Tuesday 28 February 2012

Cheddar and Chive Cornbread

This easy, tasty cornbread makes the perfect accompiantment to my previous post for Ox cheek chilli, but it also goes very well with a chunky winter soup, barbecued ribs and chicken or even on its own, spread with indecent amounts of butter. It's a great storecupboard standby recipe that looks very impressive, but yet takes mere minutes to mix together and throw into the oven.

I've based it on a Lesley Waters recipe, found on the Good Food website, but have added some strong cheddar and chives for an extra punch as I find cornbread can often be a little bland. Add a small tin of sweetcorn kernals, along with the wet ingrediants, if you want some extra texture and sweetness. Although this is certainly best served warm it will keep for a couple of days, and I have also frozen leftovers pretty successfully.

Cheddar and Chive Cornbread

280 g cornmeal or polenta (coarse or fine)
85 g plain flour
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Salt and black pepper
1 large egg
150 ml milk
425 ml buttermilk or natural yogurt
100g jarred jalepenos, drained and chopped (I used red for colour)
100g strong cheddar, grated
Small bunch of chives, chopped

Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas 6.  butter a small square cake tin or roasting tin.
In a large bowl combine the cornmeal, flour and bicarbonate of soda and season with salt and freshly ground pepper. In a jug combine the egg, milk and buttermilk and mix well.
Pour the contents of the jug into dry ingredients. Add cheese, chives and chillies.
Stir lightly, taking care not to over-mix as this will make the corn bread tough.
Pour the mixture into the buttered tin and bake for 25-30 minutes until firm and golden.
Cut into squares and serve warm.      





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