Jay and his brother Arun were over for dinner. Arun is a vegetarian and Jay doesn’t eat spicy food, so I had some restrictions on what I could make. I decided to make the vegetarian chili again, since it was so good last time. I set aside a non-spicy portion of the chili for Jay like I usually do.
– I’ve been on a Cornbread Quest for the past couple of years. I’d like to make a skillet cornbread that’s as good as the cornbread at Bandera in Los Altos. So far, I haven’t succeeded. Theirs has corn and jalapeños and cheddar cheese in it for sure. It’s also pretty sweet, and has a yummy crust. This recipe came close as far as flavor and texture, but it’s a Southern cornbread so it wasn’t very sweet. I also think I could mimic the Bandera crust with a last-minute brushing of honey butter over the top, maybe five or ten minutes before I take it out of the oven.
- Spicy Two-Bean Vegetarian Chili (Bon Appétit, November 2002)
- Double-Corn Tex-Mex Cornbread with Cheese & Green Chiles (Fine Cooking #20, May 1997, p.47)
Wine: Ridge 1999 Buchingani Ranch Zinfandel (Sonoma County, California). Yum – Ridge does a fantastic job with their Zins. This one is big and jammy, just like I like them.
For the best corn and spoon bread, nothing can compare with wholegrain water-ground cornmeal. It’s not only sweet and flavorful, but moist, which does away with the dry, crumbly effect substandard cornbread is notorious for. I used to get mine at a little health food store downtown where they ground it fresh daily. To avoid the rancidity wholegrain flour is prone to, I kept it frozen in a tightly sealed jar.