Get
- 2 cup stone ground cornmeal
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2/3 cup water
- 1 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 2 tbsp butter
- 4 slices bacon
- 1 jalapeño
Prep - Fry up the bacon slices in a skillet. Not too crispy. Dry the bacon and set it aside to cool. Save the grease.
- Seed and dice the jalapeño. (Try frying it up too?)
Do - Preheat the oven to 450F. Put the 9" glass baking pan in there to preheat too. Drop the butter into the baking pan to melt and, if you're lucky, brown.
- Pour 2/3 cup cornmeal into one bowl. In a second bowl, whisk together the rest of the cornmeal, plus the sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
- Boil the water and pour it into the first (cornmeal only) bowl. Stir until it makes a nice polenta-like mush. (The boiling helps gelatinise it.)
- Gradually whisk in the buttermilk, breaking up lumps. Then whisk in the eggs, and the diced bacon and jalapeño.
- Dump the dry ingredients in, and stir just enough to moisten, trying not to activate the baking powder.
- Pull out the baking pan, pour in the leftover bacon grease, and then pour in the batter. Stir it up enough to get the bitter & grease worked in, but it's ok if it streaks.
- Bake until brown, about 20 - 25 minutes, and the center reaches 200F. Cool for 5 minutes. It's fine to cut and eat from the pan.
loosely based on the "Southern Cooking" cast iron skillet cornbread recipe, with bits from Emiril
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