southwestern polenta tots.

Mara dyed the curtains today, HBF brought over some serious homemade blueberry/lavender pie, and later I tried to make a fancy salad. Of the salad's three elements, the tastiest was something the recipe called "jalapeno-polenta croutons", but which as prepared by me were nothing like croutons at all but rather much more like polenta tots and thus totally delicious if not so so healthy. I ate a flattened one that Mara stepped on, that's how good they were. Jesus look at this pie:

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southwestern polenta tots. 

2 and 3/4 cup half-skim milk

1 tsp salt

1 jalapeno or 2 green Holland chiles, seeded and minced

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 and 1/2 cups cornmeal

a good frying oil
salt and pepper

Make polenta by bringing the milk, chiles and any spices to a full boil and then adding 1 cup of the cornmeal, whisking constantly. Stirring the whole time, cook for three to five minutes, or until the polenta begins to stay pulled away from the sides when you stir it. Pour into some non-stick or lined flattish baking dish and chill for 1 to 4 hours. Remove from fridge, cut into cubes, dredge cubes in the remaining 1/2 cup cornmeal and pan-fry til brown on all sides. Drain, season to taste and serve warm in a context other than a fancy salad, probably with a dipping sauce of some kind. You might look at this recipe and say oooh cheese would be nice here and yeah it probably would but also I really think they don't necessarily need it.

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