POV Polenta Soup With Whatever You Want

everyone this is Kenji my cameras loose I'm here at home and today we're going to be making some vegetables finally so I have some polenta here and some leeks some and I got some other vegetables in the fridge but we're gonna be making a polenta soup very easy the way we start we get our leek really need I don't need this whole thing and I'm going to split it in half like this take off the outer layers check to make sure there's no sand in there sometimes there's sand in there this guy looks pretty clean so we're just going to use them and I'm going to strips like that and then crosswise now I'm gonna get a little skillet going here yeah yeah sorry notice go a saucier this is a 2 quart sauce ea I'm making enough soup for like 3 people will do a little butter and some olive oil there's a little bit of hot water left in there mmm 2 tablespoons of butter we're gonna get our leeks going in there so at least we don't want to brown them or anything we just want to kind of I'm gonna kind of melt in here they're really nice and soft pinch of salt is gonna help that I'll draw out some of the liquid um so kind of Lois Lois sheet you know if I grab some it's garlic it's a gentle tap to get the skins off all right let's trip this guy down a little there's Nicky spots off right ready I'm gonna cut them you know some people you can cut across ones like that some people come to the silvers I usually like to cut them kind of like a half-angle I just find it's easier to get a nice-looking slices so I usually what I do is I cut about halfway through and then go on to its flat side like that know if you can see it so I was cutting this way and then I rotate it like that good enough great burger don't have to worry too much about this doesn't forget super super soft like the way you would if you were saying like making like a leek beurre blanc or like really melted leeks we just wanted to kind of sweat out and tenderize just a little bit they're gonna finish cooking in the in the soup I mean let's see what else we got here bill in the suit we got kale gonna take these maitake mushrooms I said though since like maitake mushrooms and little pumpkin oh and I have this chicken stock that I made earlier actually I made a video of that chicken stock there's haven't posted it yet but I will at some point I made a video breaking down a couple chickens and making a couple different types of stock so Kayla's gonna go in at the end but we can start cleaning it now he's about half a disc and maybe a quarter of it take those tough stems out a couple years ago I was on a I was on an episode of um guy's grocery games and in the final round I very stupidly left the stems on my kale you know one of those dumb things you do under pressure so I made a dish that I thought was pretty good but I left the stems on the kale and that is a big big bad error in the kitchen because they're you know they're tough and not very edible oh well so I did not win that's okay it was all it's all for fun only good fun we're topping that all right let's see how our leagues are doing all right they're looking nice and soft now those are door alarms all right yeah chicken stock that is a quart of chicken stock and I made the other day and for this I think is still clicking huh for this recipe if you want to go with about 1/2 cup 1/2 cup of dried polenta per quart of chicken stock so this is polenta oh I don't know all right we'll do two of these quarter cup measures and if you want to be real careful about it you can whisk while that goes in it doesn't clump up but with this much broth especially when it's starting cold like this doesn't really make much difference so this this is gonna come out sort of like a porridge eeeek texture as opposed to you know a much thicker sort of um I guess and more like a soupy texture as opposed to like the super porridge oatmeal like texture of like a more traditional polenta that you would have would say with like braised meats or ragu this dish actually based on something that Alice Waters does at Chez Panisse so she does a polenta soup with olive oil and kale that I find delicious so we're doing basically that made with chicken broth kale and for now some we're gonna had this Kalin oh and let me clean up some of these mushrooms let's get this pumpkin in there too this is kabocha squash which is one of my favorite types of pumpkin it's great because the skins are completely edible also say that much is good I just need to scoop out the seeds just put this in half then what you kind of what shape should I do we're gonna do kind of little slices like this it was like about I don't know seven minutes to simmer down I would guess so I'll add them in a little bit later as well um the polenta itself takes about 20 minutes to soften up so once I'm done with this I'm gonna uh I'm gonna let you guys go you go about your business and join me again actually that first will do the mushrooms packaging and hate packaging my goodness this is a lot of plastic here there this double-layer packaging I should start buying these from the bulk bin am I talking about terms hen of the woods one of my favorites they're really good sort of roasted whole like this you put them in a cast iron pan drizzle with olive oil roast them in the oven they're excellent like that they're also excellent sauteed I'm gonna saute these and use them as garnish trim off the bottoms I'll save those for stock break up the tops a little bit another bottom there alright let me get some bowls something lifts and bowls Oh people ask me about this cutting board I'm so this cutting board actually I got what am I first actually my very first sort of fancy restaurant job was at number 9 Park in Boston Barbara Lynch is the chef it's still there it's an excellent restaurant levels way too small for this and at some point the Boston Health Department decided that wooden cutting boards were no longer allowed in kitchens everyone had to switch to plastic boards which actually now most evidence shows that plastic is in fact more dangerous than wood because there are certain natural antibacterial properties and wood that and that help them stay more sterile than plastic does anyhow they made everyone switch to plastic boards I mean so the restaurant had a whole bunch of these really nice boards that they couldn't use anymore so Barbara gave him away to her cooks which was very nice of her and I've kept mine now for let's see that was in 2002 so 18 years I've had to refinish it a couple times I've sanded it down I've actually taken off the edges on a table saw and routed out the corners again a few times but it's still excellent yeah it's great nice and big big cutting boards are sort of essential essential cooking tools let's get that whiskey yeah make sure we're not make sure we don't have any clumps here all right looking good so now we're just gonna let that simmer away I'm gonna start on the mushroom garnish got another nice copper pan here and you don't have to use copper you can use you know triply steel you can use aluminum whatever whatever you got you can even use a nonstick get a shallot for those mushrooms this guy's got a little funky looking Center I'm gonna get that layer out mm-hmm not gonna see that in a shallot okay all right all right so just like an onion here across like that enjoy fine mince what we're gonna do is we're gonna saute those mushrooms in butter and olive oil then we'll add in some shallots right at the very end and I'm gonna throw and actually some actually let me go I'm gonna go out and grab some time from the garden which is flooded right now yeah ii this guy can go down simmer simmer okay oh here's the time let's grab a little handful left okay at the time probably more time than I need in fact definitely more time than I need look at this got a lot of time on my hands all right olive oil here [Applause] I put that butter back or I leave it out I lift it out oh look at you a little mite olive oil and butter I'll put this back in the fridge okay let's get that pumpkin going in there now also there's a plant it looks like it's actually picking up so let's just let that simmer nicely packed I'm gonna put a put a little lid on it if I can find the lid it's gonna fit will you fit will you fit yeah you sort of fit good enough that's enough all right all right once that butter starts to sizzle that's what we're looking for oh yeah these hinges are broken many people are asking about this gluing the hinges are broken that's why the spoon is there it's not for earthquakes it's not for child proofing this is just a broken door you can go to the mushrooms em nice and coated with salt pepper and now we're just gonna let them sit for a little bit on one size I think it starts to kind of brown nicely and eventually we'll turn them over we'll start tossing him and sauteing them a little bit more I'm also gonna grab a tiny bit of soy sauce soy sauce I find well I almost every time I'm pretty much every time i saute mushrooms I like to finish them off with a touch of soy sauce and also a touch of lemon oops we have half a lemon here little touch of lemon I find it really kind of brings out the mushrooming this of the mushrooms the soy sauce does because well mushrooms are rich in glutamic acid you know you know all that stuff right glutamates umami that's what msg essentially is it's a source of glutamic acid which gives us that sense of savoriness in our mouth so mushrooms have a lot of it and so you can kind of bolster that flavor by adding a touch of soy sauce which also has a lot of it not so much that it tastes like soy sauce but you know just a little bit enough to add just a tiny bit of umami depth you can also use fish sauce for that or you know it's something like Liquid aminos maji maji seasoning [Music] Vegemite all those things all those all those things that are really high in a glutamic acid all right if time a little rough trouble how we looking at there you go we got a little bit of browning going on there that's what we're looking for hen of the woods mushrooms are really one of my favorites they're called hen of the woods because they look like a chicken tail yeah there you go a nice kind of Porgy texture sorry I keep calling it porridge I don't know what do you call porridge I would say this is somewhere between a soup and a porridge let's taste how I'm gonna get a little spoonful of this needs that same pumpkin spoon sure it's gonna need some salt get in there and like a nice little sweetness from the from the leeks kind of double dip my spoon triple to Podesta just to piss off the comet is alright those mushrooms are starting to look good one nice and brown and most sides for Amy to have them done just about the same time that the polenta is done meanwhile meanwhile let me tell you a story about maybe like my fourth day on the job at a number nine park though that reminded number nine Park so I was working the pasta station so we have this gigantic I don't know it'd hold maybe thirty gallons of water boiling eight different wells that you drop pasta into and we had made gnocchi that day potato gnocchi with one of the one of the most popular dishes there but for some reason in yoki that day where I know why it's because the person who normally made the gnocchi wasn't there and so I was making him and as we put him into the pasta water they kept dissolving and falling apart so the pasta water got full of basically just mashed potato and flour and so eventually at the end of the shift when I was trying to drain the Machine of water the water wouldn't go down the the drain was completely clogged and so I thinking you know what now's my opportunity to really think on my feet and shine and show off for the chef my first reaction was to run to the bathroom grab the plunger and go into the pasta machine and start plunging it and it worked and the water started going down and then as I stood there like beaming like I saw my chef just staring at me just staring at me you know evil eyes like what the hell are you thinking and that was when I kind of realized what I'd done I just stuck the toilet plunger into the pasta machine and so I had to spend the next four hours like disassembling the machine and disinfecting every single part individually it was not my finest moment and it was not a great way to start my career but hey I turned out okay I think all right she's mushrooms already I all right shallots in some time in you don't want much color in this chalice we just wanna let them soften a tiny bit get a little more olive oil in here all right I'm gonna go into the squeeze of lemon shits Meyer lemon and this tiny splash of soy sauce that's it all right and that's a good smelling mushroom garnish let me taste it mmm very good all right I think we're almost there on this is that pumpkins soft yet let's see yeah pumpkins just about a couple minutes away which means now we can um now we can add our kale stir in the kale let it soften a little bit I'm gonna fill this out with actually just a touch more water if you have extra stock you can thin it out with extra stock um that's generally a better way to do it because you're not diluting flavor that way beat some more salt I got boiling what boiling water here my favorite feature in the kitchen the boiling water dispenser came with it I didn't even have them actually the kitchen is like the one room in the house we didn't do any remodeling at all - but which is why all the cabinets are not working all right good nope we finish off with a salad some mizuna zouna greens I need that money there's only three of us will do it say save half of that for later but this time actually she's gonna use there's one of my favorite store-bought dressings soy and sesame I get this at the Japanese market it's like really good sometimes I come out at night and just suck it out of the bottle I hope my wife did not hear that just salt Tomatoes got some cucumbers in here somewhere pusher there back back back here there you go all right soup is ready you tasted one last time for seasoning Audrey lunch in like three minutes that double dip my spoon and I'm using two yeah I don't need to do dirty up yet another spoon huh [Music] [Music] that delicious flavored olive oil butter mix in here I'm picked up all that mushroom flavors they don't really want to lose any of it [Music] mmm right and then let's finish it off with a little thyme garnish it's nice to time flowers there's a pretty pretty and edible is always nice nice combination all right I think we're looking pretty good let's get this here let's get our salad here and that is that's a dirty spoon this is lunch which I'm gonna NAB a bite of hmm that's good actually so good I gotta take a picture all right let's see if I shop once a little little taste of this you go what do you think I think that looks pretty damn good huh all right let's eat all right dinner bird lunch hey sorry so I realized that this dish probably uses a lot of ingredients you don't have the way I cooked it but you can kind of think of it as a blank canvas so you don't use kale you can use spinach you can use mustard greens you can use whatever greens you have or you can use no greens use regular mushrooms use basically any vegetable you want can go into here like if it goes into risotto you could go into here you could do like sliced sausages and anything you really want and one thing I should have done is that I have these parmesan rinds in the fridge I should have simmered the parmesan rinds with the polenta while I was cooking it because that's a perfect use for them but instead I'm just going to grate some parmesan over at the end which is which is close and yeah parmesan rind this bit into the broth as its simmering and that'll make it extra delicious all right thanks guys

Channel: J. Kenji López-Alt

Views: 273,569

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Id: cVAPjUHW9xk

Length: 28min 49sec (1729 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 08 2020