Polentafriet

Recipes Snacks Side dishes Vegetarian Gluten-free

The other day I already showed you Helmi's delicious sweet potato salad. I took a cooking workshop with her during my trip to Curacao and she taught me some more delicious recipes. For example, we made polenta fries together, or funchi, as they are called in Curacao. Once back home in Holland, I was eager to make them myself. And instead of frying the fries, I made polenta fries from the airfryer. Just as tasty and crispy and a much healthier alternative.

Recipe

Polenta fries

When you want a change from potato fries, polenta is ideal. It is incredibly versatile, but most of all very tasty!

Course	Side dish
Kitchen	Antillean
Servings	4 people

Preparation time

Preparation time	18 min
Time in oven	40 min
Cooling time	30 min
Total	1 hr, 13 min

Equipment

Cooking pot
Mixer
Baking sheet
Airfryer or oven

Ingredients

150 grams of polenta
850 ml water
50 g grated cheese
2 tablespoons of rosemary
salt and pepper

Polenta fries

How do you make polenta fries?

Bring the water to the kook. Add a generous pinch of salt. Using a whisk, stir little by little the polenta into the boiling water; it is important that you keep mixing constantly.

Keep mixing until the mixture thickens a bit (after about 2 minutes), then use a pan scraper or wooden spoon.

Stir the polenta occasionally as it continues to cook over medium-high heat. Let cook for about 15-20 minutes. Then add the rosemary, little salt and pepper and grated cheese and stir through.

Fry a Baking tray and line with baking paper. Pour the polenta onto this, about 1cm thick and try to keep the corners square. Level the top with your pan scraper. Let set in the refrigerator (30 minutes).

Cut the polenta into French fries. Heat the airfryer to 200 degrees and bake the fries for about 18 minutes, until they are nice and crispy. Do you want to deep fry the polenta fries anyway? You can do that at 180 degrees for about 5 minutes. Or in the oven, at 180 degrees and bake for about 40 minutes.

Enjoy your special fries! Make it with homemade mayo.

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Polenta is nothing but corn flour and it is extremely versatile. Yet we don't use it here in Western European cuisine that often. Shame! It is very tasty and I am sure this recipe for polentafrietjes will steal your heart.

I serve the polentafriet with a little pikamayonnaise. Pika is a typical hot "sauce" of Curacao, which is served with almost every dish. Helmi has a tasty recipe for that on her blog. Mix the Pika with a little mayonnaise and your spicy Mayo is ready. Perfect flavor combination with the polentafriet!