Hard Polenta Cakes Recipes

HARD POLENTA CAKES WITH TALEGGIO AND CHERRY TOMATOES

Steps:

• Combine the milk, 1/2 cup water, the cayenne and bay leaf in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil and season generously with salt. You want to take the seasoning to the edge of too salty in this case; to do this you MUST taste as you go! Polenta acts like a "salt eraser"; if you don't salt abundantly in this early step, you'll never recover.
• When the liquid comes to a boil, gradually sprinkle in the polenta, whisking constantly. Once the polenta is combined, IMMEDIATELY switch over to a wooden spoon and stir frequently until the polenta thickens, 30 to 35 minutes. Taste the polenta to see if it's cooked through. If it still feels mealy and grainy, add some more milk or water and continue to cook for another 10 minutes. Repeat this process as needed until the polenta feels smooth on your tongue. Remove the bay leaf and stir in the mascarpone and Parmigiano-Reggiano, then remove from the heat.
• Line a 7-inch square baking pan with plastic wrap. Pour the polenta into the pan and cover with plastic, pressing down so the plastic sits on the surface of the polenta. Chill until set, at least 45 minutes. (All of this can totally be done ahead of time, like yesterday!)
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• Cut the cooled polenta into 1-inch squares. Place the squares on a baking sheet and top each with a piece of taleggio. Put the cherry tomatoes on a separate baking sheet and toss them with olive oil. Bake both the polenta squares and the tomatoes for 10 minutes. The tomatoes should be hot, starting to relax and getting a little squishy, and the taleggio should be nicely melted. Place the polenta cakes on a serving dish, top each square with a tomato half, and garnish each with a little sprinkey-dink of coarse sea salt and chives.

SPICY POLENTA CAKES

Steps:

• Combine the milk, salt and 2 cups water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Lower the heat and slowly whisk in the polenta. Cook, whisking constantly, until the polenta tightens and there are no lumps, about 4 minutes. Stir in the queso blanco, butter, cilantro, pepper and jalapeno. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Taste and adjust the seasoning as needed.
• Generously butter a 9-by-9-inch baking pan. Pour the polenta into the pan and set aside to cool to room temperature. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours, until firm.
• Preheat a griddle pan over medium heat. Invert the polenta onto a clean cutting board and slice it into nine 3-inch squares. Brush the squares on both sides with the olive oil, then griddle them until golden brown and warmed through, about 3 minutes per side. While warm, drizzle the polenta cakes with the honey and squeeze lime juice over the top. Serve.

POLENTA CAKES

Steps:

• Bring water or broth to a boil and add cornmeal and salt. Reduce heat to low and stir for 5 mintues. Add 1/4 cup of cheese and stir until melted and well combined. Remove from heat, cover, and allow to cool for 30 minutes.
• Cut a piece of parchment paper to line a 9x13" baking pan, allowing for enough parchment paper to come up over the edge to make it easy to lift polenta cake once cooled. Refrigerate for at least two hours, or overnight.
• Gently remove polenta from baking pan and place on a cutting board. Cut into desired shapes using a sharp knife or bisucuit cutter.
• Heat 1 teaspoon of olive oil in a non-stick saute pan. Working in batchs of 3-4 at a time, saute each cake for 3-4 minutes on each side until golden brown.
• Remove from pan using a slotted spatula and plate on a serving dish or single plate. Top with remaining cheese, rosemary, salt and papper.

LEMON POLENTA CAKE

Steps:

• This cake is a sort of Anglo-Italian amalgam. The flat, plain disc is reminiscent of the confections that sit geometrically arranged in patisserie windows in Italy; the sharp, syrupy sogginess borrows from the classic English teatime favorite, the lemon drizzle cake. It is a good marriage: I love Italian cooking in all respects save one - I find their cakes both too dry and too sweet. Here, though, the flavorsome grittiness of the polenta and tender rubble of ground almond meal provide so much better a foil for the wholly desirable dampness than does the usual flour.
• But there is more to it than that. By some alchemical process, the lemon highlights the eggy butteriness of the cake, making it rich and sharp at the same time. If you were to try to imagine what lemon curd would taste like in cake form, this would be it.
• Although I am greedily happy to slice and cram messily straight into my mouth, letting damp clumps fall where they will, this cake is best eaten - in company at least - with spoon and fork. Either way, consider it a contender for teatime comfort and supper-party celebration alike.
• For the cake: Line the base of your cake pan with parchment paper and grease its sides lightly with butter. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Beat the butter and sugar till pale and whipped, either by hand in a bowl with a wooden spoon, or using a freestanding mixer.
• Mix together the almond meal, polenta and baking powder, and beat some of this into the butter-sugar mixture, followed by 1 egg, then alternate dry ingredients and eggs, beating all the while.
• Finally, beat in the lemon zest and pour, spoon or scrape the mixture into your prepared pan and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes. It may seem wibbly but, if the cake is cooked, a cake tester should come out cleanish and, most significantly, the edges of the cake will have begun to shrink away from the sides of the pan. Remove from the oven to a wire cooling rack, but leave in its pan.
• For the syrup: Make the syrup by boiling together the lemon juice and confectioners' sugar in a smallish saucepan. Once the confectioners' sugar has dissolved into the juice, you're done. Prick the top of the cake all over with a cake tester (a skewer would be too destructive), pour the warm syrup over the cake, and leave to cool before taking it out of its pan.
• Make Ahead Note: The cake can be baked up to 3 days ahead and stored in airtight container in a cool place. Will keep for total of 5 to 6 days.
• Freeze Note: The cake can be frozen on its lining paper as soon as cooled, wrapped in double layer of plastic wrap and a layer of foil, for up to 1 month. Thaw for 3 to 4 hours at room temperature.

POLENTA CAKES WITH QUICK SAUSAGE SAUCE

Steps:

• For the polenta cakes: In a saucepan, combine the milk, water, bay, and cayenne. Bring the mixture to a boil over low heat and season generously with salt. Take the seasoning to the edge of too salty. To do this you must taste as you go. Polenta acts as a salt eraser, if you don't season abundantly here you will never recover from it.
• Once the liquid is at a boil and is seasoned appropriately, sprinkle in the polenta, whisking constantly. Once the polenta is combined, switch over to a wooden spoon and stir frequently until the polenta has become thick. Taste the polenta to see if it has cooked through. If it still feels mealy and grainy, add some more milk or water and cook it to a thick consistency. Repeat this process, as needed, until the polenta feels smooth on your tongue, about 30 minutes. Remove the bay leaf and stir in the sage and mascarpone.
• Line a 7 by 7-inch square pan with plastic wrap. Pour the polenta into the prepared pan. Cover the top with more plastic wrap smoothed onto the surface of the polenta. Chill in the refrigerator until needed. (All of this can totally be done ahead of time, like yesterday! Cool!)
• For the sauce: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• Place the sausage in the oven and roast for 15 minutes.
• In a food processor, puree the onions, fennel, celery, and garlic until it becomes a coarse paste. Season with salt and give a sprinkle of crushed red pepper.
• When the sausage is roasted, remove it from the oven and coarsely chop.
• Coat a wide, deep pot with olive oil and add the pureed veggies. Cook the veggies until they start to brown, about 10 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the white wine and reduce by half. Toss in the chopped sausage and the tomato puree. Taste and season with salt, if needed. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer and simmer for 20 minutes.
• Remove the polenta from the pan and cut into desired shapes. Coat a nonstick saute pan with olive oil and bring to medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot and starting to smoke just a little, add the polenta shapes. Cook the polenta on both sides and finish by sprinkling with the Parmigiano.
• Transfer a few polenta cakes to a plate and top with the sausage sauce. Sprinkle with more grated Parmigiano.
• Place the pork shoulder in a bowl and keep cold until ready to use. Fill a large bowl with ice and place the bowl with the pork shoulder on top.
• Season the pork with garlic, salt, fennel seed, crushed red pepper, and coriander. Mix to combine well.
• Grind the pork shoulder twice through a grinding disk with large holes. Grind the meat into the bowl sitting on ice.
• Cook a small amount of the meat mixture to test for seasoning. Add more spices and salt, if needed. Thoroughly mix in a splash of cold water. Allow the seasoned pork to chill on ice or in the fridge before stuffing into the casing.
• Replace the grinder attachment with the horn. (Be sure to thoroughly clean the attachment area before proceeding.) Rub oil onto the horn, and then put the casing on, leaving a few inches of slack at the end.
• Stuff the casing, tie off the ends, and prick the sausage with a pin or the tip of a knife.
• Refrigerate the sausage until ready to cook.

FRIED POLENTA CAKES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• In a 1 to 1 1/2 quart oven-safe container, stir together water, salt, pepper, and polenta
• Add butter to the mixture, cut up in chunks.
• Place container, uncovered, in center rack of oven and bake 40 minutes.
• Open oven, pull out rack, add parmesan, and any other ingredients like sun-dried tomatoes, olives, lemon zest, herbs, shallots, cilantro etc. and let bake another 10 minutes.
• Pull out of oven and let rest in refrigerator 20 minutes to over-night.
• In frying pan, on medium-high, heat oil.
• Spoon about half a cup of polenta into the pan at a time, fry until golden brown on each side.
• Let cakes rest about 3-5 minutes and serve.

BASIC POLENTA

Steps:

• For firm polenta use 4 cups water; for soft polenta use 5 cups water. Bring water to a boil in a medium-size heavy sauce pan over high heat. Add 1 teaspoon salt. Pour cornmeal slowly into water, stirring with a wire whisk or wooden spoon. Continue stirring as mixture thickens, 2 to 3 minutes.
• Turn heat to low. Cook for at least 45 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so. If polenta becomes quite thick, thin it with 1/2 cup water, stir well and continue cooking. Add up to 1 cup more water as necessary, to keep polenta soft enough to stir. Put a spoonful on a plate, let it cool, then taste. Grains should be swollen and taste cooked, not raw. Adjust salt and add pepper if you wish.
• For firm polenta, lightly butter a baking sheet or shallow dish, approximately 8 1/2 by 11 inches. Carefully pour polenta into pan. Using a spatula, spread polenta to a thickness of 3/4 inch. Cool to room temperature to allow polenta to solidify. Cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days. For soft polenta, add 6 tablespoons butter to pot and stir well. Serve immediately or transfer to a double boiler set over low heat, cover and keep warm for up to an hour or so. (Or set the saucepan in a pot of barely simmering water.) Stir well before spooning into low soup bowls. Sprinkle with Parmesan, if desired.

LEMON POLENTA CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line the base of a 9-inch springform pan with parchment paper and butter sides; set aside.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and superfine sugar until pale and fluffy.
• In a medium bowl, mix together almond meal, polenta, and baking powder. Add some of the almond meal mixture to the bowl with the butter mixture and beat to combine. Add one egg and mix until combined. With the mixer on low, continue alternating adding remaining almond meal mixture and 2 eggs; mix until well combined. Add lemon zest and mix just to combine.
• Pour batter into prepared pan and transfer to oven; bake until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out with just a few crumbs and cake begins to pull away from sides of the pan, about 40 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
• Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, mix together lemon juice and confectioners' sugar; place over medium heat and bring to a boil. Cook, stirring, until sugar is dissolved; remove syrup from heat.
• Using a cake tester, prick holes all over the top of the cake; pour warm syrup over cake and let cool completely. Remove from pan and serve.