Roast Beef on Polenta

I'm getting lazy with my meal preparation.  This was going to be an amazing thing with roast lamb and an elaborate sauce.  But I've been working a lot of hours and it's a wonder I'm not at a drive-thru every evening.  This was mostly passive and used sliced beef from the deli counter.

So here's the thing about polenta.  It's just corn meal mush.  Don't pay a lot for "prepared polenta" or anything like that.  I did make my own veggie stock for this, but how hard is it to raid the broth bag and simmer for an hour?  Cooking the corn meal only takes five minutes, then it sets up in the fridge for an hour or so.  Slice and done.

1 qt vegetable or chicken stock
*1-1/4 C corn meal
salt and pepper
1/2 C shredded white cheese of choice
1/2 lb thinly sliced roast beef
prepared cream horseradish or
*1 tsp horseradish and *2 Tb plain yogurt

1.  Bring 2 C stock to a low boil.  Separately, combine other 2 C stock and the cornmeal into a slurry. Add slurry to the pot and simmer until thickened, about 5 minutes.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Stir in cheese to melt, then pour into a buttered 8x8 pan.  I forgot to stir in the cheese curds I bought and sprinkled them on top.  Chill until firm, about 1 hour.

2.  If making your own horseradish sauce, stir together horseradish and yogurt.  Thin with milk to desired consistency (mainly if you used Greek yogurt).

3.  Slice firmed cornmeal into sticks and plate.  If desired, they can be sautéed in butter to crisp first.  Top with torn slices of beef and a dollop of sauce.  Serve chilled to room temperature.

Serves 8-12 as an appetizer

Difficulty rating  π