Recipe Test: Creamy Polenta with Roasted Mushrooms

Credit:  twopeasandtheirpod.com

Click here for the full recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

• Baby Bella Mushrooms
• Olive Oil
• Balsamic Vinegar
• Garlic
• Salt & Pepper
• Parsley
• Milk
• Water
• Kosher Salt
• Stoneground Polenta
• Butter
• Parmesan Cheese

The roasted mushrooms looked damn good just by themselves!  I was pretty confident making these as mushrooms is one vegetable ... is it a vegetable?... I actually have always liked.  I was happy to use the rest of my fresh parsley but it was holding up really well.  The covered glass in the fridge trick for the cilantro definitely worked with parsley too!  (see it here) 

Polenta is something I've had in restaurants and have liked.  I've never made it myself and was surprised how easy it was.  You can't just leave it on the stove like you can rice ... you have to stir every five minutes for about 1/2 hour... but that really wasn't much of an issue.  I ended up cleaning the kitchen after my day of cooking while it cooked. 

The picture above is pretty early on - you can still see the milk but a little of the polenta.   As it cooked it became thicker and creamier. 

At the very end the recipe calls to add butter and fresh parmesan cheese and stir. At this point I was convinced this was going to be a great dinner but once again concerned that I had so much!   I hadn't used the full pound of mushrooms but I had cooked the called for amount of polenta and so there was quite a lot.  

I put the leftover polenta in the fridge but the mushrooms looked too good to save any!   (Hubby scoffed it down later when he got home from his trip ... I had an extra bunch of mushrooms in the fridge so quickly made more of those to go on top - made him very happy!)   It was very good.  Creamy and a comforting warmth.  Pretty easy meal too!