Chef John's Three Corn Polenta recipe

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Ingredients

2 teaspoons butter, divided
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 ½ cups fresh corn kernels, divided
salt and ground black pepper to taste
1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste
1 clove garlic, pressed
2 ½ cups water, divided
½ cup polenta

Nutrition Info

166 calories
carbohydrate: 26.6 g
cholesterol: 7 mg
fat: 5.6 g
fiber: 2.9 g
protein: 4.6 g
saturatedFat: 2.1 g
servingSize: -
sodium: 211 mg
sugar: 2.9 g
transFat: : -
unsaturatedFat: : -

Directions

  1. Melt 1 teaspoon butter and olive oil in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook and stir 2/3 of the corn, with a pinch of salt and a pinch of cayenne pepper in the hot butter and oil until the corn is fragrant and golden, about 10 minutes. Add garlic, cook and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

  2. Pour 2 cups water into corn mixture, bring to a simmer and whisk polenta into mixture. Bring to a simmer again, reduce heat to low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until mixture is thick and polenta absorbs the water, 20 minutes. Add remaining 1/2 cup water and stir, cook for until water is completely absorbed, about 10 minutes more.

  3. Stir remaining corn and 1 teaspoon butter into polenta mixture. Remove from heat, cover the pot, and let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

Recipe Yield

4 servings

Recipe Note

When I first began my career as a cook in San Francisco, I remember talking with a Chef about an upcoming menu on which he was thinking of using polenta as the side dish. I asked him if he was talking about polanda. He said he'd never heard of polanda. I called my mom and told her we were going to serve something called polenta at the restaurant. I asked her if she had ever heard of it. She laughed and said that they were the same things! She explained that 'pol-an-da' was just our family's mispronunciation of the actual name polenta. I was pretty embarrassed, to say the least!

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