Tag Archives: polenta recipe

Baked Cornmeal with Sour Cream, Cheese and Eggs — From the Danube

Polenta turns extra rich and creamy when baked with sour cream and beaten eggs.
Polenta turns extra rich and creamy when baked with sour cream and beaten eggs.

It has inspired painters, writers, and composers including Beethoven, Schubert, and Strauss. The romanticized Danube is the second-longest river in Europe, connecting 10 countries, including Romania Serbia, and Bulgaria.

It is also the focus of the eponymous cookbook, “Danube: Recipes and Stories from Eastern Europe” (Hardie Grant, 2024) of which I received a review copy.

It is the third cookbook by Irina Georgescu, a Romanian food writer and James Beard Award-winning cookbook author.

It’s a collection of more than 80 recipes that illuminate the charm and everyday cooking of the Danube’s diverse food cultures, with dishes such as “Leek and Rice Pie,” “Fisherman’s Soup,” “Millet and Mushroom Stuffed Vine Leaves,” and “Strawberries with Rose Water and Creme Anglaise.”

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Dressed-For-Success Polenta with Herbed Oil

A beautiful looking polenta that couldn't be easier to make.
A beautiful looking polenta that couldn’t be easier to make.

With gobs of butter and a veritable snowstorm of grated Parmigano.

That’s usually how I make and like my soft polenta.

But this recipe for “Polenta with Herbed Oil” offered another variation, one stripped of all that cheese, trading it instead for a copious amount of dried herbs found easily in my pantry that are steeped in a mixture of warmed butter and olive oil. In the process, it brought to the forefront more of that wonderful toasty corn taste.

This easy recipe is from “Cured” (Ten Speed Press), of which I received a review copy.

It was written by Steve McHugh, chef-owner of Cured in San Antonio, and Landrace in San Antonio; with assistance from Paula Forbes, a cookbook author, and former editor of Eater and Epicurious.

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