Name: Debra Marmor
Class Year: 1980
Country of Residence: United Kingdom

Why is this recipe great? What’s its backstory? 

As a little girl, I seemed to really enjoy doing fiddly things – unknotting my mother’s necklaces, decorating devilled eggs, frosting and decorating cakes, etc. So she nicknamed me her ‘kaltMamsel’ (she who prepares cold dishes) and it was my job to make/ decorate this stuff when she entertained.

As an adult, this seems to have translated into a love of making and serving canapés. I’ve served entire dinners made up of multiple courses with multiple bite sized dishes, and parties where the food is all canapés – up to 20 dishes with at least 20 pieces each (it sometimes take a week or more to prepare everything). My husband laughs because I keep spreadsheets on which dishes were most popular; those with lots of leftovers do not make a reappearance.

I also love fried polenta (probably from childhood summer vacations spent in Italy), but had never been able to figure out how to get the polenta to firm up and fry easily without losing its shape.

So here’s the perfect canapé – I make it with instant polenta rather than the grits the recipe calls for. The polenta fries up beautifully and, for a canapé, it is not too fiddly. Did I mention bourbon?

Grits Cakes with Country Ham and Bourbon Mayonnaise

Serves 6-8. 30 minutes + cooling/ chilling

Ingredients:

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tsp bourbon
• 1 tsp salt
• ¼ tsp black pepper
• 2 cups milk
• 4 Tbsp/ 60 g butter
• 1 tsp hot sauce, such as Tabasco (or dash of Cayenne pepper)
• 1 cup coarse corn grits (or instant/ easy polenta)
• All-purpose/ plain flour, as needed
• Sliced country ham (or Serrano, Prosciutto, Iberico or any other smoked or cooked ham)
• Grapeseed or other neutral oil for frying
•  

Instructions:

1. Line a 9-inch square pan with parchment, baking or wax paper.
2. In medium pot over medium high heat, combine milk, 2 cups water, butter, hot sauce, 1 tsp salt and ¼ tsp pepper. Bring to the boil.
3. Slowly whisk in grits/ polenta and lower heat. If using instant polenta, continue whisking until thick (8 minutes?). If using grits, cook until very tender – about 1 ½ hours.
4. Spread hot polenta/ grits evenly into the prepared 9-inch pan (polenta/ grits should be about 1-inch thick). Cool completely – ideally chill over night to make sure completely set.
5. Whisk bourbon into mayonnaise; set aside.
6. Lift polenta/ grits out of the pan in one piece and cut it into 1-inch squares.
7. Toss each square lightly in flour
8. Heat ¼ – ½ inch of oil in large skillet over medium heat until drop of water splashed into pan sizzles.
9. Fry squares until golden and crisp all over, about 30-60 seconds per side (I just do top and bottom). You might have to work in batches to avoid overcrowding.
10. Drain on paper towel.
11. Top each square with a sliver of your ham of choice and a dollop of bourbon mayonnaise.
12. Tastes fabulous warm or cold.

Source:

Adapted from Melissa Clark, New York Times