©Ashy Macbean 2004.
Polenta with tomato and balsamic vinegar dressing
An absolutely fantastic chef cooked this for me in a hotel in Atyrau, near the Caspian Sea. I think the town used to be on the Caspian Sea, but now it's 15 very muddy kilometres from the shore. I won't go into how I ended up there, but I will say if it hadn't been for that chef's cooking, I wouldn't even mention the place.
The chef was a fellow Scotsman, but he was cooking Italian....all day and every day and he was very good at it. He would have to be. Most of his customers were Italian. Atyrau is the administrative centre of the Kazakh oil industry and the oil industry in Kazakhstan is run mostly by Italians. Don't ask me why - I don't know. What I do know, however, is that working with Italians must be pretty cool. If you want to try top-notch Italian cuisine, go to Atyrau. The coffee machines have real coffee in them. No kidding! Espresso and everything. And if that's not enough, nobody starts work till at least 10 o'clock in the morning. I love Italians.
The chef didn't tell me his recipe - I didn't ask him. I did what I usually do and guessed, then had a stab at doing it when I got home. It worked out okay, and here's how I did it.
(By the way - on second thoughts, if you want to try top-notch Italian cuisine, go to Milan).
Ingredients
1 cup of corn meal
3 cups of water
2 tomatoes
2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
Olive oil
A pinch of dried rosemary
Salt
Mix the corn meal with the water and a little salt and bring to the boil in a small pot. Reduce the heat and simmer for five minutes, stirring continuously. Pour the mixture onto a round tray or plate and spread it until it is about 2 cm thick. Leave to cool and set.
Cut the polenta into four sections and fry in a little olive oil for 3 or 4 minutes each side. Cut the tomatoes into large pieces and, using your fingers, scoop out and discard the seeds . Chop the tomato pieces into small cubes and leave aside.
When the polenta is golden on both sides, lift the pieces out of the pan and lay on plates. Return the pan to the heat and add the tomato. Stir and turn off the heat. Immediately add the balsamic vinegar and rosemary and stir again. Pour the sauce over the polenta.
A few salad leaves make a nice garnish for this dish.