Rabbit Food for Lions
Pumpkin Polenta Cakes and Garlic-Sage Greens
We hear “rabbit food” and think all that’s bad about dieting. Dull, lifeless, uninspiring. Not our thing — fitness and fine food should both enliven your experience of life, not deaden it. So the food Kevin and Russ cook, and the techniques and philosophy they share, turn standard rabbit food and make it fit for a lion. Read more about our cooking philosophy in the Second Helping Toolbox.
Caramelized Pumpkin Polenta Cakes
EDITOR’S NOTE | If using pre-cooked polenta, remove from wrapper, and mash mixture into pot, adding additional water or stock until smooth
- Olive oil, for sauteing
- 2 Shallots
- 1 spring of fresh rosemary and fresh thyme
- 2 tablespoons Marsala or white wine
- Juice of 1 orange
- 1/2 cup broth or water
- 2 cups cornmeal or polenta, or one tube pre-cooked polenta
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 cups of pumpkin (butternut or acorn squash), mashed
Heat a medium-sized skillet over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil, saute shallots until softened. Add rosemary, thyme and cinnamon and stir until fragrant.
Add Marsala, orange juice and chicken stock, scraping the bottom of a skillet with a wooden spoon to loosen any shallots stuck to the pan. Bring to boil. Add cornmeal (polenta) and stir until softened, approx 15 min.
Add pumpkin and salt and pepper, then pour into casserole dish, cover with plastic wrap, put in refrigerator to cool and firm up, 2-3 hours or overnight.
Using a cutter cutter or knife, cut polenta into 2-3 ounce shapes (circles, squares, etc.). Heat an olive-oil coated non-stick pan over medium heat, and saute until crisp.
Including favorite foods into more healthful dishes is always tricky. Who wants fake creamed spinach in light of the real thing? Or pasta, or fatty cheeses?
Rather than trying to content yourself with “Fake food” — the whole “light (insert food here)” nonsense that only has you wishing for the real McKoy — one of Kevin’s winning strategies is changing how you use your favorite foods in cooking. More simply, taking what used to be the main event and transforming it into a highly flavored garnish.
Polenta, an Italian version of grits for we Southerners, is an excellent example. Whether from a low-glycemic or explicitly low-carb perspective, these grains are a technical no-no.
This might be true if you use polenta and/or grits conventionally. Often, they’re served on their own or as the foundation of a dish — almost like a stand-in for pasta.
With this recipe, we formed them into garnishes so you get your grain fix but with built-in portion control. Instead of making the polenta the main event, it’s simply a garnish, a little something extra. Kevin originally served it with roasted bass and sauteed Kale.
Another bonus to this approach is you can add new dimensions to polenta beyond the usual stock/heavy cream/cheese combination found is most polenta recipes — in this case, mashed leftover pumpkin and fresh herbs to enchance the squash.
By steering clear of the usual fat-laden flavors, a whole world of leftover vegetables — pureed or mashed — becomes instant flavoring agents for a new dish.
This recipe is intended for a large crowd or family; If you’re cooking for yourself or two, another approach is to keep polenta in tubes, cut an appropriate portion from the pre-cooked polenta, and prepare a small amount. I usually do this if I have leftover vegetables from dinner — after my meal I make a small amount of flavored polenta and keep it in the fridge for whenever I’m feeling a grain craving.
– Russ Lane
