This cornbread...
...makes an excellent base for lots of stewy southwestern flavored dishes like chili, bean and ham soup, mmm, like we had last night. If you noticed my mention of her meal at Mom's Daily Tests and Meds, yesterday, you'll remember that I served the Easy Bean & Ham Soup over a slice of cornbread. The following recipe is the cornbread:*  *  *  *  *Southwest Corn Corn Bread
Ingredients:

Dry:
• ¾ cup white or whole wheat baking flour
• 1¼ cups yellow or white corn meal
• 1¾ tsps baking powder
• scant ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 - 2 Tbl Southwestern Fire spice mix
• one fresh medium green chili, washed, sliced, chopped, seeds and membranes removed if you want to cut hotness

Wet:
• 1⅓ cups buttermilk
• 2 large eggs
¼ cup vegetable oil

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 400°.
• Grease 8 or 9 inch round or square baking pan
• Whisk together all dry ingredients
Punch a crater into the center of the dry ingredients
• Pour all liquids into the crater
• mix together all ingredients until just moistened
• Pour batter into greased baking pan
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Variations on Recipe:

1. If you want the green chilis even less hot than leaving out the membranes and seeds, soaked the chopped green chili in water for an hour or so. Mind you, you'll end up with green chili's that taste like green peppers, in which case, may as well spend less on green peppers and use them in the corn bread.
2. I have used masa harina, a silky corn flour popular in Mexican cooking, particularly in tortillas and tamales, instead of wheat flour. Using this increases the corn over-flavor, which I like but my mother does not.
3. Sometimes I'll include maybe ¾ cup grated cheese, usually a sharp, strong cheddar. This time I did not because I knew I would be using the cornbread and ground cover for beany recipes; chili, ham and bean soup and such.
4. This recipe has been adapted to be used at 6,000' altitude. If you are baking at lower elevations, increase baking powder to 2 tsps; the baking soda to full, not scant measure; reduce buttermilk to 1¼ or even 1⅛ cups.
5. An excellent way to serve a piece of this is to cover it with shredded cheese, sprinkle some kind of southwestern seasoning over it and grill it until the cheese is bubble-melting. Makes a great late evening snack with cocoa.

*  *  *  *  *    So, I'm going to be going in and out of here, today, modifying how I present recipes, maybe hooking up a Table of Contents over on the right.
- posted by Gail Rae @ 15:44   email...this post