Baked Polenta Fries

Confession time: I hate to fry food. Oil gets everywhere, and usually the fried thing ends up oil-logged and too heavy. I don't do it often enough to get really good at it, and the cleanup makes me miserable. So I fry maybe, maybe once a year.

All of which means that I can't homemake French Fries. But! I was glancing through the Zuni Cafe Cookbook (which is entirely brilliant) yesterday, and saw a mention of oven roasted polenta. Now that's an idea I could get behind, I thought. Zuni does their polenta in triangles, but there was no reason that I couldn't make fries. One catch: Zuni's recipe for polenta takes over an hour (!) to make, then has to cool for three hours before it can be oven-roasted. There was no way I was waiting a whole afternoon for polenta, so I tried a recipe of my own, and it turned out fabulously.

The fries are crunchy and crisp, with hints of cheese, but none of the oily ickiness of frying. They go great with mustard or Ketchup, and I'll try them with a mayo dressing next time I make them. Cleanup was as simple as washing a saucepan and throwing away a piece of parchment. Much better! I think polenta may be the cure for my need for fries without the frying.

Baked Polenta Fries

1 qt chicken stock
2 cups coarse-ground cornmeal (if you live in the South like me, it's called grits, not polenta, but they're the same thing, essentially)
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 stick unsalted butter
Salt

Bring the stock to a boil in a heavy-ish saucepan over medium-high heat. Once the stock is just barely boiling, turn the heat down to medium-low and pour in the cornmeal in a thin stream (this prevents clumps), stirring constantly. Allow the cornmeal to thicken the liquid, then taste for salt. Adjust seasoning. Cook, stirring constantly, until the polenta starts to pull away from the sides of the pot. This took 15 minutes or so on my stove. You will think that it is done before it reaches this stage, but have patience.

Once the polenta is the proper doneness, drop in the stick of butter and the cheese, and stir until it all gets mixed together. Spray a 9x13 baking pan with nonstick spray, and pour the polenta into the pan. Spread it out and smooth it into a thin-ish sheet, about an inch thick. Put the baking pan into the fridge (or the freezer, if you're impatient like me) to cool down. Don't cover it, it's okay if it dries out a little. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours, or freeze for 45 min-1 hour.

When you're ready to bake it, preheat the oven to 300F. Run a knife around the edge of the baking pan, then invert the polenta out of the pan and onto a large baking sheet covered in parchment. Slice the polenta into 'fries' (I cut mine once in half lengthwise, and then about twelve times widthwise to make 'fries' about 5 inches by 1 inch). Spread the fries out on the baking sheet and brush each lightly with olive oil. Bake for 20 min in the center of the oven, then turn on the broiler and move the fries closer to the broiler surface for another 10-15 min to give them a nice crust. Turn once during this broiling process to get them crispy on all sides. Serve piping hot with condiments for dipping.

Servings: 25 fries, or about 6-8 people.