Brunch: Crisped polenta with sweet onions and ham

Today, I bring you a delicious brunch item, sure to be much better than yet another ham or turkey sandwich after Christmas. It’s modeled after this recipe from the Food 52 cookbook (which annoys me because it doesn’t have a good index), but altered to use leftover holiday ham and various ingredients I had in the kitchen at the time.

Fair warning: The polenta/cornmeal mush has to refrigerate for a couple of hours before frying, so if you’re hungry right now, I suggest you go with a turkey sandwich or ham and cheese (preferably with caramelized onions) omelet. If you’ve got time, have a snack and carry on!

Crisped Polenta with Sweet Onions and Ham

½ c cornmeal*

½ c cold water (for mixing)

1 ½ c water (for boiling)

½ tsp salt       

½ tsp garlic

½ tsp parsley

dash cayenne pepper

dash black pepper

flour (for dredging)

olive oil (for frying)

½ of a sweet onion, such as red onion or Vidalia

slices of ham (yay, leftovers!)

real maple syrup, to serve

Boil 1 ½ c water and salt in medium saucepan. In a small bowl, mix cornmeal, spices, and ½ c cold water. Gradually stir in cornmeal mixture. Cook for five minutes, stirring constantly. Reduce heat, cover, and cook for ten minutes, stirring occasionally. (Or cook the polenta according to package directions, if you’re cool enough to have some on hand.) Grease a mini loaf pan** and press cornmeal/polenta mixture into the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about two hours, or until firm enough to slice.***

Shortly before taking the polenta out of the fridge, thinly slice the onion and sauté in olive oil until browned and delicious.

When polenta is firm, remove from pan and carefully cut into ¼-inch slices. Heat oil in a nonstick pan, dredge polenta slices in flour, and fry until crisp and lightly browned. Lightly fry ham slices and arrange on plates with fried mush and sautéed onions. Drizzle with maple syrup.

Serve with a salad, if you like, perhaps some romaine or arugula with balsamic vinaigrette, goat cheese, and pine nuts.

Bonus: If your family doesn’t seem interested in eating polenta, you can eat the leftovers with an onion and feta omelet for breakfast the next day.

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*I’ve never actually had polenta, but as far as I can tell it’s just about the same thing. If you have real polenta, good for you; if not, cornmeal seems to work just fine. I have long suspected that “polenta” is mostly a marketing technique by cornmeal producers and/or the Iowan government. (Though, if you have real polenta, please let me know if it’s different from/better than cornmeal mush. I’ve been wondering.) I see their point; polenta sounds much more appetizing, so that’s what we’ll be referring to cornmeal mush as in this recipe.

**The goal here is to get the polenta into a something vaguely loaf shaped so you can slice it later. If you don’t have a mini loaf pan, a largish coffee mug or two would probably work.

***You can speed things up a bit if you only need a few slices by putting the polenta in the freezer for 15-20 minutes and slicing off the ends to fry. Then put it back in the fridge; I have no idea what happens when this stuff freezes.