Friends

I sit here smiling and replete with cornbread and Chili my darling Squid made me.

I LOVE cornbread BUT, Squid thinks its a little bland for her.

Are there any recipe suggestions from you good folks that squid could try so she'd maybe enjoy the fruits of her own labours a little more ?

I just had hanks of it hot with butter on, dipped in tomato chili, doesn't get any better than that for me ! Be nice if Squid liked it too.

Remember we're English so some translation might be in order !! Thanks ! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

oh...i had a great one.
but, i misplaced my cookbooks and recipe books when we moved.

i will try to find it for you.
it had green chiles and creamed corn and cheese......it was quite a simple recipe....but moist and yummy.......maybe if i rack my brain i can remember it.
i'll be back later.

Well, I have one that I am asked for a lot.
I started with a plain corn bread recipe. It is the additions that make the difference. And baking it in a cast iron skillet makes a world of difference.

1/4 cup oil
***Note: If you want a truly awesome ignore all the bad fat and fry up diced bacon. Use the bacon fat drippings as the oil. Make sure to not overcook the bacon as it will continue to cook in the cornbread.
2 cups ground yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups buttermilk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 cups corn kernels, fresh, thawed, or drained
***Note: I use creamed corn as I like the creaminess and it makes the cornbread less grainy
1 - 2 cups grated sharp cheese. I use a Monterey Jalapeno Jack Cheese mixed with Old Cheddar. But any sharp cheese works. Even a bit of feta or Asiago
For the daring, I also dice up the canned Jalapenos. I do 2 or 3 taking out the seeds of course. It gives it a bit of bite without burning your face off <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

PREPARATION:

Pour the cornmeal into the buttermilk and let soak until the oven has been preheated to 450°.
Pour the vegetable oil (or bacon drippings) into a seasoned skillet and place in the oven.
Heat until the oil is very hot; remove the pan from the oven and pour off any excess oil. In a mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.
Stir in the buttermilk/cornmeal mixture, eggs, and butter (or bacon drippings), stirring until just mixed.
Stir in corn kernels or creamed corn.
Pour the batter into the hot skillet and return to the oven.
Reduce the temperature to 400°.
Bake until golden brown; a toothpick inserted into the center will come out clean.
Cool cornbread on a wire rack for 5 minutes.
Invert cornbread onto a large plate and cut into wedges.
Skillet cornbread recipe makes about 8 wedges.

All the recipes with additional ingredients sound delicious, but if you want REAL old-fashioned cornbread, make it this way:

Prehat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a small bowl, eyeball enough WHITE self-rising cornmeal to about half-fill whatever cast-iron skillet you are going to use. (Sorry, I hardly ever measure anything!).

If you are using a small skillet, add one egg. If you are using a large skillet, add two eggs. Add a pinch of sugar (optional). Stir in enough buttermilk to make a fairly thick batter.

Set aside while you put a good-sized dollop of bacon grease into your skillet and melt it in the oven long enough to get hot.

Quickly stir in excess bacon grease from the skillet into the cornbread mixture, and then pour the batter into the skillet and bake for about 25-30 minutes until lightly browned.

Most people around here like to eat it, either plain with turnip greens or with creamed corn over the top of it. It is also delicious with a tomato-okra mixure over it.

Tomato-Okra

Mix a few cans of diced tomatoes, a chopped Vidalia onion, and sliced okra together, about a teaspoon of salt, and a liberal dosing of black pepper, and simmer until okra is done. (If you use frozen okra, you might want to cook it first in a pressure cooker until the pressure regulator starts jiggling to make it tender.)

Add sugar to taste. When it's just about done, mix a little flour with cold water, stir in some of the tomato-okra mixture, and then pour the flour mixture back into the okra, stirring quickly to keep the flour from lumping. When the mixture thickens, it's ready to pour over your cornbread.

Bob,

You go to Boston Market restaurant (or GB's equivalent) and purchase their pre made sweet corn muffins of course! Take the time that Squid saves in the kitchen to do "other" things, if you get my drift! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Work SMARTER, not HARDER!!! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" />

Mrs. W the UNdomestic Goddess <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I loves Boston Market Corn Muffins!

Bob,

You need to call out Nikko...she's a culinary genious!

Meantime, I am gonna print out the one FAA posted, that looks awesome! We just had cornbread the other day, but it was boring. Love it with butter and honey!

Ta-ta,

NOW

Buy a box of Jiffy cornbread mix, use sour creme in place of the milk, add a can of corn, cook in a cast iron skillet heated in the oven with bacon greese. Add cinnamon on top.

This is the way a girl at work makes it (not me) and it is very, very yummy.

Lady Clueless, I am so trying your recipe next time, but why the white cornmeal and not yellow?

FFA, I make mine really close to yours, but Lady's looks soooo much easier.

The others are generally right on. An iron skillet and bacon fat is the way to go.

I prefer to use whole grain corn meal if possible. The corn meal can spoil, but it gives a much better taste.

Thank you all !

Any ideas for making a sweeter cornbread?

And can you tell me what corn pone is?

Squid has some odd idea about making her own mini corn dogs.

I need to get back in practice for my trip to Fla at Christmas !

Bob - Have you heard of neat little gizmo called a "Turbo Cooker?" My wife has one and it makes some amazing meals jiffy quick.

One of the best is the Chili and Corn Bread. It cooks them at that same time in Turbo Cooker on the stovetop. The best way to describe the cornbread it puts out is that they are similar to muffins and are cooked in what looks like a muffin pan that fits inside the Turbo Cooker.

It's amazing the number of different meals this thing can make, and in very short order. The Chili that it cooks is "okay" and "not bad." But I really love the "all day" Chili that my wife makes every and then in a big pot. In fact, it's on her menu to make this evening.

See if you can find a website for Martha White Corn Meal. Sorry, but I don't have a recipe that is out of this world. But, that is a big meal brand in my area.

Mix the cornbread batter.

Brown a package of beef mince (ground beef for the rest of us) with a package of taco seasoning and enough water to dissolve it. Brown the beef until the water is completely boiled off. The drier - the better.

Chop half an onion.

Grease a well seasoned cast iron skillet with no teflon or any sissy french coating on it with lard - yes lard. This is non-halal.

Pour half the cornbread mix into the skillet. Distribute around the beef and onion and then evenly pour over picante sauce for flavor but don't use too much as the excess water in the sauce will make the cornbread less tasty. In fact it is better to ladle out the sauce than pour so you get less water.

Next slice up Velveeta cheese and cover the entire thing.

Lastly pour in the remainder of the cornbread mix to cover.

Bake this per the cornbread recipe's instructions.

I think that's it.

Weaver, I don't know why white corn meal rather than the yellow, except that when my sister moved up north to Pennsylvania, she called our mom and asked her to ship her some white corn meal, because all she could find was yellow corn meal. Said the yellow corn meal did NOT make good cornbread. Mom shipped 10lb. bags of cornmeal every now and then for about 4 years, until they finally moved back down here.

Rella, Martha White corn meal and flour are EXCELLENT, and so are Sunflower products. Some brands of flour and corn meal tend to make HEAVY biscuits and corn bread.

Bob, a corn pone is simply corn bread batter cooked in a cast iron pan that is divided into "pones". Sorta like a thick bread stick with rounded ends.

Oh, and for a sweeter corn bread, just add a little sugar!

Here's the link to Martha White site - the cornbread recipes:

Cornbread Recipes from Martha White

Hi...

er.. I mean

Howdy!

Lady Clue has it right. It is, of course, largely a matter of personal preference. I prefer it made with fairly coarse plain meal (not self-rising) and I leave out the sugar, and add a little salt and baking soda. Also, I cook it in a hotter oven, about 450F. It crumbles when you bite it, but you eat it fresh anyway (with butter, of course) and it really doesn't matter.

Also, I measure - but if it don't look right, I add something.

It's really nice if you add very finely chopped onion.

You can add a little finely chopped ham (real ham, not that lunch meat stuff.)

You can add some chopped hot peppers.

I'm getting hungry now! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

-AD (6th generation Alabamian)

bob---you've gotten some great recipe's and ideas. i hope squid enjoys it better. what are her tastes? does she like spicy things, sweet things. either can be incoprorated into cornbread. i've added chili seasoning to give it a kick....i've added sugar or maple syrup to add sweetness. kinda depens on what im serving it with. but always use bacon fat drippings!
(sorry i missed this...we were building a fire pit yesterday and then had a campfire last night!)

* droool *

Squid liked sweete cornbread in teh States, butshe likes spicy and savouy foods too !

Plenty here to share with her !

In the UK its pretty hard to even get cornmeal, so we're not off to a great start <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />