Sous Vide Polenta

Making polenta in a sous vide bag is easy, it just requires a bit of time and the occasional massaging of the mixture. It's a forgiving recipe: it won't overcook, it won't burn, and you don't have to hover over it with your Italian grandmother's wooden spoon.

While we've made polenta many times on the stove top, we've found it convenient to make a large batch using sous vide. You can use almost any liquid -- water, milk, stock; we used skim milk here because we wanted some flavor but not too much richness. The butter and rosemary are optional but tasty.

We made it recently with 900 g Milk, and it was a bit more dense than we'd like: it would set up well if cooled to make a slab to fry, but we wanted it a bit more loose as a base for wild mushrooms; we've increased the liquid here.

This makes enough for 12 as a side dish. It's also easy to transport in the bag: wrapped in a towel in a cooler it will retain the heat for a couple hours.

 200 g Corn meal, coarse
1000 g Milk, skim (or whole, or stock, or water)
  50 g Butter
  20 g Salt
   3 g Fresh Rosemary, minced fine

Combine everything in a sous vide bag and seal. Cook for 2 hours at 85C.  Once it starts setting up, massage the bag to break up lumps every 10-15 minutes; wrap in a towel -- it's hot.

Give it a final massage before serving to ensure it's smooth. Snip off a corner of the bag and squirt onto a serving platter.