Last week I put up a post about The Grist Mill at our Fall Farm Show. Well I told you I was going to make some cornbread from it and share the recipe. So be warned...you're fixin' to make cornbread!!
I started with fresh ground corn meal. This corn was not yellow corn, but red corn, so you are going to notice it being a little darker and dirtier looking than yellow corn meal.
Remember to keep your fresh corn meal in the refrigerator or it will go bad quicker!
Preheat your oven at 425 degrees and put your skillet in there with 2 tsp of Crisco.
Next sift a heaping cup of cornmeal. You'll see why in a second...
Fresh corn meal will still have some large hulls in it that you will need to get out. It will also get out any other debris that may have gotten in the corn meal like silks or corn husks.
(This is already done for you when you buy corn meal!!)
Mix in the corn meal 1/2 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of baking soda
1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 cup of all-purpose flour
Beat two eggs...these were fresh from the hen that morning!!
Add the eggs and 1 1/3 cups of buttermilk.
**Hint, Hint, Hint**
If you are like me and don't keep buttermilk handy in your frig, well like me share a secret....you can make buttermilk by adding a tablespoon of vinegar(white, apple will make it taste funky) to a cup of sweet (regular) milk. For this recipe, I added a tablespoon and 1/3 tsp to 1 1/3 cups of milk. It works great for any time you are cooking and don't have buttermilk!
Take your heated skillet out of the oven. Make sure that the Crisco has completely melted and moving the grease around to be sure there is some on all the skillet.
Pour your batter into the hot skillet. The batter should be sizzling when you pour it into the skillet.
Put the skillet back in the hot oven and cook it for 20 minutes.
The corn bread should be dark on top when it is done.
Take a dinner plate and place on top of the skillet. Then flip the skillet over holding the plate in place. Your cornbread should come out beautifully if your skillet is seasoned right!
Don't that look yummy!! The red corn makes the cornbread look a little funny, but the taste is spot on!!
If you noticed, I don't cut my cornbread. In my family, cornbread was never cut always broken. It goes back to Jesus breaking the bread at the last supper.
Another thing of note for all my bloggy friends from "up North", we don't add sugar to our cornbread! Sugar makes it sweet bread and gives cornbread a whole different taste. Plus, when you add sweet cornbread to your vegetables it makes them sweet and, to me, you hide the veggies flavors!
This is my Southern Cooking 101 and how I used my fresh ground corn meal!!
Y'all come back now.....
