Fried Polenta Cakes - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 quart water
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 - 1 tablespoon fresh ground pepper
1 cup coarse-ground polenta
2 tablespoons butter
2 ounces parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons olive oil

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350\u00b0F.
In a 1 to 1 1/2 quart oven-safe container, stir together water, salt, pepper, and polenta
Add butter to the mixture, cut up in chunks.
Place container, uncovered, in center rack of oven and bake 40 minutes.
Open oven, pull out rack, add parmesan, and any other ingredients like sun-dried tomatoes, olives, lemon zest, herbs, shallots, cilantro etc. and let bake another 10 minutes.
Pull out of oven and let rest in refrigerator 20 minutes to over-night.
In frying pan, on medium-high, heat oil.
Spoon about half a cup of polenta into the pan at a time, fry until golden brown on each side.
Let cakes rest about 3-5 minutes and serve.