Polenta

Anyone have any good recipes for Polenta. I had some polenta fries at a restaurant on the weekend. Good stuff! Polenta isn't very common in this neck of the woods so any advice is appreciated!

Clark

Alton Brown has a really good polenta recipe on his Good Eats TV show on Food Network. It's baked and really easy to prepare.

I've made it several times and it's really good. I use regular yellow cornmeal and don't buy a special "polenta" meal.

Alton Brown's Savory Polenta recipe

I love polenta (or, as we call it: grits ) and make it all the time. My recipe that I've zeroed in on is as such:

1/4c stone ground cornmeal
3/4c yellow corn grits (very coarsely ground cornmeal, more coarse than stone ground)
4c water
salt to taste (depends on if you add any 'additives' such as cheese)

1. Bring salted water to a boil and whisk in the 1c combined cornmeal. This is the most critical stage in that you do not want ANY lumps...whisk whisk whisk. Reduce to a simmer.
2. Simmer ~20-30m stirring relatively frequently, but if you got rid of the lumps in step 1 and keep it at a low simmer you don't have to tend to it constantly.
3. When it thickens up and pulls away from the side of the pot you know it's done.

At this point you can add things like cheese (I like parmigiano-reggiano, ~1c), mushrooms, etc, whatever you like. Serve immediately.

Now, take the leftovers and spread them in a tupperware or similar and refrigerate. They will setup and can be dumped out in a monolithic fashion onto a cutting board and sliced into pieces. I do this the next day and fry them in a little butter until crispy and brown on each side. Serve with some country ham and drizzled with redeye gravy and chopped green onions.

The "next day" cakes can also be grilled or baked.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">and fry them in a little butter until crispy and brown on each side. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Yes, I like that too. They can also be grilled as a side item.

Dang, I forgot to add step 4 to my recipe above which is to stir in some butter. Polenta/grits has to have some kind of fat (butter/cheese/cream/etc). I think I got hung up thinking about adding cheese since I usually do that, in which case I reduce the butter.

Polenta is traditionally made without fat. That doesn't mean you can't include it--many recipes do--but it is used mostly for flavoring and/or for textural considerations. It doesn't need it.