Creamy Polenta With Mushrooms

A Serious Eats way to cook polenta is to soak it overnight (NOT instant). Then it cooks quickly, no clumping. Easy and less stressful. They use water as milk only makes it rich as many have commented.

This is amazing. I followed the recipe as is, but tripled the mushrooms (and all mushroom ingredients). It served 5.

This was AMAZINGLY delicious. I used shiitakes and morrels, and fresh porcinis. Was a bit tipsy by the time it got down to deglazing the pan and making the sauce, so my mushrooms stayed in the pan for that process, but it turned out great nonetheless. The next morning I heated up leftovers and put fried eggs on top, was a very nice addition to the dish.

This was beyond delicious. I never cook polenta in milk and didn't this time, either. That was good, because the mushrooms are very rich. More than enough polenta (which is fine for leftovers) but next time--and there will be a next time--I will at least triple the mushrooms. This sounds ordinary; it is anything but.

Add a bit of balsamic vinegar to the soy and butter sauce. It kicks up the umami. Dried Tarragon adds a nice flavor and aroma as well. I do something similar when I cook lentils. The combination of soy, balsamic, tarragon, mushrooms and shallots is divine!

The dried porcini that I buy all seem to be impossibly stringy and chewy even after soaking for 24 hours. I have stopped using them and I up the amount of other mushrooms to 3x and add porcini powder to taste. I must say that porcini powder is a godsend to liven up stews, soups and any dish where mushrooms are ingredients and you think you need extra flavor.

Definitely not 4-6 servings of tasty tasty mushrooms.
Had to use whole milk instead of heavy cream and it seemed to work out fine.

I once substituted dry sherry for the soy sauce and was shocked by how good it was.

Perfect for a celebration, for feeding my child in recovery from an illness, for nourishment after a day of hard work, etc. I don’t understand why people feel the need to make these negative comments that only reflect their own food rigidity.

I like the tipsy part.

Overall quite good especially on a winter day. Ratio of polenta to mushrooms was a bit off. Need either more mushrooms or less polenta by about 25%. Maybe a bit heavy. Consider just cooking the polenta in water and not milk or leaving out the parmesan. I also felt it lacked acid. Consider adding some lemon zest at the end or maybe vinegar.

In response to Victor Sasson who took health issues with butter and soy because of saturated fat and sodium: No need to yuck my yum. :-) Everything in moderation. Perhaps after this meal I'll have brown rice and steamed broccoli. Also a pleasing combination.

Maitake, shiitake and crimini combo. Less butter, no cream, more olive oil. I had no dried mushroom, hence no mushroom broth. Ran with a hunch and deglazed pan with rice vinegar. The sourness evaporated and left a deep umami that went so well with soy. So, I really did not follow the recipe at all... Next time, definitely! I just want to eat this again and again.

The recipe should be updated to mention that you need to remove mushrooms before creating the sauce. I know it should be obvious, but I didn’t realize it until too late, and when the oil hit the pan, it killed the sauce. Still tasty, because the mushrooms absorbed a lot of the flavor, but I know it will be better when I make it properly. (I may cut a tablespoon or 2 if butter though... I love butter but this was a little much for my stomach).

When I make this, I skip the milk in the polenta -- the mushrooms are rich enough themselves. That aside, this is delicious! I made it a couple of days ago and had both polenta and mushrooms left over. I shaped the polenta into a loaf. Tonight, I sliced it and fried it in butter. I reheated the mushrooms plus some sliced red onion, stirring in eggs for a scramble, with some grated gruyere (left over from quiche a couple of weeks ago). A wonderful, comforting meal for a cold Midwestern night!