Cornbread Muffins: When Cornbread isn’t Just Cornbread

  

I’m a southerner by birth and by God and my parents were the same, so meals meant cornbread, not just bread.  I know times have changed and so many southerners these days are from O-hi-ya or New-Yark.  Good for them, but just don’t let the newcomers complain about grits or cornbread!  That would cause more commotions than a sign offering Free Beer. 

 

And as you may know, those two, grits and cornbread, are first cousins, coming from the same stalks in a field of corn.  You blanch the skin off the kernels, dry them, grind them until they are as fine as you want, then you either make them sloppy with water (grits), or less sloppy, add a few more ingredients and bake them in the oven. Presto!  Cornbread.

 

Lately, diversity has become a touchstone word and I’m here to tell you cornbread can be as diverse as you want it.  Sometimes just cornmeal, sometime wheat-flour added, often with eggs or not, and anything else your fiery southern mind takes a hankering to toss in.  Not yet a southerner?  Well, find one and make a friend.  We’re friendly folk!

 

Finally, say my so-called friends, ”Are you finally going to get to making Cornbread Muffins?”  As they say in the deepest and dearest parts of the south, “Uh-Hu Honey.”

 

I started with a recipe on the back of a box of cornmeal, but as I often say, a recipe is just a suggestion, like an artist’s virgin canvas and pallet sitting on an easel, on a sunny day, overlooking a beautiful landscape.  The recipe is meant to give you the urge. What you smear on the canvas is up to the artist.  Hey, that’s you!

In another southern tradition, I was baking for a Sunday School room full of older Baptist ladies. I made a double recipe, cause those gals can eat and so can the preachers and anyone else who’s walking the halls. 

 

“Will you once and for all get back to the recipe???”  Ok!  Yes!  Amen!

 

To start

 

Heat the oven to 400ºF or 200ºC

Grease a 12 hole muffin pan

 

Ingredients:

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

¾ cups cornmeal

1 tablespoon sugar (the ladies are watching their sugar intake)

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup skim milk (I used a cup of coconut milk from the grocery store’s milk aisle to keep the cholesterol down. The canned stuff is too thick.)

¼ cup vegetable oil

1-2 beaten eggs  (I used three eggs for the double recipe.  Fluffier.)

¼ cup Italian seasoning, or more

1 cup grated cheddar cheese, or more

½ can of corn, strained, rinsed

 

Puttin’ It te-gether

 

Use a large bowl for all the dry ingredients, including the corn, Italian seasoning, and cheese.  Stir well.  

 

In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients, including the egg (s).  Mix very well and add to the dry ingredients a third at a time.  I used a handheld electric mixer.

 

The “dough” will be thin, but not watery.

 

Spoon the dough into the muffin tins.  Using a half-cup measuring cup worked for me.

 

Bake for about 15-17 minutes. Test by poking with a knife.  If it comes out clean, the muffins are done.  Wait too long to take them out and they’re going to be too dry.

 

These muffins are good anytime, breakfast (split, buttered and toasted), lunch, dinner, or whenever you have a sack of ‘em, and find your southern drawl is making people stare and beg for some. 

Caution:  Baptists steal shamelessly when food is involved. They also beg.

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A Pot of Greens, Plus Cornbread from The Careless Cook

A Pot of Greens, Plus Cornbread from The Careless Cook

 

First off,  I have to put down my glass of wine, hold up my right hand and swear to tell the truth, something I don’t generally do because it complicates my already disordered life. 

 

This recipe is not all mine.  It’s my version of Eddie Hernandez’s recipe that he came up with decades ago, when one of his friends brought him a pile of fresh turnip greens.  Eddie is a happy, friendly restaurateur extraordinaire, who has owned several Mexican restaurants in the greater Atlanta area.  He’s really become acclimated to the southern style of cooking and his turnip greens are a good example, with Mexican flavors, but served in the southern fashion, the greens in their potlikker. 

 

Potlikker?  The broth you cooked the vegetables in.

 

But, you’re dying to know what The Careless Cook did differently.  The biggest difference is that I used cans of greens.  Now, Eddie runs a restaurant and when he cooks, he cooks massively and with great planning, so the time-to-cook (TTC) doesn’t matter.

 

I, on the other hand, had a significant other out for a 45 minute bike ride who would not show me a smile and be satisfied with a PBJ. (Pretty Bad Jumble)  Also, she’d mentioned cornbread on the way out the door.

 

First Cornbread Task:  Oven to 425ºF, oil an iron skillet and put it in the oven…..more to follow, but now let’s get back to the Greens.

In-Green-inents

 

3 cans of greens (refer to the photo to see what dusty cans I found in my pantry)

½ large tomato, seeded and diced

½ large onion, peeled and diced

2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced

1 jalapeño, seeded, the ribs cut out, and diced

½ stick of butter (about 4 ounces)

32 ounce carton of chicken broth

salt and red pepper flakes to taste

fresh herbs to sprinkle on top - I used cilantro

 

Puttin’ It Teegether

 

Dump all three cans of greens in a colander and drain.  Set aside.

 

Melt the butter in a large pot.  I let mine brown just a little.  Toss in all the vegetables except the greens, and cook until the onions are limp.

 

Add the greens, stir, then pour in the chicken broth and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and let the greens simmer while you make the cornbread.

 

Cornbread

 

Lots of variations, as you know.  This is the simple version to use when your significant other is on a bike ride and has high expectations and hunger pangs when she returns.

 

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup corn meal

1 teaspoon salt

¼ cup sugar

4 tablespoons baking powder

1 egg

1 cup milk (I used oat milk because that’s what I had!)

¼ cup vegetable oil

 

Put the dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk to mix.  Make a well in the center and add the egg, milk, and oil.  Whisk only until the ingredients are mixed.

 

Pull the iron skillet out of the oven.  While others may know this, I will add a further instruction for my friend Daphne.  Don’t grab the skillet barehanded!

 

Put the batter in the skillet and return it to the oven.  My cornbread browned in 20 minutes.

 

I served the greens with some chopped herbs on top, plus a cut of cornbread and a glass of Pinot Gris.

 

Significant other expressed satisfaction bordering on happiness.

I raised a glass to Eddie Hernandez....who, by the way, has a fabulously interesting

cookbook that tells his story, from Mexico to now, along with a collection of recipes you're going to want to try!

 

Mexican Cornbread

We’re still locked down, kinda.  And since you’ve had to give up Canasta, bowling, and python wrestling, you’re searching for things to do.  By now you’ve become the king or queen of the kitchen, yes?  Your loved one or spouse starts to salivate when you strap on that apron, pop the cork on the Champagne and give a wink, accompanied by that certain smile.  In my case, it’s more a blink and an uncertain smile, but hey, my problem, not yours. 

I’ve almost run out of costumes:  Tonight’s the Knight, pirate and winsome captive (so difficult for me to be winsome), Mister Darcy in britches that are way too tight, movie mogul in handcuffs, politician swearing there won’t be photographs,…chef….now that’s a role I play well and the only one that doesn’t garner petty complaints.

So, pop your cork and let’s get cookin’!  Today, we’ll go south of the border for some Mexican Cornbread.  I know you thinking, hmmmmm….Mexican Cornbread?  That’s kinda flat, right?  

No, you’re thinking of tortillas. This cornbread is filled with goodies and cooks in about 35 minutes.  A person who shall go unnamed gave me this recipe and there’s no way you can get me to reveal my wife’s name.  But, I will reveal the recipe.

Mexican Cornbread

1 Cup all-purpose flour

1 Cup yellow or white cornmeal

1 Onion, medium sized, diced

1 Green pepper (I used poblano), seeded and diced

1 Small can Mexi-corn, drained

1 Cup shredded cheese (I used cheddar)

½ Teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 Egg

1 Cup buttermilk (Or add a squeeze of lemon juice to regular milk)

¼ Cup vegetable oil, plus a bit more for the pan (I used Canola oil)

Note:  The only leavening agent is the egg, no baking powder.  This gives you a denser cornbread than the southern style.

Pre-heat oven to 400ºF or 200ºC

Splash some vegetable oil in a 10 inch, oven safe skillet, and slip it in the oven. (I used cast iron.)

Puttin’ it all together

In a large bowl, stir together everything, but the egg, oil, and buttermilk.

In a separate bowl, whip the egg, buttermilk and oil together and add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture.  Stir well.

Remove the hot skillet from the oven and pour in the cornbread batter.  Should sizzle a bit as it’s poured in.

Bake for 35 minutes.

When you pull it out of the oven, let the cornbread rest for 10-15 minutes.  When it’s cooled a bit, flip it upside down onto a pie plate to present the crusty bottom.

You’ve just made some of the best cornbread you’ll ever taste, and practically a meal by itself!

So much easier than trying to fit into Mister Darcy’s skin tight pants, or find the key to the damn handcuffs.

Bean Pie and Cornbread

Baby, it’s cold outside!  Time to clean the oven and fill it with some Southwestern chow.  Wait a sec…I need to separate the words South and West and even add in a little continental flavor.

Continental?  Yep, you’ll need some Spanish chorizo.  First question:  How does Spanish chorizo differ from Mexican chorizo?  Mexican chorizo is soft, like hamburger or pork sausage.  Spanish chorizo is cased and smoked.  It’s more solid (like Salami) than Mexican style.  Can’t find Spanish chorizo? Use chorizo from Puerto Rico, which is very similar.

After discussing chorizo, or cuisine in general, you can see why I don’t like to use the terms Hispanic or Latino.  It’s not only the cooking that’s different in every country, but also the culture, even if the language is similar.  Did you know Spanish is the main language in parts of Africa and also on some islands in the Philippines? 

I saw a U.S. Marine jogging, wearing a t-shirt that read, “Not Latino, not Hispanic, Mexican!”  Sums it up perfectly.  And while we’re on the subject, did you realize many in our armed forces are not American citizens?  My son’s soccer coach in Okinawa Japan was a Marine from Nigeria.  Another kids’ soccer coach was from Jamaica.  According to the Migration Policy Institute, (http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/immigrants-us-armed-forces) over 65,000 non-citizen, long-term residents, currently serve, forming about 5% of our armed forces.  Having foreigners serve in military has been ongoing since the beginning of our country. Let’s not forget the foreigners who served in our military during our war for independence from England and don’t forget the Civil War (also called The War of Northern Aggression!), when over 1.5 million soldiers were non-citizens.

Now that we’ve got that settled, let’s pour a glass of wine, slosh down a few sips…or maybe a beer (from any country you damn well choose), or a Margarita (daisy), which we all know comes from Mexico.  Or does it?  The truth is, nobody knows for sure!  Come-on, you lazy liquorteer, in your brief moments of sobriety, do a little Googling! Don’t make me teach you EVERYTHING!

But, I will show you how to feed yourself and at the same time impress your feckless friends.  Plus, these recipes are so simple you can make the whole meal with a beer in each hand and carry on a conversation with your wife. Stick with very simple words, such as ‘Yes, dear’ and ‘Wow, great idea’ and ‘But not as cute as you.’

Here’s my version of Bean Pie accompanied by cornbread:

Bean Pie

Preheat oven to 425ºF (220ºC)

1 Can pinto beans with jalapeños, undrained

1 Can kidney beans, drained and washed

1 Can whole plum tomatoes, drained and chopped

6-7 inch stick of Spanish chorizo, casing removed, and cut into thin rounds

½ Cup chicken broth (I use a full packet of dried chicken broth and ½ Cup water.)

1 Heaping teaspoon powdered cumin

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste

1 large onion, peeled and chopped

5 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced thinly

½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ Cups grated jack or pepper jack cheese (or any other hard cheese that’s handy)

In a large skillet, drop in a little oil and sauté the chorizo on medium heat for 2-3 minutes.

Remove the chorizo from the pan and add the chopped onions.  Stir for a few minutes until the onions are limp.  Add the garlic, cumin, salt, and red pepper flakes.  Stir and cook a few minutes more.

Add the beans and the chicken stock.  Bring to a boil and cook 3-4 minutes.

Put the bean mixture into a 9x13x2 baking dish and spread chorizo, tomato and cheese over the top.  Bake until the cheese is bubbly and beginning to brown.

Cornbread

(Same oven temp as for the Bean Pie)

Use the directions on the side of the cornmeal container, or the fearless men and women of great courage will march into the great unknown using my directions.

1 ¼  Cup yellow cornmeal

1 Cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons baking powder

2 Eggs

¼ Cup sugar

1 Cup milk

¼ Cup vegetable oil + a little oil to grease the baking pan

Spread some oil around the skillet or other pan you’re using to bake the cornbread.  Pop the pan into the preheated oven.

Mix all the dry ingredients, then make a well in the center. In a separate bowl, whip together the eggs, milk, and oil.  Pour the milk mixture into the well and mix.  If the mixture is a little too juicy, sprinkle in a little bit more cornmeal and remix.  The batter should be much thicker than pancake batter, but still pour into the well-heated pan, with a little help from a spatula.

Bake for about 22 minutes.  Should be brown on top and a knife inserted in the center should come out with a light sheen of oil, but clean of batter.

Now call the hungry masses to the table…or maybe just one more glass of wine first?  “Now what was that again honey?  You think I’m wonderful?  Gosh, I get that all the time.  I…I…I mean from you!”

Cornbread Dressing - Simply Delicious

Everything you'll need

Holidays are times for favorites and that especially means food.   Gingerbread cookies, whose deliciousness floats through the house; Roasting turkey, cranberry sauce.  The list grows longer.  One of my special favorites, besides seeing my favorite elf, cozy by the fireside, with a naughty grin on her face…ah, lost my train of thought….oh, yeah, food.  Cornbread dressing!

Some call it stuffing, but I never stuff a turkey, so I call it dressing.  Dates back to my childhood, over half a century ago.  I picture my mother, who miraculously never weighted more than 105 pounds, in the uncomfortably warm kitchen, Vogue perfect, a starched apron completing the ensemble.  The oven going.  The stovetop, with half a dozen steaming pans, and on the counter a cast iron skillet loaded with day-old cornbread.  Why day-old instead of freshly baked?  Moisture, my lad.  Cornbread that’s a tad on the dry side soaks up the goodness of all that’s to follow.

It all starts with cornbread. Here’s my recipe, but feel free to use another.  The important things are to make it a day ahead and to make enough!  This is a single recipe that I use to make dressing that feeds 6-8.

2 Cups cornmeal (I use organic, non-genetically modified.  Just make sure it is a normal grind, not finely ground)

1/4 Cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder (non-aluminum)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 Cup milk

1/4 Cup vegetable oil

2 egg whites, or 1 whole egg, beaten

Heat oven to 400ºF (200ºC).  Heavily grease an iron skillet or 8x9 inch pan.  Put the pan in the oven to heat while you mix the cornbread.

Combine the dry ingredients. Stir in the wet ingredients, mixing only until the dry ingredients are moist.  Do not over-mix.

Remove the pan from the oven, pour in the batter, and put the pan back in the pre-heated oven.  Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Once you have the cornbread, the rest is a cinch.

Prepare the vegetables:

1 1/2 Cups sliced celery

1 1/2 Cups roughly chopped onions

1 Carrot, shredded

1 1/2 sticks butter

2 Cans or 1 32 oz carton organic chicken broth

Melt the butter in a skillet, add the vegetables and stir.  Cook only until the vegetables are just soft.

While the vegetables are cooking, in a saucepan, heat the chicken broth and reduce by half.

Crumble the cornbread into a large bowl.  Add the cooked vegetables and mix lightly, being careful not to pack down the mixture.  Moisten with the reduced chicken broth and toss.  Do not let the mixture get soggy. Taste and add more broth or melted butter if you wish.

Put the dressing mixture in an ovenproof dish and bake at 350ºF (180ºC) until the tops of the chunks of dressing begin to brown.

Notice, the dressing is not packed down!

Already have the Turkey carved, the table set? Remove the dressing from the oven and serve with your favorite homemade turkey gravy.

Now that you’ve done your duty, crack open that bottle of bubbly and join your elf by the fireside.  Maybe the guests won’t notice.

Downhome Vegetarian - Cornbread and Collards

Cornbread Fixin's

Collard Makin's

Simple, but Country Elegant

All together now....slurrrrp!

I confess I’m a rib suckin’, barbequin’, unrepentant carnivore.  But, I have nice friends, including a close friend who’d rather jump on a live grenade than eat any part of anything that walks, crawls, flies, or swims.  I’ve been tempted to test that. 

When you cook for vegetarians, you start to be very inventive. No throwing juicy, delicious steaks on the barbe, peeing in the bushes, and clanging the dinner gong.  You pay more attention to flavors and color combinations, but most of all, everything you fix has to taste good and be filling. No fear. It can be done.

            Of course, there’s also the dainty, little finger in the air, ‘style-is-everything’ type of vegetarian,.  I avoid them. You probably know and despise one of your very own.  Lightly steamed breast of radish, with vinegar infused skirt of cabbage.  Served on a bed of thin sliced, gluten free, soy based, rabbit pellets.  I’d rather eat root veggies, still ripe with bovine droppings.

            I say, if you’re gonna do the dirty with the greens, grab some corn licker, bust a few brain cells, and make some stomach fillin’,  mouth-warterin’ victuals your gran-pappy would be proud to slap on his tin plate and drool down his chin.

            You know I’m talking about cornbread and collards.  Cornbread is one of the oldest American dishes.  Native Americans ground corn in the long ago, and passed the recipes on to southern colonists, who added some leavening agents and brought cornbread to such a high stage of the culinary art that even slayers of beasts will relish a tasty hunk.  Matter of fact, cornbread has been labeled one of the cornerstones of southern cuisine.  I’d vote for that, as long as you mention biscuits, barbeque, and rice.  Hold on a sec.  Gonna need more than four corners.  What about the greens?  Which brings up the savory subject of collards.  Collard is the colloquial form of the long-forgotten name “colewort,” and it comes from the same family as broccoli and cabbage.  Not a bad green gene pool.  Collards give you vitamin C, along with antibacterial, antiviral, and even anti-cancer properties.  Matter of fact, if you rub collards…..’nother story.  These days you don’t have to cut the leaves at exactly the right time and chop ‘em yourself.  That’s what the frozen section of the supermarket is for.

            Lets get cookin’!  We’ll do the collards first and let them stew while we make the cornbread.

Collards My Vegetarian Friend’s Way  (Look!  No bacon up my sleeve!)

            1  package (1 lb) frozen, chopped collard greens

1   medium onion

3   cloves garlic

1   carrot

3   tablespoons chopped jalapeños

32  ounces vegetable broth, about 4 1/2 cups

1   tablespoon salt (or to taste)

2   tablespoons vegetable oil (I use sunflower oil)

Finely chop the onion, garlic and carrot.  I use a food processor.  Heat the oil on medium-high, in a 2-3 quart pot, and add the chopped ingredients (except the collards).  Let them sweat until the onions are translucent, then add the vegetable broth.  Bring to a boil and add the collards, salt and jalapeños.  Simmer for at least 30 minutes or more.  The longer the better. Taste and add salt as necessary.  I’ve been known to splash in a little bit of vinegar and another bunch of chopped jalapeños at this point.

While the collards simmer, let’s make the cornbread. 

Cornbread  - the simple kind

2 cups yellow corn meal

1/4 cup sugar (optional)

2 tablespoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 beaten egg

1 1/4 cups milk (I use skim)

Preheat the oven to 400ºF or 200ºC.  Add about 1/4 cup oil to a 8-9 inch cast iron skillet and put the skillet in the hot oven.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.  Add the milk and mix.  Add the beaten egg.  The batter should move slowly around in the bowl, but not be watery.  If your batter is too thick, add a little more milk. If it’s too thin, add just a touch more corn meal.

Some people like to add all manner of things to the batter:  jalapeños, corn kernels, shredded cheese, crisp bacon, tongue of mother-in-law.   Do what the hell you want, but don’t ask me.  I’m making the simple kind.  ‘Course I’m the guy who likes plain vanilla ice cream and single malt with no ice, water, or vapid conversation.

Remove the hot skillet from the oven and pour in the batter.  Put the skillet back in the oven and bake the cornbread for 20-25 minutes, or until the top is slightly brown and a knife comes out clean.

            By the time the cornbread comes out of the oven, the collards will be ready.  Give ‘em a taste and add salt or more jalapeños if you need to.   See how that works?  Almost as if I’d planned it.  Now, ask gran-pappy for another slug of that liquid corn, one of the other cornerstones of southern cookin’.  Just ask gran-mammy.