Guest poster: My husband! The recipe was written and crafted by him. He originally created this recipe over a year ago.
Breading
1 cup Corn Meal (finely ground) or corn flour may work as well
4 tablespoon Tapioca Flour
2 tablespoon Potato Starch
1/2 teaspoon Xanthan Gum
4 tablespoon Coconut Milk (So Delicious Unsweetened)
1 rounded teaspoon Egg Replacer
1 teaspoon Rice Vinegar
1/2 cup Water – this is approximate – add enough water to turn this into a batter
I sifted the flour mix (corn meal, tapioca flour, potato starch and xanthan gum) before mixing the liquids in. I then put the egg replacer and rice vinegar in a small bowl and mixed them together with about a tablespoon of warm water. Mix this and the water together. This batter needs to be thick enough to stay on the polenta, but not so thick that it makes the polenta crumble when you try to coat it.
Polenta
I cooked 3 cups to produce extra.
There really is no secret to this, just be sure the grits are thick so that it will set rather than stay mushy. Keeping the water to dry grits ratio at 2:1 should work well. Add more water if you have to but as I said before, don't overdo it.
Add lots of butter, Earth Balance, coconut oil, or olive oil. I used coconut oil. If the grits are thick enough, you can add lots of oil/butter. Generally, the more the better and richer the polenta will be. Also, you can sauté and brown onions, scallions, leeks etc and add the basic Italian spices. You really need to add lots of flavoring to get that flavoring to come through in the final product. Luckily, you can add everything to taste since the polenta is already cooked and you can test it as you add the herbs.
Once the polenta is ready, put it in a large pan to spread out the polenta. I usually spread it to about 1” but you can spread it as thick or thin as you want. Next, put it in a refrigerator until it cools or you can just leave it out to cool. Once the polenta sets and hardens up you can cut it up, coat it in the breading, and fry it in coconut oil (or oil of choice) in a wok.
Balsamic Reduction & Avocado
For the avocado, we simply cubed avocado for garnish. We also made an avocado sauce by mashing avocado in a bowl and then adding salt , herbs and onion. You can also add tomato, sort of like guacamole. Get creative and flavor it how you prefer!
Put balsamic vinegar in a small sauce pan. Place on medium heat and let simmer until it reduces to a thick syrup.
- Heather & Matt
