Pamela's Polenta

I came upon this polenta quite by accident. You see, I have never cared much for polenta when I had it before. I never quit understood what the draw was...but that all changed one afternoon - quite by accident! My daughter and I were playing around trying to figure how to make some corn chips from scratch. I was giving suggestions and she was carrying them out as I was doing another task. She made the chips too thick and when we tasted it, I declared, "polenta and it's good!" So we tweaked it a little more and this is what we came up with. When we served it for the first time the kids gobbled it up like it was mac and cheese or something! They declared how much they loved it and all the different ways THEY thought it would be good. Naomi remembered eating something similar to it in Haiti and she really liked it too. Ben was less excited, about it and said, "Yeah, it reminds me of a third world country", but when he added more toppings, he too got the polenta magic. :-) Polenta can be made in a creamy style or in a baked style. This is the baked. It is a dense corn cake, that is on the bland and buttery side. So it does well paired with things that have robust flavor. I give suggestions at the end of this recipe of ways to use it. This is a wonderful meal to serve on a hot Shabbat, because you can make it ahead and serve it warm, cold or room temperature.

3C Organic Yellow Cornmeal
1 tsp Sea Salt
3 1/2C boiling water, divided
2 tsp butter

Preheat oven to 450F
Combine cornmeal and salt.
Add half of the water and mix well.
Add butter and mixing until melted.
Keep stirring while you add the rest of the hot water, then let it sit 5-10 minutes. Meanwhile, butter a 9x13 baking dish. Pour the polenta batter into the pan and bake about a half hour or so until golden.

Serving Suggestions:
1. Serve with black beans, corn and mango (or pineapple) salsa
2. Right when it come out of the oven sprinkle the top generous amount of fresh Parmesan all of over the top and serve with marinara sauce.
3. Mix in Pimentos or diced jalapeno and shredded cheddar in the batter.
4. Pour chili or bean soup over top of it in a bowl (in the winter time).
5. Mix in garlic, parsley, basil and chopped onions in the batter and drizzle with some balsamic vinegar reduction and olive oil. Served with Asiago Cheese Chips and green salad.
6. Slice it and fry it on a skillet with some eggs and salsa
7. Put it int a bowl and pour a little milk sweetened with maple syrup and cinnamon over top.