Elote-Style Polenta Cake Hors d'Oeuvres Recipe

In a world of dips, spreads, and charcuterie, dinners that start with hors d'oeuvres are reserved for special occasions. Unlike appetizers that require dipping, stacking, or building, hors d'oeuvres are bite-sized, grabbable snacks that are served fully assembled on the platter. As a host, hors d'oeuvres are a chance to show off some of your kitchen prowess before the main course; and as a guest, they're a delicious, hassle-free way to curb your appetite before dinner.

Slathered with crema and topped with a heavy sprinkling of Tajín, elote is a popular street food that turns a grilled ear of corn into a delicious side dish. Shave off the kernels and you have elote corn dip, which you can scoop up with chips for endless snacking. Pile the mixture onto crispy, fluffy cakes of fried polenta and you have the perfect hors d'oeuvre, which is altogether earthy, sweet, and tangy. Polenta, a type of coarsely ground cornmeal, is mixed, baked, cooled, cut into rounds, and then fried till crispy to serve as the base for the creamy elote mixture. A corn-lovers dream, these elote-style polenta hors d'oeuvres developed with Michelle McGlinn deliver big flavor in elegant bite-sized pieces.

To make the polenta cakes, you will first need polenta, which can be sold labeled as coarsely ground cornmeal or, simply, as polenta. You can also skip a few steps and buy premade polenta, sold in tubes, which can be sauteed straight from the package. You'll also need plenty of water, cotija cheese, salt, oil, and pepper. Keep the cotija, salt, and pepper handy to combine with crema, lime, Tajin, and corn. Use cooked corn here: We used kernels from a can, but you can also steam fresh kernels, saute frozen, or even use leftover grilled corn from the cob.

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish.

Bring the water to a simmer in a large saucepan.

Stir in the cornmeal slowly while whisking until all the cornmeal is incorporated.

Continue stirring until the polenta is thick and creamy, about 3 minutes.

Stir in ¼ cup of cotija and 1 teaspoon each of salt and pepper.

Spread the polenta into the baking dish, creating a 1-inch layer.

Bake until firm, about 40 minutes. Let cool completely for at least an hour or overnight.

In the meantime, mix together the corn, crema, lime, remaining cotija, Tajin, and remaining ½ teaspoon salt and pepper.

Using a small biscuit or cookie cutter, cut the polenta into small circles.

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat.

Once hot, add the polenta cakes and brown them, about 2 minutes per side.

To assemble, place the crispy polenta cakes on a serving dish and spoon the elote mixture onto them. Garnish with cilantro, sprinkle with extra Tajin, and serve.

The extra elote mixture, made up of crema, cotija, lime, Tajín, and corn, becomes an easy street corn dip when served up with tortilla chips or crispy plantains. You can also use the mixture as a topping to grilled steak, fish, shrimp, or chicken. Especially good on sandwiches, the elote mixture piled onto pulled pork or breaded chicken makes for a great Mexican-inspired meal.

You can also use the extra elote mixture in other hors d'oeuvres if you run out of polenta cakes. Instead of the polenta base, you can instead pile the elote mixture into baked phyllo cups or even onto fried plantains, garnishing still with a flourish of cilantro. You can make elote a much more casual affair by spooning the mixture over baked yuca fries for a Latin-American-inspired poutine. For nachos, do the same but with chips: Just melt some pepper Jack cheese onto the chips before loading up with elote, and to make it even better, add plenty of jalapeños.

These hors d'oeuvres are technically a breeze to put together, but only after the somewhat-long process of making the polenta cakes. Since you may not have hours to prepare the polenta as you're putting together an evening of food and drinks, plan to make the elote bites ahead of time. Though the polenta cakes are most delicious when freshly fried, they can be made up to 4 days in advance and stored in an airtight container. The elote topping can be made up to 5 days in advance and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator, though we don't recommend adding the elote to the polenta until right before serving.

To serve the polenta warm without having to cook with guests over, make the polenta cakes a day in advance, then warm them in the oven before topping and serving. For a crispier result, you can also reheat them in the air fryer for 2 to 3 minutes, crisping the outsides until golden brown. Once warm, add the prepared elote mixture and top with cilantro, then serve.