Polenta Fries in San Francisco
The late afternoon sun was lightly hazy when we stopped to have a pre dinner appetizer by the Ferry Building at the Embarcadero. We ordered Polenta Fries with some chilled, classic California Chardonnay. The Polenta was slightly fried to a crisp and was served with a Harissa spiced aioli. Fantastic!
I thought the graphic quality of the fries with round shapes was interesting.
Our inspiration
#oneferrybuilding #embacadero
Behind the scenes.
We played around with what we thought was the recipe and came up with our own concoction. It was very flavorful. We were trying to make a more healthy version and baked the polenta fries instead of frying them. Didn’t really work! The baked version was very fragile and didn’t keep their shape. If you want a firmer French fry shape I would fry these.
Polenta
4 cups of water-add a chicken broth cube
1 Teaspoon of salt
1 Cup of Polenta #red hill polenta
3 Tablespoons of butter cut up
1/3 cup of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1/3 cup of grated Pecorino cheese
4 sprigs of rosemary without the branches
Sriracha sauce
1-2 Tablespoons depending on how hot you would like it.
1 cup of mayonnaise
1 lemon juiced
1 tsp of salt
1 garlic clove minced
I basically followed the directions on the box to make the polenta. When the polenta was ready I stirred in the butter and then both Parmigiana cheese, Pecorino cheese and rosemary. Then poured the polenta into a half sheet pan and cover gently with baking paper and placed in refrigerator to chill.
When polenta was cold I cut my french fries shapes and place into a olive oiled pan and cooked till the pieces are golden brown turning them occasionally and very gently. Then carefully removed them from the pan with a spatula. Bit of work but the flavor was so worth it. These would be good with marinara sauce as well.