A Recipe for Sweet Corn Polenta with Eggplant Sauce and the history behind it’s author
I recently received a recommendation for a cookbook by the author, Yotam Ottolenghi. Yotam Ottolenghi is one of the most exciting new talents in the cooking world, with four fabulous, eponymous London restaurants and a weekly newspaper column that’s read by foodies all over the world. He is an Israeli-born cookery writer and chef-patron. His cooking style is rooted in, but not confined to his Middle Eastern upbringing, with a western twist. His particular skill is in marrying the food of his native Israel with a wider range of incredible textures and flavors from the Mediterranean, Middle East and Asia and his palate of flavors are unapologetically bold. He is also known for being the champion of vegetables at the same time as eating and loving meat.
While trying to figure out what interesting new thing I could do with all of the fresh sweet corn on the cob that I have been receiving from my local CSA box, I came across one of his recipes. It is for “Sweet Corn Polenta with Eggplant Sauce.” This recipe satisfied my need for using up my corn as well as my interest in discovering new techniques, as it educates you on how to make polenta directly from fresh corn. It also allowed me to utilize the wonderful fresh eggplant and tomatoes that I was gifted by my good friend, Tamera. A winner on all counts!
Yum! The polenta was a cinch to make. I halved the recipe as I only had 3 ears of corn. I did not add any of the cooking water as the consistency was perfect just from cooking and blending the corn. I didn’t add any salt because I felt the feta added enough on it’s own. I saved the water to use later in case it thickened too much and honestly figured I would just drink it otherwise. It was so delicious!!
The Sauce was also quite a simple process. I cooked the eggplant a bit less than the suggested 15 minutes to a nice brown. I used Sungold cherry tomatoes and just sliced them in half. I cooked the sauce down to a nice thickness.
The result was a creamy sweet corn polenta topped with a bold flavored vegetable sauce. Incredibly delicious and easy to make. I can think of a million different toppings for the polenta based on whatever you have in your vegetable drawer from mushrooms to squash. It would be fantastic with seared scallops, shallots and mushrooms in a white wine sauce….and the list goes on!
Yotam Ottolenghi’s Sweet Corn Polenta with Eggplant Sauce
Eggplant Sauce:
- 2/3 cups vegetable oil
- 1 medium eggplant, cut into 3/4-inch dice
- 2 teaspoons tomato paste
- 1/4 cup dry white wine
- 1 cup chopped peeled tomatoes (fresh or canned)
- 6 1/2 tablespoons water
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon chopped oregano
- Heat up the oil in a large saucepan and fry the eggplant on medium heat for about 15 minutes, or until nicely brown. Drain off as much oil as you can and discard it — the safest way to do this is to scoop out the eggplant to a plate using a slotted spoon, then pour off the oil into a bowl before added the eggplant back in. You can save the oil to fry lamb chops or eggs in tomorrow.
- Add the tomato paste to the pan and stir with the eggplant. Cook for 2 minutes, then add the wine and cook for 1 minute. Add the chopped tomatoes, water, salt, sugar and oregano and cook for a further 5 minutes to get a deep-flavored sauce. Set aside; warm it up when needed.
Polenta:
- 6 ears of corn
- 2 1/4 cups water
- 3 tablespoons butter, diced
- 7 ounces feta, crumbled
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Black pepper
- Remove the leaves and “silk” from each ear of corn, then chop off the pointed top and stalk. Use a sharp knife to shave off the kernels — either stand each ear upright on its base and shave downward, or lay each ear on its side on a cutting board to slice off the kernels. You want to have 1 1/4 pounds kernels.
- Place the kernels in a medium saucepan and barely cover them with the water. Cook for 12 minutes on a low simmer. Use a slotted spoon to lift the kernels from the water and into a food processor; reserve the cooking liquid.
- Process them for quite a few minutes, to break as much of the kernel case as possible. Add some of the cooking liquid if the mixture becomes too dry to process.
- Now return the corn paste to the pan with the cooking liquid and cook, while stirring, on low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the mixture thickens to mashed potato consistency. (Be aware that if you have a lot of liquid left in the pan, it can take a while to cook down the polenta, and it will sputter. Consider holding back some or all of the liquid. Alternately, if you like the consistency after processing, you can skip to step 5.)
- Fold in the butter, the feta, salt and some pepper and optionally cook for a further 2 minutes. Taste and add more salt if needed.
(Printable recipe can be found in my recipe index under Main Entrees)