Polenta

Polenta is quick, easy, cheap and ya, Delicious and Nutritious..
Polenta is cooked cornmeal. It's made delicious with butter and cheese. I love cheese.

Shop  cornmeal, (optional( right)) cheese, (whatever you like, parmesan, piave, mascarpone, gorgonzola), butter and the preserved lemon in your fridge...

1 part cornmeal 4 parts water. Boil 1 litre of water with a teaspoon of salt. 'Make it rain polenta,' (250mls) gently shake it into the water while whisking, like so..

Once you have whisked in all the cornmeal switch to a wooden spoon and turn heat to low. Cook stirring often for about 20minutes. You can tell it is done by putting it in your mouth, the bits of cornmeal should not be hard and when stirred vigorously it pulls away from the sides of the pot (somewhat).. Add a whack of butter ( I like a lot of butter on my corn, 1/4 Cup is coool..) hand-fulls of cheese, finely chopped preserved lemon, juice from one lemon. Taste it, add more salt and lemon probably... Now you are at one of the natural cross-roads of life. You can either eat your polenta as it is or you can pour it into a BUTTERED dish of a size that your polenta will be an inch and a half or so thick, let it cool, cut it and fry until crispy in a medium hot pan with oil.
That's it.

Preserved Lemon

Preserved Lemons are a staple of North African food. All you have to do is heavily salt lemons and leave it on your counter for a month. I like to use 1 part sugar to 2 parts salt. Classic aromatic flavourings are cinnamon, star anise, black pepper, bay leaf, chili. Leave spices whole.
Usually lemons are quartered lengthwise with the cuts not going through so the lemon is held together at the bottom. Cover each lemon with your cure (salt, sugar, spices) and pack into a jar. Agitate daily and the lemons will release juice that mixes with the cure to form the brine that not only keeps lemons edible for months in hot African sun, but makes them absolutely lemony delicious. You can use them anytime but they are really ready after a month or so, when they should be refrigerated. What you're really after on these little suckers is the yellow part of the skin. The white pith is really bitter. To use remove a lemon from the brine and give it a quick rinse. 'Filet' a quarter with a sharp knife so you have just yellow skin. This can be tricky. So here's a better way...

Wash lemons. Peel them with a vegetable peeler into a jar. Try to get just yellow, no white. Cut in half and juice lemons that now have no skins through a sieve into the jar. Add a Tablespoon of unrefined sugar and 2 Tablespoons of sea salt PER LEMON! (about). Add any aromats you like. Shake it. Leave it. For at least a week. Chop it up really small and mix into grain salads, put on vegetables, use with meats or to finish stews*...

*Citrus peel becomes very bitter when cooked too long, it's a finisher..

Happy Birthdaiye!!

Here's the menu from a birthday I did for a friend. We started with started with four little bites and then had some snacks..

 Asparagus, Proscuitto, Thyme Goat Cheese

Smoked Duck Breast, Cider Gel

Smoked Salmon, Pickled Beets, Lemon Dill Fraiche

Mushroom Crustini

Chicken Sticks, Peanut Sauce

Root Beer Beef, Polenta

Lamb Chop, Black Fennel

Garlic Prawns, Sweet Chili

Veggie Cakes, Rouille, Red Onion Jam

Scalloped Potatoes

Green Bean, Broccoli, Sesame, Onion

Farro 

It was Nutritious and oh so Delicious.. I'll post some recipes, if you want more just ask!

Caesar?

Mayonnaise is really easy to make. It is basically oil and an acid, (vinegar, lemon juice), which would normally separate when combined, held together by egg yolk. The trick is to add everything but the oil, blend on high with a hand blender on a stick and then slowly drizzle in the oil while blending.

AIOLI = MAYONNAISE WITH GARLIC IN IT. THAT'S IT.

SHOP LIST eggs, oil, vinegar or lemon juice, any flavourings you like, garlic, chili, herbs, pickles, spices, fruit, whatever...

Put three yolks in a mason jar. (Or something that's sorta tall and skinny that you can fit your hand blender into(that's not hand in blender please)). Add 75ml, 5Tablespoons, or a couple shots of vinegar, flavours (like garlic, anchovy, caper for Caesar dressing), blend. While blending drizzle in about 1Cup, 250mls oil. *be careful using too much olive oil, it can taste quite strong. I like half and half grapeseed and olive oil. Taste it. Add salt. Taste it. Add salt. Taste it. Finish with blending in herbs or mixing in chopped pickle or whatever. Use for anything you can think of ...

Vinegar

Wow. This stuff is amazing. Wild sour fermentations. Delicious. And Nutritious. I eat a lot of vinegar. It's great straight and amazing when slowly reduced with some aromatics and sometimes sweetener. French food has gastrique sauces, Chinese have sweet and sour, Indians chutney. We have... ketchup. Do not misunderstand. I love ketchup. But kinda weak...

VINEGARS YOU SHOULD HAVE AT ALL TIMES...

Apple cider vinegar
White wine vinegar
Red wine vinegar
Rice vinegar
** 'white' vinegar is for cleaning, keep away from your mouth

...go for it

Try this. 2Cups apple cider vinegar, 1/2Cup honey, dried chili, fennel seed, mustard seeds, little cinnamon stick, 2 cloves. Bring to boil and reduce slowly 40ish minutes, strain and continue reducing slowly until thickened slightly. Add finely chopped peeled apple. Adjust sweetness. Spoon over pork, duck, chicken....