This year, a birthday gift from my Cousin Christina was grain, the kind of grain, so fresh and recently milled it must be immediately frozen upon receipt. It is a precious thing, this cornmeal from Anson Mills in Columbia, South Carolina.
RECIPE: Killer Cornbread
What
2 C Anson Mills cornmeal
½ C yogurt
1/4 C water
¼ C cream or milk, fine salt, some, 1/4 t baking soda, 2-3 t baking powder, 2 eggs
¾ stick of butter
½ -1/4 C pickled chilies, sliced thin
½ C cheddar, 1-2 T maple syrup (optional)
How
Preheat oven to 400
melt butter in saucepan on top of stove
(resisting all temptation to merely melt in cast iron skillet while oven is preheating. Sadly the brown butter will not endure a thirty minute bake.)
mix dry ingredients
mix dry ingredients
When cool, add all but 2 T butter to wet ingredients
combine wet with dry ingredients
fold cheese and chilies into batter with a spatula
heat remaining 2 tablespoons of butter into cast iron skillet
remove from oven before browning
add batter to warm, buttered skillet
bake for 30 minutes.
When the cornbread comes out of the oven, invert on a rack and let cool.
Enjoy while warm now or in the future, but not the past...