Hello lovelies,
for years polenta only ever came to our table savoury, with mushrooms or with cheese, until I cooked it in coconut milk once out of pure curiosity. Since then we have sweet polenta with coconut and pineapple: creamy as a pudding, spooned warm, with caramelized pineapple on top. The children treat it as dessert, on some mornings I treat it as breakfast, and honestly both sides are right.
The whole difference lies in the liquid. I use 600 ml (2 1/2 cups) to 100 gr (3.5 oz.) of polenta, a third of it coconut milk, and that is noticeably more than the packet suggests. That ratio is what decides between a firm porridge and a cream that falls off the spoon. I already knew cornmeal works sweet from my polenta cake with caramelized peaches, which follows the same principle with browned stone fruit on top.
I caramelize the pineapple with no fat at all, just in brown sugar, until the edges darken and the juice cooks down to a syrup. It takes under 5 minutes and it is the moment the whole kitchen starts to smell like a holiday. If you would rather stay with grains in the morning, spoon my millet porridge with orange instead, which works on the same warm, creamy principle.
The coconut flakes get toasted last in a dry pan, and I do not take my eyes off them for a second, because they go from golden to burnt faster than you can turn off the hob. Those two minutes give the soft spoonful exactly the bite it would otherwise be missing. The opened can of coconut milk usually goes into my orange coconut ice cream afterwards, which needs no ice cream machine at all.
If there is still a little left in the can after that, it goes into the waffle iron. Coconut milk makes any batter soft and moist, and the next morning I like to bake it into my coconut lime waffles with coconut milk.
I hope this bowl brings you a little holiday feeling on an ordinary Wednesday. When it needs to be cold on hot days, I stir together my black chia pudding the evening before, which does the same creamy work overnight in the fridge.
