Trissalicious

It’s starting to feel like winter in Sydney and I was inspired to make something hearty using polenta. I don’t know why I haven’t used polenta before, I’ve had it twice this week.  Once with a calamari ragu and tonight it was particularly with this seafood sauce and prawns.

Prawns on Polenta

Serves One

• • 50 grams polenta
  • 120 ml cream
  • 1/2 onion and carrot, finely diced
  • 1 tomato, finely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil plus 2 tablespoons olive oil for the prawns
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • 250 ml fish or prawn stock
  • pinch of sugar
  • 10 prawns, peeled and deveined

1. Place the polenta in a pot with around 250 ml of water and bring to a boil then lower to a simmer.  Add a generous pinch of salt.  Stir the polenta every few minutes and cook until the grains have fully opened, around 40 minutes.  If you  feel the polenta is too thick, add some more water while cooking.  The idea is to get it to a texture you like.  At the end of the cooking add 60 ml of the cream.
2. In the meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a pan and sauté the onions and carrots until soft, around 5 minutes.  Add the chopped tomatoes and a pinch of sugar and cook out for 10 minutes.
3. To make a roux, add the flour to the onion and carrot mixture and cook out for a minute.  Next add the fish/prawn stock and continue to simmer until the sauce thickens, around 10 minutes.
4. Heat a large pan with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sauté the prawns until golden brown.
5. To plate, spread the polenta on a plate, followed by the bisque and finally the prawns.

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This recipe is roughly inspired by the Salt and Pepper squid bun from Lotus Restaurant in Sydney believe me, a keeper! My husband once went to the restaurant three times in one week for this.  Lucky, you can now make it at home.   You can also watch Dan Hong make squid recipe here.

Salt and Pepper Squid and Sliders

Serves Six

• • 500 grams squid, cleaned, scored then cut in to strips
  • 1 egg white, lightly beaten
  • Potato starch for coating the squid
  • Oil for deep frying

Spice Mix

• • 1 teaspoon each of salt, white pepper, five spice and chicken powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon sugar

1. To make the calamari, dip the strips of squid in the egg white then coat in the potato starch.
2. Deep fry the squid for around two minutes until pale and crisp.  Drain on paper towels.
3. Grind all the spice mix ingredients in a mortar and pestle and sprinkle generously over the squid while warm.
4. For the sliders, mix some siracha and mayonnaise on both sides of a milk bun, lay some fried squid and top with spring onions and coriander.

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