{"id":439,"date":"2020-05-08T17:28:42","date_gmt":"2020-05-08T17:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/?p=439"},"modified":"2020-07-12T11:32:28","modified_gmt":"2020-07-12T11:32:28","slug":"grits-cakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/2020\/05\/08\/grits-cakes\/","title":{"rendered":"Grits Cakes with Country Ham and Bourbon Mayonnaise"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Name: Debra Marmor<br \/>\nClass Year: 1980<br \/>\nCountry of Residence: United Kingdom<\/p>\n<h5>Why is this recipe great? What\u2019s its backstory?&nbsp;<\/h5>\n<p>As a little girl, I seemed to really enjoy doing fiddly things \u2013 unknotting my mother\u2019s necklaces, decorating devilled eggs, frosting and decorating cakes, etc. So she nicknamed me her \u2018kaltMamsel\u2019 (she who prepares cold dishes) and it was my job to make\/ decorate this stuff when she entertained.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>As an adult, this seems to have translated into a love of making and serving canap\u00e9s. I\u2019ve served entire dinners made up of multiple courses with multiple bite sized dishes, and parties where the food is all canap\u00e9s \u2013 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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>So here\u2019s the perfect canap\u00e9 \u2013 I make it with instant polenta rather than the grits the recipe calls for. The polenta fries up beautifully and, for a canap\u00e9, it is not too fiddly. Did I mention bourbon?<\/p>\n<h5>Grits Cakes with Country Ham and Bourbon Mayonnaise<\/h5>\n<p><em>Serves 6-8. 30 minutes + cooling\/ chilling<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Ingredients:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1 cup mayonnaise<\/li>\n<li>2 tsp bourbon<\/li>\n<li>1 tsp salt<\/li>\n<li>\u00bc tsp black pepper<\/li>\n<li>2 cups milk<\/li>\n<li>4 Tbsp\/ 60 g butter<\/li>\n<li>1 tsp hot sauce, such as Tabasco (or dash of Cayenne pepper)<\/li>\n<li>1 cup coarse corn grits (or instant\/ easy polenta)<\/li>\n<li>All-purpose\/ plain flour, as needed<\/li>\n<li>Sliced country ham (or Serrano, Prosciutto, Iberico or any other smoked or cooked ham)<\/li>\n<li>Grapeseed or other neutral oil for frying<\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none\">&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Instructions:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Line a 9-inch square pan with parchment, baking or wax paper.<\/li>\n<li>In medium pot over medium high heat, combine milk, 2 cups water, butter, hot sauce, 1 tsp salt and \u00bc tsp pepper. Bring to the boil.<\/li>\n<li>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 \u2013 about 1 \u00bd hours.<\/li>\n<li>Spread hot polenta\/ grits evenly into the prepared 9-inch pan (polenta\/ grits should be about 1-inch thick). Cool completely \u2013 ideally chill over night to make sure completely set.<\/li>\n<li>Whisk bourbon into mayonnaise; set aside.<\/li>\n<li>Lift polenta\/ grits out of the pan in one piece and cut it into 1-inch squares.<\/li>\n<li>Toss each square lightly in flour<\/li>\n<li>Heat \u00bc &#8211; \u00bd inch of oil in large skillet over medium heat until drop of water splashed into pan sizzles.<\/li>\n<li>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.<\/li>\n<li>Drain on paper towel.<\/li>\n<li>Top each square with a sliver of your ham of choice and a dollop of bourbon mayonnaise.<\/li>\n<li>Tastes fabulous warm or cold.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-440\" src=\"http:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/files\/2020\/05\/Grits-Cakes.png\" alt=\"Grits Cakes\" width=\"361\" height=\"276\" srcset=\"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/files\/2020\/05\/Grits-Cakes.png 361w, https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/files\/2020\/05\/Grits-Cakes-300x229.png 300w, https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/files\/2020\/05\/Grits-Cakes-31x24.png 31w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 361px) 100vw, 361px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Source:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Adapted from Melissa Clark, New York Times<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Name: Debra Marmor Class Year: 1980 Country of Residence: United Kingdom Why is this recipe great? What\u2019s its backstory?&nbsp; As a little girl, I seemed to really enjoy doing fiddly &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/2020\/05\/08\/grits-cakes\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Grits Cakes with Country Ham and Bourbon Mayonnaise<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":243,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33046],"tags":[4300,146,33133,33135,33259,33134],"class_list":["post-439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-cooking","tag-appetizer","tag-cake","tag-grits","tag-ham","tag-mains","tag-polenta"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/243"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}