Luxe Rosemary Grits with Goat Cheese

Here’s an easy recipe perfect as a side to a holiday feast, or even a fancy New Year’s brunch. This, to me, is the perfect side, almost completely hand’s off until you want to serve it, with a few check ins on the way, happy to hang out on a back burner while the rest of a meal comes together.

You simmer polenta with milk and rosemary on the stove until creamy, stir in some butter, and serve dotted with creamy, tangy goat cheese. The cheese swirls into the polenta as you spoon it, and everyone will ooh and ahh like you’ve just done something amazingly impressive. I can’t think of a holiday centerpiece this won’t pair well with, whether that’s a crown roast, a beef wellington, a ham, a vegetarian whole roasted cauliflower, or even some eggs and bacon for breakfast.

Happy Holidays! Stay safe!

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Grits or Polenta with Rosemary and Goat Cheese

Method adapted from Alton Brown. This is perfect to have simmering on the stove while you get the rest of a holiday meal together.

• 1 cup polenta or grits (yellow preferred)

• 2 cups whole milk

• 2 cups water, plus more, as needed

• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

• 2 sprigs rosemary, plus more for garnish

• 4 tbs unsalted butter, cubed

• 2 oz goat cheese

1. Add the grits or polenta, milk, 2 cups water and salt to a large pot and let sit for 5 minutes. Skim anything that floats to the top.

2. Turn the heat to medium high and bring to a simmer while whisking, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low, add the rosemary sprigs, and let cook, stirring occasionally. Add water as needed when the mixture seems especially thick, until the mixture thick but not stiff, and is smooth and creamy and nothing tastes gritty or especially toothsome when you try a bite. For me, this takes about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

3. When you get the consistency you want, remove from heat and remove the rosemary sprigs, then stir in the butter. Pour out onto a platter, dot with the goat cheese, and garnish with more rosemary. Serve immediately.

Sunday Supper: Salmon Wellington with Warm Rice Salad

Here’s a final Sunday Supper idea for 2020, and one I’ve been thinking and fretting about making for a while.

Why the fretting? Well, have you ever cooked salmon? If you have, you know how tricky it can be to do well, and how fast it can go from perfect to dried out. Wrapping it in puff pastry and baking it seems masochistic, really. If I were kinder to myself I’d have gone with a phyllo dough, but no, I was stubborn and wanted those flaky, puffy layers that only puff pastry can give you.

The problem though, is those layers take at least 35-40 minutes at high heat to cook in a Wellington situation, and 35-40 minutes at high heat sounds like death for a salmon fillet. But I still wanted to try! I glanced around the internet, and I’m not the first to attempt this. But for every other recipe I found, I suspect the pastry is undercooked. I’m sure the salmon was delicious, but that pale, golden colored pastry? After just 25 minutes? It’s not done. There’s no way.

I didn’t want perfect salmon and undercooked pastry, so I tried a few tricks that I think worked out pretty well. The first is rolling the pastry out pretty thinly, which helps give you enough to cover two stacked salmon fillets, which are a bit wider than the traditional beef roll. But rolling thinly also helps the puff pastry cook a little faster, which we want here. The second trick is adding a moisture barrier under the salmon, but something to add moisture on top of the salmon. The good news about a Wellington, is we are basically steaming the salmon here so it is hard to dry out completely, but I wanted some back up, and then somewhere for all the juices to go on the bottom. The third trick was stacking 2 fillets together to make a thicker cut of salmon. Finally, the last trick I tried was just packing in the flavor. The truth is, this is still salmon baked for probably 10 minutes longer than is ideal, so its going to be well done. That luscious, perfect salmon, doesn’t-need-anything-else-flavor wouldn’t be possible, so I layered with as much backup as possible, including garlic, preserved lemon, and the warm spices in baharat, a Middle Eastern Spice blend.

In the end, I did make a pretty good salmon Wellington! I would probably roll my bottom pastry a little thinner next time, and I made the mistake of wrapping the ends under instead of cutting off the excess. But the flavor was fantastic, and I didn’t think the salmon was overcooked. I happily ate all the leftovers, along with the absolutely delicious rice salad, with jewel-like dried fruits, sharpness from the shallot, and creamy goat cheese.

The dried fruits and warm spices are perfect for the season, just in a slightly unexpected way.

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Salmon Wellington with Warm Rice Salad

Serves 6

For the Wellington:

• olive oil

• 4 cloves garlic, minced, divided

• 1 quarter preserved lemon peel (reserve the flesh), minced

• 4 cups baby spinach

• 1 small shallot, minced

• 3/4 cup cooked beluga lentils, drained and rinsed

• 2-3 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves stripped and roughly chopped

• 3/4 tsp kosher salt, plus more, to taste

• 1 tbs baharat spice mix (see note)

• two, 1 lb salmon fillets, skin removed

• 1 package puff pastry, chilled

• 1 egg yolk

For the warm rice salad:

• 1 cup jasmine rice

• 1 1/2 cups water

• salt and pepper, to taste

• 3 tbs good olive oil

• juice and flesh of one quarter of a preserved lemon

• 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

• 1/2 tsp zaatar

• 1/2 cup dried cherries or cranberries

• 1/4 cup golden raisins

• 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts

• 1/2 cup chopped parsley

• 1 shallot, thinly sliced

• 2 oz goat cheese

1. Prepare the wellington fillings: Heat a little olive oil in a pan over medium low heat, and add half the minced garlic and cook until fragrant, about one minute. Add the preserved lemon peel and cook another minute. Add the spinach, and cook just until wilted, another 1-2 minutes. Remove to a large plate to cool.

2. Heat a little more oil in the pan, add the minced shallot and cook 2-3 minutes, until softened, then add the remaining garlic and cook another minute, until fragrant. Add the thyme and the lentils, and cook, mashing the lentils a bit with the back of your spoon or spatula, until everything is dried out the lentils look like very chunky mashed lentils. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed, then set aside to cool completely.

3. Pat the salmon fillets dry with paper towels, then sprinkle with the 3/4 tsp salt and baharat spices.

4. Assemble the wellington: mix the egg yolk and 1 tsp water together in a small bowl. Roll the puff pastry as large as needed to wrap around the salmon. Don’t be afraid to roll it thinly, that will help it cook more quickly, which we want here. On the puff pastry, layer first the spinach mixture, then the salmon fillets, stacked to make it as even thickness as possible. Top with the lentil mixture. Bring one long side of the puff pastry over the salmon and brush with the egg wash, then bring the other side up and over that one. Bring in the short sides just over the exposed ends of the salmon, trim any excess dough, and brush with egg wash to seal. Don’t just wrap each end under the roll of pastry, you will end up with a very thick pastry bottom that will never cook (I say this from experience). Flip the whole pastry package over and brush the top with egg wash. Score with a sharp knife, then transfer to the fridge to chill for at least one hour.

5. While salmon is chilling, gather your rice salad ingredients. And heat oven to 425 degrees. After salmon has chilled for at least one hour, bake, 30-35 minutes, until the pastry is puffed and dark golden, then remove from the oven and let rest 10 minutes.

6. While the salmon is baking, make the rice salad. In a pot, bring the water to a boil and add the rice, then reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit for 10 minutes.

7. While rice cooks, in a large bowl add the preserved lemon flesh and juice, apple cider vinegar, zaatar, and salt and pepper to taste. Whisk to combine. When rice is done, fluff with a fork and add to the bowl and toss to coat with the dressing. Add the dried fruit and pine nuts and toss, then add the shallots and parsley and mix everything together. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed, then crumble in the goat cheese and give a final toss.

8. To serve, slice the salmon Wellington and plate with the warm rice.

Pizza Donuts

Sorry, I do realize I’ve turned this space into something of a donut blog in the past month, but I guess I’ve been on a donut kick! The good news is these are made from the exact same recipe as the preserved lemon cream donuts, and in fact I just split that recipe in half and turned some of my donuts into little pizzas.

I highly recommend you try this, especially if you find yourself with some extra pizza ingredients on hand, as I did. Before I experimented with adding those toppings to my donuts, I did check in with my roommate, who I consider a bit of a pizza expert, as to whether this was too weird. She was enthusiastic, and so I bravely forged ahead.

And you know what? This turned out to be a brilliant idea. The doughnuts create a plush, chewy, yet forgiving bite of dough, and the toppings of sauce, cheese, and pepperoni don’t get any more classic. It tasted exactly like biting into a pizza, but a small, portable hand held one. It reminded me of bagel bites, actually! Only, without the weird, hard pieces of bagel and the scorching of the roof of my mouth (definitely give these a minute to cool out of the oven). If a local bakery started selling these as a weekend brunch option, I’d get in line.

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Pizza Donuts

Like my preserved lemon cream donuts, I fried these in olive oil, which in this case really helps nail the pizza flavors we are going for.

For the donuts (adapted from Joy the Baker)

• 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

• 3 tbs warm water

• 3 cups all purpose flour

• 3/4 cup whole milk, warmed to just above room temp

• 3 tbs unsalted butter, room temp

• 3 egg yolks

• 2 tbs sugar

• 1 1/2 tsp salt

• olive oil, for frying

Pizza toppings:

• pizza sauce (store-bought is totally great and fine here)

• shredded mozzarella

• pepperoni

• small leaves of basil

1. Make the donuts: Stir together the yeast and the warm water until the yeast is dissolved, and let sit 5 minutes, until foamy. Add the yeast mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer with the flour, milk, butter, egg yolks, sugar and salt, and mix on low speed with the dough hook until everything combines, then increase the speed to medium high and beat for 3 minutes more.

2. Scrape down the sides of the the bowl, then sprinkle the dough with a bit of flour, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise for one hour, until doubled.

3. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and roll out to a 1/2 inch thick round. Cut into rounds with a 2 1/2-3 inch cutter. Place rounds on parchment lined baking sheet and let rise, covered, for another 30 minutes. Let the scraps rise too, they will be excellent testers for frying (and snacking).

4. Heat enough olive oil in a sturdy pot to reach 3 inches up the sides, to 350 degrees. You can get away with a smaller pot and thus less oil, but make sure the sides are high enough you won’t be in danger of oil bubbling over, and only fry enough donuts at a time so you don’t crowd the pan.

5. When your oil has reached temperature, use some of the dough scraps to test out your oil. Fry each round for about 1 minute per side, then remove and transfer a baking sheet lined with paper towels to drain, then set on a wire rack while you fry remaining dough rounds. You can fry all the donuts a bit ahead of time if necessary, since we are reheating in the next step.

6. When all of your donuts are fried, heat the broiler on your oven. Set a wire rack over a baking sheet lined with foil or parchment paper. Flip each donut so the flattest side is facing up and place on the wire rack. Top as desired with pizza sauce, cheese, and pepperoni. Place in the oven and broil until the cheese is melted and bubbling, the pepperoni is starting to crisp, and everything smells like pizza heaven.

7. Remove from oven and garnish with the basil, and serve!

Notes:

• I have not tried this, but these could absolutely work as donut bites for a party. Just cut out rounds 1-2 inches across, fry, then top as directed but with a single, cute pepperoni on top.