Eggs & Polenta

Tis the season for making and/or breaking your new year's resolutions, and if you happen to have made a resolution to shed a few pounds, or to tone up a few of the flubbier parts on your bod, then you're probably trying to eat lighter, cut back on your portion sizes and spending every other day googling 'healthy recipes'. Not the easiest thing to do. Luckily for you, I've been there and done that (a few times... lol) and as a result have found a few gems along the way.

One of those gems is this recipe - a staple in our house. I can't recall where I first saw the idea, but I do recall my concerns about the polenta... I had never cooked it before, nor had I ever tasted, so I really wasn't sure what to expect, turns out it's like a yellow version of Cream of Wheat. If you've never tried it, here's your opportunity to experiment!




Polenta Ingredients:

• 6 cups Water
• 1 3/4 cups Cornmeal
• 3 tbsps Butter
• Salt
• Pepper  

Remainder of dish

• 1 Tomato, sliced
• Salt & Pepper, to taste
• Rosemary (fresh is best, but dried works too!), to taste
• Eggs (2 per person)
• Olive Oil (we've always use regular olive oil, but recently attempted the recipe with O'Leva Oils & Vins 'Lemon Fused Olive Oil' and MAN what a tasty difference!

Instructions:

First start by making your polenta. As I said before, it's essentially the same process as making Cream of Wheat, except you go the extra step and spread the prepared cornmeal onto a cookie sheet to cool. This allows it to set up so you can slice it however you want - I took the opportunity to break in one of my new cookie cutters I got for Christmas ;)

1) Bring your water to a boil, then slowly add your cornmeal. Be sure to maintain a constant whisk to avoid clumping! Allow your mixture to thicken as shown below.

2) Add your butter and mix through to give it a more silky texture.

3) Next, spread the mixture onto a cookie sheet to allow it to cool. Set it aside in the fridge or another cool place - porches and windowsills work dandy for this too ;) This takes about 10-15 or so mins to set.

4) In the meantime, slice your tomatoes.

5) Once your polenta has set and is firm to the touch, you can cut your shapes.

6) Prep your pan with Olive Oil, then fry your polenta until it gets a slight crust (as I've tried to show in the second photo, but it's a very slight difference).

*Note: for a lighter version, you may want less polenta per person, this was our supper so we opted for 2 slices each.

7) Once fried, remove your polenta and add your tomato slices to the pan. Add salt, pepper and a sprinkling of rosemary to taste. Cook them a few minutes then flip them very gently. When they look like the second photo below, they're ready! Remove them from the pan and layer them onto your polenta.

8) Next fry your eggs the way you like them - I like mine a little runny with this recipe because it goes great with the tomatoes and polenta!

So there you have it, a healthier way to enjoy breakfast... or brunch... or even supper!