Serves 4
At some point early on in my journey of eating good to feel well, I made the mistake of looking at the back of a bag of polenta and discovered that, nutritionally speaking, polenta really has nothing going for it. What it does contain are calories, fat, and cholesterol, but since bulking up on nutrition-free carbs isn’t really my thing, as much as I liked the warm, baby-food quality of polenta, I tried to steer clear of it. That is, until I discovered millet. When you cook them together, you get the corn flavor of polenta and the nutritional qualities of the millet. You can also use this polenta as a g-free base for your favorite meat sauce; or put an egg on it and call it breakfast. This is a vegetarian dish and gluten-free.
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons kosher salt
½ cup polenta (medium-ground cornmeal)
½ cup millet, rinsed
¼ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for grating or sprinkling over the finished polenta
1 pound mixed mushrooms (such as chanterelles, yellowfoot, trumpet, oyster, shiitake, matsutake, or cremini)
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter
6 garlic cloves, smashed with the flat side of a knife
A small handful of fresh thyme sprigs
2 teaspoons kosher salt
For the polenta, bring 4 cups water to a boil in a small saucepan over high heat. Add the oil and salt and slowly rain in the polenta and millet, whisking continuously so they don’t clump up. Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring often, until the grains are tender and thick like porridge, about 30 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the Parmesan. Leave the pot on the stove until you’re ready to serve the polenta.
Meanwhile, to prepare the mushrooms, trim the tough ends from the stems of the mushrooms and wipe off any dirt with a wet paper towel.
Combine half the butter, half the garlic, and half the thyme sprigs in a large skillet and heat over medium heat until the butter melts and sizzles but doesn’t brown, about 1 minute. Add half the mushrooms, sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of the salt, and give them a quick stir to distribute the salt. Spread the mushrooms out so they are lying flat in a single layer and cook until they are deep golden brown on both sides, transferring the garlic cloves and mushrooms from the pan to a plate as soon as they are golden brown on both sides. Remove the thyme sprigs and add them to the plate with their friends. Add the remaining butter, garlic, and thyme; the butter will melt almost immediately since the pan is already hot. Add the remaining mushrooms, sprinkle them with the remaining 1 teaspoon salt, and cook them as you did the first batch. Transfer the garlic, mushrooms, and thyme to the plate with the first batch.
If the polenta has cooled and thickened up, warm it over medium-low heat with enough water to bring it back to a loose, spoonable consistency. Spoon it into four wide-mouthed bowls. Pile the mushrooms, garlic, and thyme on top and sprinkle or grate Parmesan over the mushrooms so it looks like a light drift of fresh snow.