Fresh Corn Polenta with Baked Eggs & Smoky Tomatoes
Ingredients
- 2 Roma (plum) tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons chipotle sauce (see below)
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
- 1 tablespoon caster sugar
- butter, for greasing and dotting
- 6 eggs
- basil leaves, to garnish
- sourdough toast, to serve
Fresh corn polenta
- 6 ears sweet corn (as yellow as you can find), kernels sliced from cobs
- 50 g butter
- 200 g feta, crumbled
- 3 spring onions, thinly sliced
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 120°C (100°C fan) and line a baking tray with baking paper.
Cut the tomatoes in half lengthways and lay on the baking tray, cut sides up. Mix the chipotle sauce with the salt, pepper, and sugar and smear it over the tomatoes, then slow-roast in the oven for 3 hours or until sticky and slightly collapsed.
Next, the polenta. Stick the corn kernels in a heavy-based pan with the butter and 500 ml (2 cups) water and simmer for 15 minutes or until tender. Strain off the cooking liquid and reserve, then tip the kernels into a food processor and blitz for about 5 minutes until you have a smooth purée, adding some of the cooking liquid if needed. Return the whizzed-up corn and its cooking liquid to the pan and cook, stirring constantly, until the liquid evaporates and you have a thick paste. Just like polenta! Stir in the feta, and pepper to taste.
Now it’s time to bring everything together, so if your pals are coming around tomorrow, refrigerate the tomatoes and polenta overnight.
When you’re good to go, preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan). Stir the spring onions into the polenta, then divide between six buttered ramekins (if you don’t have ramekins, just put all the polenta into a buttered casserole dish). Make six deep indentations in the polenta, crack an egg into each one and dot with butter. Bake for 10–15 minutes or until the egg whites have set but the yolks are still soft. Scatter with basil and serve with toast and a couple of tomatoes on the side.
HOT STUFF
I use the sauce from a tin of chipotle peppers in adobo; if you’re using bottled chipotle sauce, test for head-blowing-offness first and adjust the quantity if necessary.
For the meat-eaters
Sigh. I imagine there are people who would really, REALLY like some crispy bacon with this.
More About Annabel
Annabel Crabb is one of Australia’s most beloved journalists. She is the ABC’s chief online political writer, writes a weekly opinion column for Fairfax, is the author of the bestselling book The Wife Drought and is a sought-after speaker and presenter. As host of the ABC’s enormously popular series Kitchen Cabinet, Annabel has broken bread with Australia’s most influential political leaders and shared her magnificent desserts in kitchens around the country. As well as being a writer and entertainer, Annabel is a celebrated baker and mother of three. She lives in Sydney.
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