Did anyone else watch Jamie Oliver make his roasted game birds with polenta on Food Network this weekend?
This week's episode focused on Game Birds. Our favorite recipe was the mixed roast of wood pigeons, patridge, pheasant, quails and sausage on proper polenta.
Even if we don't plan on spatchcocking a pheasant anytime soon, we can all learn from the last part of his recipe ...
Jamie made a polenta pillow for his roasted game birds.
"Spoon all the polenta onto a big board or platter, spread it out evenly and put to 1 side to firm up a little," says Jamie in his recipe.
This recipe manages to be both rustic and luxurious. We cooed like those wood pigeons as Jamie spread cheesy polenta on a big cutting board and then placed his mixed roast of game birds on top and spooned a Chianti pan sauce over the whole lot.
Is Jamie's polenta called "proper" because he served it on a cutting board? Some cooks skip the cutting board and pour the polenta directly on to a well-scrubbed dining room table. Then eaters mark off what portion they'd like to eat and dig right in. We even saw Martha Stewart do this once on her show. But we can't find a single picture of people eating polenta directly off the table. Do you have any?
By the way, Jamie At Home
(Image: Food Network)
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Hi Chris,
I don't plan on spatchcocking a pheasant but I do plan on dressing 13 of them:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/art_chel/2371610895/
view art's profile
Its called "proper" because Oliver always calls his favorite recipes "proper" or "fantastic". :)
Looks delish!
view Eve in Hochelaga's profile
Michael Chiarello has done that several times on his show; just poured the whole mess over a table and put the other ingredients on top of it. Maybe poking around on the FoodTV site would turn up a picture.
view Peggasus's profile
Lynne Rosetto Kaspar writes about polenta served on a board in "The Italian Country Table", which I'm a little bit obsessed with.... she suggests using a piece of string to cut it into portions. I'm not sure I could dump it right on the table, though. But I love her method for cooking it in a double boiler - perfect every time!
view SisterRae's profile
Good tip on Michael Chiarello; here's his Soft Polenta Recipe with a photo of him pouring it out on a board.
There's links there to toppings for it too. This does sound like a rather fun outdoor meal - serve friends a big board of polenta covered with grilled toppings and vegetables fresh from the garden.
view faith's profile
Hmm, I just pruchased Jamie at Home from chapters Canada and got it in the mail last week. It was on sale, too!
view gremlin's profile
Or buy it on amazon.co.uk? Which is also selling used copies which might balance out shipping costs/exchange rate
view Lesley - London's profile
my aunt did this and served the polenta up with a lovely breaised meat and tomato sauce and some unflavored floss for cutting into! mmm.
view Joan in SB's profile