These crispy Colby cornmeal cakes are a cross between a mozzarella stick and cornbread. Cheesy, soft, warm and delicious served with your favorite tomato sauce. They take a bit longer than most of our recipes and require chilling time so this may be a meal you make when you have a bit of extra time on your hands.
Some people collect stamps, others collect comic books or baseball cards. I, on the other hand, collect cookbooks. I suppose it could become problematic, what with how heavy and large cookbooks can be. But just like you may sit down with a new novel by your favorite author, I am attracted to cookbooks of my favorite chefs. Thomas Keller happens to be one of these chefs and I wasted no time in getting each of his cookbooks as they were released. In his cookbook for Ad Hoc, he has a recipe for Grits Cakes served with an Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce. These two recipes, which I made on a whim one day when I had some excess cornmeal and tomatoes, have gone into a pretty regular rotation for us. These cornmeal cakes are an easier version of those grits cakes.
We start by adding 6 cups of water to a heavy bottomed pot, then add the cornmeal in soon after. Some recipes call for you to wait for the water to boil. Don’t! Having made these many times, I tried multiple times to put the cornmeal in and whisk as well as I can to prevent lumps. Bottom line is it really doesn’t work and the polenta will start to attack you as it bubbles away, like bubbling hot lava.
And if you thought I was kidding, here is the lid, after it is done cooking. You have to be careful to whisk and cover while avoiding the polenta!
Did I mention it is a lot of cheese?
Mix in the salt, milk and cheese
and look at your delicious cheesy reward…
Stir the polenta until it starts to pull away from the side of the pot. Then pour into a rectangular pan and cool in the fridge or freeze until it sets up firmly. Set up a dredging station of flour, egg, and breadcrumbs. Cut the cornmeal cakes to your desired size and thickness. Dredge into the flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs and cook in a skillet with ¼ inch of canola oil until both sides are crispy. Serve with your favorite tomato sauce.
Ingredients
- 6 cups water
- 2 cups cornmeal
- 1/3 cup milk
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 1/2 cups grated Colby Jack cheese
- 1/2 cup flour
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup bread crumbs
- Olive oil , for frying
- grated Parmesan cheese
- 3 tablespoons chopped parsley
Instructions
- Add 6 cups of water to a heavy bottomed pot, then add the cornmeal in soon after. Some recipes call for you to wait for the water to boil. Don’t! Having made these many times, I tried multiple times to put the cornmeal in and whisk as well as I can to prevent lumps. Bottom line is it really doesn’t work and the polenta will start to attack you as it bubbles away, like bubbling hot lava.
- Mix in the salt, milk and cheese.
- Stir the polenta until it starts to pull away from the side of the pot.
- Pour into a rectangular pan and cool in the fridge or freeze until it sets up firmly. Set up a dredging station of flour, egg, and breadcrumbs.
- Cut the cornmeal cakes to your desired size and thickness.
- Dredge into the flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs and cook in a skillet with ¼ inch of canola oil until both sides are crispy. Serve with your favorite tomato sauce.
Nutrition
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I am making these today for our new year dinner and this looks amazing with shrimp,will let you know how yummy it is.
Happy new year! Hope you enjoy them!
I can down some cheese sticks, and you have my mouth watering just from looking at the photos! I really want to try these Colby Cornmeal Cakes!
Yeah, they’re just too good. Sometimes I top them with jalapeno jelly instead. That combination is just heaven.
This looks so yummy! Once I am weaned off my diet I am going to give this a try!
Hope you like them! What a way to go off a diet too! 🙂
We have far too many cookbooks that I rarely use. I should part with most of them, but I just can’t bring myself to do it. This recipe sounds really good. I’ve never seen anything quite like it!
My husband jokes about how many cookbooks we have in the house too! They are my guilty pleasure, I sit down and read them with a cup of coffee 🙂
I have never had anything like this but it looks wonderful! Great pics of the process, love it!
Thanks! It is one of my favorites!
We used to have a Mexican restaurant that made the best cornmeal cakes, but they went out of business. I am printing this recipe now to try making them myself! Thanks for sharing!
Awesome, I hope you love it! Your blog post about Apple Walnut Pancakes made my mouth water!
You just made my day. For the most of my life I thought this was something that a friend of mine just made up. I thought I would never see another person make this recipe. She told me everyone in her family ate it /made it. Until now, she was the only one I knew!
Oh how cool is that! I had never had/heard of it before Ad Hoc!
I’ve never heard of this, much less ever tried it, but I can tell you without a doubt, I’d love it. I will give it a try, or two, since I’m sure it may take me a couple of tries to get the hang of it. 🙂
Oh yes, it is hard to go wrong with crispy, melty cheese cornmeal. Hope you love it!
I’ve never tried cornmeal cakes! They look tasty!
Thanks!
Oh man, these look heavenly! You really can not beat anything that is cheesy and fried.
Agreed! Cheese is definitely one of my weaknesses!
Looks and sounds amazing… might have to beg my husband to try to make this. He is a much better cook than I am, I prefer the cleaning up part over the cooking part. ha ha.
Lucky you, mine could burn water!
This looks utterly delicious! I want some 🙂 Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Thanks for visiting, hope you like them!
Wow! I am amazed at how pretty this meal looks on the plate. I love cornbread, I love cheese, so I would assume that I would love this version of fried cornbread and cheese.
Thanks! They are absolutely addicting. I also make them with jalapenos and spices sometimes 🙂
Anyway you do a house delivery? I would love to eat this right now and I am too lazy to go to the store.
Not unless you are local to N. California! 😉
Oh wow I haven’t ever heard of this before, but they look amazing! I will have to give these a try!
Thanks! I hope you like them 🙂
Wow, I’d love to try these out. It seems like a recipe that takes a few tries but yours turned out amazing looking!
Liz, thanks! It did take a few tries with the water to cornmeal to cheese ratio, but the real trick is don’t take your eye off the pan when frying them up! They brown quickly!
I have never tried these before! They look amazing!
Thanks! It is so delicious and the ingredients are so accessible, I love this dish.
I’m so glad you’re blogging about food again. Your recipes are so great. I’m going to have to try this one, I’m pretty sure my baby will love these. xo
Me too, since the first day back it just felt so right. I love seeing your blog too 🙂
That looks really tasty. I can see this paired with nice piece of chicken or beef. Yum!
That sounds like a great idea, I hope you love it!
I have never had anything like that before. It sounds super tasty.
Thanks! First time I tried it was from Ad Hoc and I was skeptical but had total faith in Thomas Keller. He did not steer me wrong!
This sounds so good! It’s like a fancy take on the fried cornmeal mush my grandmother used to make. Yum!
I don’t know why but “fried cornmeal mush” sounds amazing! Thanks for stopping by 🙂