry Polenta cake

Serves 6 - 8

Ingredients
200g butter, softened
200g caster sugar
200g ground almonds
100g quick cook polenta
1½ teaspoons baking powder
3 eggs
Zest of 2 unwaxed lemons
100g frozen blueberries
For the lemon syrup
Juice of 2 lemons
125g icing sugar
Method
Preheat your oven to Gas 4. Line and grease the base and sides of a 9in/23cm spring form cake tin.
Blend the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy.
In another bowls, mix together the flour, almonds, baking powder and polenta.
Gently stir in the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, along with one egg and mix well
repeat this for reaming eggs. Stir in the lemon zest and blueberries and gently spoon into the baking tin.
Bake for about 45 minutes or under the skewer comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
For the lemon syrup
Gently heat both the lemon juice and icing sugar until dissolved.
Pierce the top of your cake with a cake tester or BBQ skewer, then evenly drizzle on the syrup.
Leave to cool before taking out of the tin and serving.

Pumpkin Polenta Pizza

A little bit of sunshine on my plate.

Of course this is not strictly a pizza, as its base is made up of polenta and it is not smothered in a tomato sauce, but I did not know what else to call it.

A good thing about this pizza is you can make it pretty much all in advance. In this case, just don’t melt the cheese until your ready to eat.

I created this for Charley who has just harvested a colourful array of pumpkin and squashes. I hope she likes. D did not mind it, he thought it could have benefited from a little bit of red sauce (not from a bottle).

The green in the polenta comes from the coriander pesto. I only added it because I had some in the fridge from this meal. If you don’t want to include it whilst the polenta is cooking, you can also smear this on top of the polenta when it resting; or you can omit it all together if you wish. If you don’t like coriander, use a different herb, sage would work well too. Same with the cheese, if you don’t like goats cheese, substitute either with fontina, grated mozzarella, or a vegan alternative.

Upon baking the polenta base acquires a soft-crisp texture, whereas the herbs and pumpkin slices delicately flavour. The colours perked me up considering it was rather grey outside. This pumpkin polenta pizza is suitable for those on a gluten free diet.

It is rather pretty at this stage like pantomime fiery flames against the herb flecked polenta. Its good when cooked too.

Pumpkin Polenta Pizza
Serves 2 or 4 with accompaniments such as a light peppery salad
Ingredients
For the polenta base
125g quick cook polenta
Salt and pepper to taste
Water
Optional: 2 tablespoon of coriander pesto. Recipe here.
Method for the polenta base
Make the polenta first according to your packet instructions. Mine read to 125g polenta add ½ litre water. As soon as it starts to thicken, add in the pesto stir quickly to combine then pour into a round non-stick or greased flan tin measuring about 91/2 inch. Adjust polenta if your flan tin is bigger.
With the back of a spoon spread the mix evenly and leave to set. When firm, tip out carefully onto a lightly oiled pizza tray. Optional: If you have not stirred the coriander pesto into the polenta, you can smear the polenta top with coriander pesto.
Ingredients for the topping
1 small squash or a good wedge (quarter) of a medium pumpkin
Olive oil

4 round slices from a goats cheese log
Optional: chilli flakes
Method
Now either use your mandolin; or a knife and carefully slice the pumpkin thinly as possible.
Layer the polenta evenly with the pumpkin slices, coating each layer with a little olive oil. Do between two to three layers. Season with salt and pepper and optional: chilli flakes. Bake in oven for 10 – 25 minutes until the pumpkin slices can be pierced with a fork. Then top with cheese and bake for a few minutes until the cheese has melted. Then slice and serve immediately.

Savoy cabbage ‘polenta bites’ in a sage butter sauce

You know I want to say its officially autumn, my favourite season. But like the one week of summer enjoyed in Scotland, I have a feeling some of us living in Scotland may miss out on Autumn completely (okay I am exaggerating), but it does look like we’ve skipped straight into winter. Seriously, the monsoon like conditions have been a feature in Scotland now for the past three years. Instead of seeing soft, golden crisp autumnal leaves slowly being shaken of trees and floating to the ground romantically, you get high gusts of wind shaking the branches vigorously, so when the leaves fall, they just become a slippery nuisance - well that’s how it feels right now.

The past few days in the land of WoS have just seen torrential rain. Its grey when I leave home for work and grey when I get back home. At work I look outside of my off window, wanting to go out at lunch for a walk and some fresh air, but am confined to the building watching the rain spank down on the windows from all direction. It is also starting to get cold and its making me miserable that I just don’t want to get out of my bed in the mornings. Ah sometimes I just wish I had enough money to retire and just become a lady of leisure. Keep dreaming woman.
This recipe for 'polenta bites' came about as I had a huge mound of savoy cabbage polenta left over from my last meal. Just imagine polenta gnocchi in a buttery sauce. If I had been more organised yesterday, I would have poured the remaining savoy polenta into a small baking tin to set, so that the pieces could be cut into more uniform shapes, but no today it was a cold grainy slab. But not too worry, with a little thought it would be warm and on our plates.
Actually I think I like the rustic presentation of these 'polenta bites' and it was rather delicious too.

Savoy cabbage ‘polenta bites’ in a sage butter sauce
See savoy cabbage recipe here.
With the left overs that had hardened and become solid, I just cut them up in roughly even size shapes. I placed them on a lightly oiled baking tin and put them in the oven on a moderate high heat just to warm through for 10 minutes. Whilst the polenta is warming though, I made the sage butter sauce.
For the sage butter sauce

For 2

Ingredients
60g Butter
2 tablespoon Olive oil
2 - 3 Garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
6 - 8 Sage leaves(from the garden), some minced, some kept whole
Salt and pepper
Optional cheese for grating
To make the sage butter sauce, fry the garlic in oil and butter until tender and gold. Add the sage and stir for a minute or so, until fragrant.
Place the polenta bites onto warm serving bowls. Ladle the sage sauce over it evenly. Season with salt and pepper and serve immediately, passing the optional grated cheese around.

Savoy Polenta with a Smoky chickpea sauce

Its been raining non-stop today
So this big plate of polenta and smoky chickpea sauce was a warming and comforting dish to sit down to late this evening.

If you don’t like the headiness of smoked paprika, you can just use ordinary paprika.
For the savoy polenta
Serves 4
Ingredients

350g shredded savoy cabbage
350g quick cooking polenta
30g butter optional
To serve, optional freshly grated pecorino or vegan alternative.
Method for the polenta
Bring 2 3/4 pints water to a boil in large pan. Add the cabbage and salt and bring back to the boil. Now pour in the polenta in a slow, steady stream, stirring as you do so. Cook for as long as required – it should be 1 to 5 minutes, then stir in optional butter. Taste and adjust seasoning. As soon as it is done, scrape out into warm serving bowls.
Smoky chickpea sauce
Serves 4 - 6
Ingredients
1 onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons (smoked) paprika
1 sprig of rosemary
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 – x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
1 x 400g tin chickpeas
Salt and pepper to taste
Method for the chickpea sauce
To make the sauce, fry the onion and garlic in oil until tender. Sprinkle over the paprika, add the rosemary and half of the parsley and stir for a few seconds. Now add the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and simmer gently for 30 – 60 minutes, the thicker the sauce the better. Now mix in the chickpeas and simmer for a further 10 minutes, then turn off. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Reheat when ready to serve. Ladle the sauce over it, and scatter with the last of the parsley. Serve immediately, passing the optional grated cheese around. Slightly adapted from Sophie Grigson's Country Kitchen

Summer Vegetable Polenta Bombs

In my student days when I lived in the West end of Glasgow, I would often venture into the city centre with my friend. On one of these days, we decided to explore the newly opened Lush store on Buchanan Street and we marvelled at the quirky names given to all the products there, then we were given a demonstration of how the novel 'bath bombs' worked when they hit the water, fizzing and exploding.

Another kind of bomb I became aware of were green seed bombs. I learned about these through guerrilla gardening. Then there are the 'edible sweet bombes' such as ice-cream bombs which I'm sure many of us have eaten some time in our lives. One thing all of these bombs share is the way in that they are made in a mould which makes it look rather grande.
Here I am going to introduce you to a savoury polenta bomb. I’ve often used polenta as a topping, as chips or as wedges, but never thought of using it as a shell and to be honest would still not thought about it had Alessandra Zecchini not introduced it to me.
This recipe for polenta bombs comes from my well travelled blogger friend Alessandra Zecchini.  Alessandra is of Italian heritage and often makes her own mozzarella from scratch. She loves to feed her family and friends using seasonal ingredients, some of which she grows herself. She says 'food is for pleasure but always in good measure'.

As I was just feeding D and myself, instead of making a huge one like Alessandra that could feed up to 12 people, I wanted to make enough to last us a couple of days. So I decided to make four individual ‘bombs’ using courgettes and chard from my garden, everything else came from grocers.

Summer Vegetable Polenta Bombs

This is my variation on Alessandra's filling for the Polenta bombs
Ingredients

2 courgettes, yellow and green
1 fat clove of garlic
3 – 4 spring onions
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 x 400g can of tomatoes
1 mild red chilli
1 tablespoon chopped sun-dried tomatoes
Leaf or two of chard
1 tablespoon chopped basil
Parmesan (optional)
Method
Wash the courgettes and cut into thick slices. Peel and finely chop the onion. Heat the oil in a large pan or frying pan. Add the prepared vegetables and sauté for about 5 minutes. Stir int the canned tomatoes, breaking them up as you stir. Add the oregano, chlii, sun-dried tomatoes and tomato paste. Simmer, stirring often, until the sauce thickens. Season to taste and add the chopped parsley.

For the polenta bombs, please follow Alessandra's recipe from Savour. It was rather fiddly and certainly does take practice to make as you have to work pretty quick with the polenta before it sets. I made mine in plastic pudding moulds that were only suitable for steaming, so I had to tap the polenta bombs out to go into the oven for a final blasting before they were served hot with extra drizzling of oil and optional Parmesan cheese. Two of them came out perfectly well.

but the other two... Well just scoot down and you'll see what I mean. This recipe certainly will take practice to Perfect!

But they tasted good and I will certainly attempt making them again. Thank you to Alessandra for introducing me to this method, but it will certainly take some time before I am an expert at it like her.

Mexican tamale bean pie

This is one of those good stand by store cupboard recipes. I used to make this often when quick cook polenta was easy to come by too, plus it was quite simple to put together after a hard days work. Then I got the allotment and my focus shifted to seasonal and fresh produce. I only rediscovered the recipe, whilst I was dusting the bookshelf and started flicking through some of my celebrity chef related books and looking at some of recipes I had vegified over the years. But this particular recipe for Mexican Tamale Bean Pie was already vegetarian.
Whilst looking at the photographed dish and at my scribbles on the variations, I yelped out to D
Do you fancy a Tamale bean pie tomorrow?
Do you even need to ask! was the response.
This recipe can only be described as a 'vegetarian Mexican shepherds pie', but spicy. I would even go as far as to say, its good, honest home grub.
D says he could eat this Tamale bean pie every-day. It delicious, that's for sure, but I seriously don't think he could eat it every day. For a start I won't be cooking it every day and secondly, he needs his vegetables. Spinach to have muscles like Pop-eye; carrots for good vision like Superman; and sprouts...err, well you need some vegetables to make you strong.

Mexican tamale bean pie
Serves 4
Ingredients
120g quick cook polenta
1 egg
300 - 350ml milk
120g Cheddar cheese
4 tablespoons fresh coriander
2 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium onions, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
50g – 75g jalapeno, sliced
350g Quorn mince (can be substituted with TVP)
400g can chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato puree
410g can of black beans, drained and rinsed
250g vegetable stock
Zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
Method
Beat together the polenta, egg, milk, cheese and 2 tablespoons of the coriander. Season and leave to stand for 20 minutes to allow the polenta to swell.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large pan and fry the onion and garlic until softened slightly. Add 50g of the jalapenos, the Quorn mince, tomatoes, tomato puree, beans, stock, lemon juice and remaining coriander and cook on gentle heat for 30 minutes. Season to taste and pour into an ovenproof dish.
Preheat the grill to high. Stir in the remaining chillies into the polenta mixture and spoon over the mince mixture to cover. Grill for 5 minutes or until golden. Adapted from Ainsley Harriot's Low Fat Meals in Minutes.

Mushroom Ragout with sun-dried tomato polenta

May I present to you a plate of Mushroom Ragout with polenta.
The polenta is studded with sun dried tomato, shallots and garlic appealing immediately to the eye. The mushroom ragout sauce looks a bit thin in the photo but it was quite a deep and flavourful sauce to be mopped up by the polenta pieces that were soft on the outside and slightly crisp on the outside. My only qualm, in place of the chestnuts and Scottish button mushrooms, the ragout should have been made with fresh wild woodland mushrooms. It would have brought the dish up that one notch. Still it was delicious and filled the belly of two hungry souls, plus we have enough left over for another meal. Yay, no cooking tomorrow!
Mushroom Ragout with sun-dried tomato polentaServes 4
For the Sun dried tomato polentaIngredients
2 shallots, peeled and finely sliced
1 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tablespoon olive oil, plus extra for oiling the tin is not non-stick
2 litres of water
2 tablespoons minced sun dried tomatoes
500g quick cook polentaMethod
Gently cook the shallots, garlic and rosemary in the oil until soft. Add the stock and sun dried tomatoes and bring to the boil. Slowly in a continuous stream, pour in the polenta, stirring continuously. Cook gently for1 minutes, then pour into a non-stick pan and allow to cool. When ready to serve, turn out the polenta and cut into required shapes: triangles, rounds of fat chips style. Place the polenta on a lightly oiled baking sheet and roast in the hot oven for about 10 minutes.

For the Mushroom RagoutIngredients

2 tablespoon olive oil
500g mixed wild mushrooms or chestnut mushrooms
50g dried shiitake, porcini and chanterelle mushrooms, soaked in hot water for 30 minutes
1 large onion, peeled and sliced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 sprig of rosemary
100ml red wine
2 tablespoons tomato puree
Salt and pepper to taste
Flat leaf parsley to garnish
Method
Wipe the mushrooms of any soil and if they are large cut them in half. Drain the shiitake mushrooms and save the soaking water, except for the grit at the bottom. Slice the shiitake mushrooms finely. Heat the oil in a fairly wide pan, add the onions and all of the mushrooms and stir well. Lower the heat and gently stir until the mushrooms begin to give up their juices then add the garlic and herbs. Stir in the wine, reserved soaking liquid and tomato puree and cook gently for about 10 minutes. Raise the heat and reduce the liquid until it is thick. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Divide the mixture between 4 plates. Top polenta triangles with a scattering of flat leaf parsley and serve. Adapted from Daphne Lambert Little Red Gooseberries

Polenta chips with garlicky chipotle beans

In my cosy home, garlic is an important ingredient. I always have some in the kitchen. I use it a lot in my cooking, a bit like onions. In fact, garlic belongs to the Alliaceae family of vegetables to which onions, shallots, leeks and chives also belong. Garlic is known for its distinct smell and unique taste. Garlic has been used throughout history, not just to ward of vampires but for medicinal and culinary purposes too. For me though, the most interesting thing about garlic is that it is rarely used in traditional British cooking, yet it is a common ingredient in Mediterranean Europe or cuisines of the Indian Sub-continent. One of the most common ways of consuming garlic without knowing it is when it is cooked with other ingredients such as ginger, onions and herbs as a sauce base, leaving a mellow background flavour. However, there are many other ways to eat garlic. It can be roasted, which sweetens the cloves. I have done this many times, once for a garlic and shallot risotto, or it can be crushed raw into hummus. The flavour can be either subtle or intense, it completely depends on you and how you like it. Of course, you may not like it at all.
I’ve grown garlic twice, the first time in my garden plot and they were small and I blamed the soil, and then last year at the allotment, they were still small and the cloves were such a pain to peel. I intend to plant them this month and due to circumstances grow them in pots and will leave enough space between them, let see if I have better luck with them this time round.

For this dish, I have used the last of my allotment grown garlic. I am submitting this recipe into WHB#219. This weeks host is Simona from Briciole. The weekly food blog event showcases information and recipes about herbs, vegetables, fruits and other plant ingredients. WHB initiated four years ago by Kalyn's Kitchen, it is now organized by Haalo of Cook (Almost) Anything At Least Once.
I had some slabs of polenta left over from a meal early in the week, and decided to make some fancy chips and serve them with beans, but not beans as you know it. This was garlicky chipotle beans with polenta chips. To make more of a meal of this, serve it with a fried egg, if you wish. Who says vegetarian food is bland?! This was very, very tasty.

Polenta chips with garlicky chipotle beans
For the polenta chips
Ready made polenta, sliced and cut into chip pieces
1 egg, beaten
Breadcrumbs
Vegetable oil shallow frying
Method
Dip the polenta chips first in the egg, so well coated then evenly cover with breadcrumbs. Shallow fry in hot oil until golden on all sides. Leave in oven on low heat to stay warm if you wish.
For the beans
100ml olive oil
2-4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1 x 400g tin of Mexican bean mix, drained and rinsed
1 tablespoon of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, minced
1 tablespoon tomato puree
½ tin, about 200g of chopped tomatoes
2 – 3 spring onions, chopped
A handful of rocket, watercress and spinach, roughly chopped (yes it was organically grown in the U.K)
salt to taste
Method
Heat the oil in a frying pan with the garlic over low heat until the garlic begins to turn translucent. Add the tinned tomatoes, tomato puree and chipotle pepper sauce and heat through for about 10 minutes, then add the beans and heat through for a few minutes. Add the spring onions and greens, cook until they wilt, then season with salt and pepper. Divide between individual plates.