Recipe: Corn Bread

I love Corn Bread - its that almost sweet, almost savoury delicious accompaniment that complements other comfort food so well.  Its definitely Soul Food!

Corn Bread isn't part of of the British gastronomic portfolio - its routes lie in the Americas where the Native Americans used Maize as their staple crop before introducing it to European colonists when their unsuitable crops failed.  

Unlike most bread its basically a semi-savoury cake - and can be put together very quickly to provide some hearty stodge for guests - usually involved in mopping up gravy or sauces or spread thickly with butter.  Here it is accompanying Helen Graves fantastic Pork Cheek Tacos

 I use a recipe from Cajun:  A Culinary Tour of Louisiana by Judith Bluysen which I think might be out of print.  If you can get hold of a copy of this book there are some fantastic recipes in it - the author has a Cajun/Creole restaurant in Paris.  I don't think this recipe is that authentic (note the addition of plain flour) but it certainly hits the spot. 

Recipe for Corn Bread:

Dry Stuff

235ml of Polenta

235ml of Plain Flour

4 tablespoons of Caster Sugar

1.5 tbsp of Baking Power

1 tsp Salt

1 tbsp Herbes de Provence

half tsp ground sage

Wet Stuff

235ml milk

2 eggs beaten

Other stuff

3.5 tbsp melted butter.

1. Preheat oven to 220
2. Mix dry stuff in one bowl.
3. Mix wet stuff in another
4. Pour the melted butter in a Loaf Tin ensuring its fully coated (excess butter goes in with the milk and eggs)
5. Mix the the dry stuff with the wet stuff.  Don't be too anal - it can still be quite a little lumpy.
6. Pour the combined mixture into the loaf tin and bake in the oven for 11 minutes.

This doesn't last very long in my house.  It tends to get eaten on consecutive nights as a side-dish - although next time i'm going to try spreading it with Jam or Honey for breakfast.  Nom.