Rosemary and Garlic Polenta Triangles

Am in canapé mode this afternoon. I've always liked oven-roasted polenta. This time I've stirred in some rosemary and garlic (plus some leftover olives) to make a really great finger food for us to takeover to the neighbours later. Might even convince the kids to try it if it looks cute enough.

Ingredients:

1 litre boiling water

1 tsbp vegetable bouillon powder or a vegetable stock cube

300g polenta flour

1 tbsp fresh rosemary, roughly chopped

3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

4-5 green olives, roughly chopped

Olive oil

Sea salt

Method:

Bring the water to a boil in a medium sized saucepan and sprinkle in the bouillon powder and stir until it's mixed in. Next up, in goes the polenta flour. The trick with making your own polenta is to gradually add the flour, a little at a time, and keep stirring constantly so you don't get any clumpy lumpy bits that would make you think you'd chomped into a morsel of wallpaper paste. Keep on stirring and introducing the flour as the mixture thickens. After around ten minutes you should have all the flour introduced and the mixture is starting to thicken nicely. At this point add in the rosemary, garlic and olives and continue stirring for another ten minutes or so. The mixture is done once it's starting to pull away from the edge of the pan.

Now grease a good-sized square baking dish with some olive oil and spread the mixture out over the bottom until it's around 2-3 centimetres or an inch thick. Sprinkle some more fresh rosemary over the top, brush with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and then leave in the fridge to set properly.

The polenta will be set in an hour or so. Remove from the fridge and gently turn the solid rectangle of polenta out onto a chopping board. Turn it over and then slice up into bite sized triangles. Brush with a little more olive oil if needed and then bake in the over at around 200 degrees centigrade for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Good to go.

Vegan pizza... yes, it is possible!

So here's the thing... growing up I did actually like cheese quite a bit, but after a few days working with a cabal of crazed vegans at the Vegetarian Society in the early 90s, I'd knocked all dairy bits and bobs on the head. The only thing that I was a little freaked about was the prospect of no pizza, which is pretty much as essential as oxygen as far as I'm concerned. It took bloody years for me to realise it was perfectly possible to make a vegan pizza by... wait for it... just taking the cheese off. In fact the final moment of realisation came as I was travelling through Italy, and came across some pizza joints selling slices without gloopey cheese included.

Ingredients: pizza base

250g white organic bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp quick action dried yeast
140 ml hand hot water
Tbsp olive oil

Ingredients: pizza sauce and topping

1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic
Tbsp tomato puree
Tsp salt
Tbsp Rosemary
Tbsp basil
3 large mushrooms

1 large leek - tossed in olive oil

Garlic pepper

Method:

First of all get the base ready. Mix the dried ingredients first, the flour, salt, sugar and yeast, and then add the water. Mix up and then add the olive oil. Then knead for a few minutes and set to one side. If you have time, let the dough rise for a few hours. Roll the dough out, and lay out on an oiled baking tray or pizza dish if you have one.

Next cook the pizza sauce. In a small pan, fry the onion in the olive oil until it softens and goes translucent. Then add the garlic and cook for another couple of minutes. Then add the rosemary, basil, salt and tomato puree and, after a minute or so, the chopped tomatoes. Let the sauce simmer, as long as you can but for at least 15 minutes.

When the sauce is done, spread it across the pizza base and then add the mushrooms and the leeks. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 200 degrees centigrade and then serve with a generous dose of garlic pepper.

Rosemary breadsticks. Sort of cheesy.

Yep. Couldn't help it. I roasted some leeks to go with them.

Been a bit busy in the kitchen tonight so there are a few recipes ready to get uploaded. These breadsticks are an offshoot of the pizza that will feature shortly, as it shares the same bread dough, but pimped up to include a few 'extras' to allow these proud batons of loveliness to stand their own. Good for munching on. Happiest when dunked in houmous. Not bad with a small dish of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Ingredients:

250g flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp quick action dried yeast

140 ml hand hot waterTbsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced or very finely chopped

2 tsp rosemary

2 tsp vegan parmesan

Olive oil

Method:

You start off by mixing the dried ingredients together - the flour, salt, sugar and yeast - and then mix in the water. When there's an emerging dough in the bowl (still a bit crumbly) add the olive oil and need really well for a good five minutes or so. Then leave the kneaded dough, covered, to rise in a warm place for an hour or so. Next fold in the garlic, rosemary and vegan parmesan (if you want it) and knead through well. Next roll out into skinny batons, brush with olive oil, and bake in a 200 degree centigrade oven for 15 minutes or so.