There is bliss in eating a well-made, well composed meal. Tonight I made a favorite vegetarian dish, Grilled Gluten-Free Polenta with Marsala Mushroom Garlic sauce, adorned with tiny feta cheese cubes. The result is melt in your mouth, but alas, this evening I had no marsala.

The hubby is a merlot man, and a bottle of Pellegrini Vinyards Cloverdale Ranch 2004 from my Russian River trip was cracked, corked and waiting in the wine parlor. We have no wine cellar, but we do have a wine parlor in a cupboard above the pantry. The merlot was just going to waste otherwise, I reasoned. Best it was used. Besides, the Bear is taking a cold and I wanted to make him something he would enjoy for dinner.

Merlot is dryer than marsala, so I wasn't sure of the result using it in this recipe. The Bear said it wouldn't work...the Mitties were unsure...but I had faith.

It was heavenly.

The resulting melange reminded us of the innocent goodness in relentlessly voracious scarfing mom's good potroast on golden Sunday afternoons. Whole blocks of hours awaited our pleasure then, where one might read, play quietly or watch television with dad. Good memories.

And potroast is exactly what this tastes like. The kind with all the richness of veggies roasted around the edges and a gravy so good it almost makes you cry. Though we didn't have it, a great compliment to this recipe would be a random mixture of carrot, onion, potato and any other root vegetables you happen to have handy.

You gotta try this:

Grilled Polenta With Mushroom Merlot Ragout

1 pre-made roll of commercial gluten-free polenta

12 - 25 Crimini or Shitake mushrooms

1 clove of garlic, creamed with Celtic grey sea salt

1 tbps gluten-free shoyu or light soy sauce

1/4 - 1/3 cup warm water

1/4 - 1/2 cup good Merlot

1/2 - 1 tsp tapioca starch or cornstarch

Ghee or mixture of unsalted butter and olive oil for cooking

1/4 - 1/2 cup feta cheese, cubed very small

Process:
To cream garlic, chop finely, salt liberally and run the knife sideways over the pile with the flat side pushing the garlic into the cutting board. Work the knife back and forth sideways and let the salt grind the garlic into a creamy emulsion.

Thinly slice and saute the mushrooms with creamed garlic using 1 or 2 tbsp. melted ghee or butter/oil mixture. Saute until mushrooms turn dark and slightly carmellize. Add the merlot and shoyu and cook at a rapid simmer until liquid is somewhat reduced.

To a few tablespoons warm water add the tapioca powder and stir until dissolved. Add this to the mushroom merlot mixture in the pan and stir well, watching to see that it doesn't overthicken. If it does, or if the resulting taste is a tad too salty, add more warm water to suit.

When the sauce is the thickness you desire, add the feta cubes. Stir of a minute (cheese will not melt) then remove to a separate bowl and clean the pan.

Add a tablespoon more ghee to the pan and when melted, add the roll of polenta that you have cut into 1" slices. Cook until each side is crispy. The center of each polenta round may still be soft - a creamy center is desired.

Place polenta rounds on a serving platter and top with the mushroom-merlot-feta sauce. If you're really being chi-chi, dust with finely chopped parsley.

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You will fight off your children and significant other/s to get to this one after they taste it, so ladle yourself out the first portion and enjoy, with a glass of that merlot if you so desire. I don't, so I had mine with Pellegrino sparkling water with at twist of lime. The Bear, sniffling heavily, enjoyed his with a mug of my good Apple Chamomile tea, liberally spiced with Tupelo honey and cinnamon.

Heavenly.

Now, some of the more health-conscious in the audience may be overheating at the thought of ghee, which is clarified butter. You can buy this product in Indian stores and most health food stores. Ghee, in Ayurvedic medicine is actually good for you and has many health benefits over non-clarified butter. And a couple of tablespoons between (3 or 4) friends is nothing to get freaked about.

The alcohol cooks off the merlot which is a provider of resveratrol, an anti-oxidant good for the heart. So is the garlic, when you press the clove and let it wait 15 minutes for the beneficial allicin component to age slightly to its best medicinal effect. Celtic grey sea salt provides necessary minerals and is recommended by Dr. Batmangelidj , in addition to one's daily barrelful of clean water. The polenta, tapioca starch and shoyu (I use San-J brand) are gluten-free though people who are releasing weight may want to limit intake of the carbs in polenta. Mushrooms are great boosters for the immune system though, and sheep or goat feta is better tolerated a cheese than most bovine-origin cheeses for Westerners.

This is a healthy bliss inducer. Stay tuned for dessert...

Enjoy!

Love & Blessings,
Maryam