by arielleclementine
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2 cups whole milk Ask a question about this ingredient
2 cups water Ask a question about this ingredient
1 teaspoon kosher salt Ask a question about this ingredient
1 cup polenta Ask a question about this ingredient
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil Ask a question about this ingredient
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil Ask a question about this ingredient
1 tablespoon butter Ask a question about this ingredient
1 yellow onion, halved and sliced in 1/4" slices Ask a question about this ingredient
2 ounces goat cheese, crumbled Ask a question about this ingredient
Bring the water, milk, and salt to a boil. Slowly whisk in the polenta. Turn heat to low, and continue whisking for 5 minutes, or until polenta is smooth and creamy. Spread the polenta in a 9x9 baking dish, and set aside to cool.
Ask a question about this stepWhile the polenta is setting up, add the butter and olive oil to a heavy-bottomed skillet set to medium-low heat. Add the sliced onions and a sprinkle of kosher salt, and cook, stirring occasionally until soft, golden, and caramelized- about 20-25 minutes.
Ask a question about this stepPour 1 tablespoon olive oil into another skillet, set over medium heat. Using a 3" round cookie cutter, cut out circles of the firm polenta, and place in the heated skillet. Cook until slightly browned and crusty on one side, about 2 minutes, then flip and cook the other sides another two minutes.
Ask a question about this stepTo assemble the polenta cakes, place on a plate, add one tablespoon of caramelized onions to each cake, top each with about a teaspoon of crumbled goat cheese, and drizzle with honey. Enjoy!
Ask a question about this stepoh thank you!! love the ricotta twist! i'm making some of Jennie's homemade ricotta this week, so maybe i'll be able to try your variation! thanks for your comment :)
Outstanding! Made these for a dinner party last night and they were a hit!
I used store bought polenta (labeled in the grocery store as "mush") and it couldn't have been easier!
oh yay! thanks ohioeric!! i've gone the store bought polentra route too and it worked beautifully. so happy you liked it :)
Awesome...I didn't have goat cheese, so in keeping with the tapas theme, I substituted spicy chorizo sausage. The sweet honey and onions went great with the spicy sausage. Great texture contrast too.
Phenomenal recipe -- thanks so much!!
brilliant! i'm a huge chorizo fan- in fact- i just topped some latkes with chorizo! love your idea, and will definitely try it the next time i make these. i'm thrilled you liked the recipe :)
how long is the total cooking process?
how long would you say it takes for the polenta to firm up?
Hmm- about an hour if you multitask and caramelize the onions while the polenta is cooking and firming up.
I'd say about 10-20 minutes
I made this as an appetizer for a intimate dinner party and everyone loved it. I thought that it was perfect. The crispiness of the polenta with the caramelized onions and goat cheese was fabulous, but adding the honey as the finishing touch, is genius! It's the element of surprise that brings it over the top! So delicious.
yay elisa! thank you so much- i'm so pleased that you liked it!
Made this for an appetizer "showcase" party last night and it was a hit! I cut the polenta so I could make it into bite-sized squares. It was definitely not as nice looking as cookie cutters but it did the trick! It was quite easy, too, except for waiting for the polenta to set when I was already running late. I loved the tang of goat cheese paired with the sweet honey on top of the deliciously creamy polenta.
Thanks so much for this recipe!
thanks, enbe! what a lovely compliment! your party sounds super awesome too :)
made this last week........ OMG! so delicious and so easy. thanks for recipe.
btw- so excited I found your site... love love LOVE it!
oh wow! thank you! i'm so happy you liked it! i'll be making a variation of this recipe this weekend, with fried green tomatoes taking the place of the polenta cakes.
I made this for my breakfast this morning and it was wonderful! What a treat!
hooray! thanks, nannydeb!
Finally made this recipe. Wow it was very good. It was the first time I used honey like that.
http://bit.ly/bb9NSV
this is so fun! thank you for making and blogging about my recipe!
I liked the flavor of this a lot, but my polenta totally did not set up. I wonder what I did wrong? The instructions weren't that complicated. Anyway, I kind of just fried it up anyway even as it melted into the pan. :)
hi lbn :) so glad you liked it! sorry your polenta didn't set up- i guess i would recommend following the directions on your polenta packaging, since there are so many varieties. some may need to cook for 20-25 minutes before they get thicker and porridge-y. mine was done after 5, so that's what i wrote in the recipe.
I know I'm 6 months late but THIS IS THE BEST APPETIZER EVAH! I make it all the time now for company. It's a fail safe for me. I can carmelize the onions ahead of time so the only time I have to be away from guests is when I heat the polenta. (I buy the ready made and no one cares - much easier for mother). I'm so happy to have found this website. Keep those recipes coming!!
oh man!! thank you! i'm so happy you like it! i've also made it with the ready-made log o' polenta and agree that it works out swimmingly. isn't food52 the best? it has been so much fun- i had never made up a recipe before joining it! thanks again for the compliment :)
this looks wonderful -- i'm making it tonight! my mom's family is mennonite and for breakfast at our reunions, we always eat fried mush, aka polenta cakes, with tomatoes and maple syrup. i'm excited to try it with the onions, goat cheese, and honey!
oh fun! thank you for trying it! wow- fried mush with tomatoes and maple syrup sounds awesome- i will have to try that! (I've never had tomatoes and maple syrup together!). i hope you like this recipe :)
oh man! what a wonderful surprise to come home to! i can't believe it! thank you, thank you :)
Made this tonight and it was delicious! Used brie instead of goat cheese since that's what I had on hand, and seasoned the onions with a thyme, lavender sea salt mix I had. The polenta didn't fry very well because it wasn't as firm as it should have been, but I'm a polenta novice so I have a feeling I did something wrong. Even so, this recipe really opened up some great polenta ideas for me!
thank you so much for trying it! and what a fantastic-sounding adaptation! i'm sorry your polenta didn't firm up properly. truth be told, when i'm feeling lazy this goat cheese/caramelized onion/honey trio are almost as delicious piled on crostini :)
Hey, this is arielleclementine's husband. She's going to be so excited when she's finds out that her recipe was picked as a wildcard winner, but she's actually out of the country with no internet access all week (she and helenthenanny took their grandmother on a cruise). Anyway, she'll be back this weekend, and I'm sure she'll be eager to respond to your comments as soon as she returns. Thanks!
thanks, bunny-face!
I ogled this back when you first posted it. So delicious. Do you think I can make the polenta with an alternate milk--like hemp milk?
thank you, friend! absolutely! you could even make the polenta entirely with water, and I don't think it would affect the end product too much. will you tell me if you try it with hemp milk? i've never tried that before :)
Yummy! What a great recipe!
thank you!
Congrats on the Wildcard Win! Much deserved; it's a lovely recipe.
you're so kind :) thank you!
yahoo! thank you!
there are no directions for the olive oil in the polenta part of the recipe. do you add it to the pot or use it to grease the pan?
hi there! sorry this was confusing- the olive oil at the end of the ingredient list for the polenta is what you use to fry the polenta cakes after you've cut them out with the biscuit cutter. i hope you like it :)
thanks, mrslarkin!
You had my vote way back when. So glad to see this as a Wildcard Winner - a nice reminder that I haven't gotten around to trying it yet which I must do soon!
oh, wow! thank you!
Those are some yumtastic-sounding griddle cakes.
This sounds delicious!!! I love crispy polenta! I bet it would be great with gorgonzola too.
thank you! your gorgonzola idea sounds delightful :)
This should be a winner! So easy, with exquisite flavor and texture!
yay! thanks, candace :)
Hi Dianne :) I used Alpina Savoie medium polenta - "corn semolina". I've never used instant polenta, but I would assume that it would work just as well.
thank you! my husband and i are planning our first trip there in september- i'm beyond excited.
This recipe is going in my must try file. It gets my vote!
thank you so much! i sure hope you like it :)
You had me at "carmelized onions, goat cheese, and honey."
This is an excellent dish! I'd love to see it win!!!
They are sooo delicious!! Yahoo and good luck!!
what fun to be a finalist! thank you!
You're welcome! It's a great recipe.
Honey, goat cheese and onions ... well, you had me at HONEY! I will be trying this out for sure!
haha! thank you! i hope you like it :)
I cannot wait to try out this recipe!
oh, thank you!
- What does this mean? While it's on the 5 minutes on the stove or while it's cooling?
Carol is a gluten-free chef and food blogger currently cooking her way through the Alinea Cookbook.
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Very few ingredients, all of them in the white and yellow family.
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Onion having a bad hair day.
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You slice the onion thickly, about 1/4 inch.
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Merrill stirs the polenta into scalded milk. Watch how it thickens...
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Amanda searches for a 3-inch round cookie cutter as arielleclementine calls for but settles on a square.
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The onions are just beginning to take on color.
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Once the polenta firms up it begins pulling away from the dish.
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It feels a little bit like a rubber mat when you take it out of the dish -- isn't it cool how it comes out in one big flexible piece? We thought so!
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Then it's like cut-out cookies.
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We saute them in a non-stick skillet -- you want the heat up fairly high so the polenta crisps and warms through before it gets loose.
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It apparently takes two to flip a polenta square. Actually, we're just vain about our polenta and didn't want to risk messing it up flipping it alone.
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We saw no reason to throw away the scraps. Reminded us of a window in Smurfland. And we weren't even drinking yet.
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The honey and goat cheese go on at the very last moment.
This is fabulous! I made it with ricotta instead of goat cheese. There was nothing left on the plate!