Skillet-Sizzled Heaven from Crescent Dragonwagon

As some DallasEats readers may recall, last year at this time I was busy working on a review of a new cookbook for San Antonio's alt-weekly, The Current.  The cookbook in question was The Cornbread Gospels by Crescent Dragonwagon, and I chronicled my mouthwatering adventures exploring its fascinating subject matter in two posts - here and here.

Dragonwagon, the James Beard Award-winning author of Passionate Vegetarian, turned food historian for her follow-up book, tackling a homespun subject and revealing its deep-rooted relevance to cultures all around the world and right here in our own American back yards.  In The Cornbread Gospels she presents dozens of variations on the "basic cornbread" theme (illustrating in the process that cornbread is anything but basic), as well as recipes for cornmeal-based quickbreads, flatbreads, yeast breads and desserts.  

I fell in love with this book, quite by accident.  Hautily, I'd expected to maintain my professional detachment with ease while working on the project, ambivalent as I'd been about cornbread for most of my life - I'd always thought I could take it or leave it.  My first batch of Dairy Hollow House Skillet-Sizzled Cornbread changed all that.  The moment I poured golden batter into a pool of butter as it bubbled in my mother's cast-iron skillet, I knew I'd been converted by Dragonwagon's Gospels.  I continued cooking my way through the book with a newfound hunger for the soul-warming comfort of cornbread.

Below you'll find Crescent Dragonwagon's signature cornbread recipe (pictured above in the top left quadrant), named for the acclaimed bed and breakfast she ran for many years in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.  It would pair beautifully with FP's recipe for Green Chile with Pork, presented earlier this week.

Crescent Dragonwagon's

Dairy Hollow House Skillet-Sizzled Cornbread

vegetable oil cooking spray

1 cup unbleached white flour

1 cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

2 tablespoons sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup mild vegetable oil

2 tablespoons butter

1.  Preheat oven to 375.  Spray a 10-inch skillet with cooking spray and set aside.

2.  Sift together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl.

3.  In a smaller bowl, stir the baking soda into the buttermilk.  Whisk in the sugar, egg and vegetable oil.

4.  Put the prepared skillet over medium heat, add the butter, and heat until the butter melts and is just starting to sizzle.  Tilt the pan to coat the sides and bottom.

5.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and combine quickly, using as few strokes as possible.  Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake until the cornbread is golden brown, about 20 minutes.  Slice into wedges and serve.

Thanksgiving Special--Robin's Cornbread Dressing

Okay, let me first say, there is no one cornbread dressing recipe that will please everyone. We all grew up with moms that made it just a little bit differently, and I love all the stuff my mom makes at Thanksgiving—even the sweet potatoes with marshmallows. Okay, especially the sweet potatoes with marshmallows. That being said, this is not my mom’s recipe. This is my recipe, which I’ve made for the last several years, tweaking it just a little bit each time. It’s also great with sausage, but this is the slightly lighter version.

Robin’s Cornbread Dressing:

1/3 of a stick of butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups chopped celery (don’t chop it too finely—you still want it to look like celery)
1 medium fennel bulb, diced
1 large sweet onion, diced
2 medium/large crisp, sweet apples (Fuji apples are my favorite)
1tsp. +1 tbs. kosher salt
2 tsp. dried fennel seeds
2 tsp. dried thyme
2 tsp. dried sage
2 prepared 8X8 pans of yellow cornbread
1 cup apple juice
2 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth for our vegetarian friends)
2 eggs, beaten
2 tsp. fresh black pepper (to taste)
½ cup chopped pecans

Melt the butter and olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the celery and fennel, and sauté for five minutes. Add the onion, apples, fennel seeds, 1 tsp. salt, thyme, and sage. Sauté for about five-10 more minutes, or until the onions begin to get translucent.

In a large mixing bowl, crumble the cornbread. When it’s done, pour the apple mixture over the top. Add the apple juice, chicken broth, eggs, pepper, pecans and the rest of the salt. Combine.

Spoon the mixture into a 9 by 13 pan, and bake for 45 minutes. The mixture should become firm and the top should brown. It should also smell awesome.

Cornbread Chronicles, Part II

This is just a short note to commemorate the official end of my cornbread project. My review of "The Cornbread Gospels" by Crescent Dragonwagon appears in today's issue of the San Antonio Current. Click the link below to read the full text:

http://www.sacurrent.com/dining/story.asp?id=67702

More than cornmeal-to-flour ratios and levels of sweetness and the presence or absence of whole kernal corn, this book taught me what a joy it can be to dissect a cuisine (or just one simple food) down to its roots and work your way back up again.

I now know that I love cornbread of all kinds, and it's all "authentic" - just depends on who you ask!

The following recipe is one of my favorites from the book: a Greek dessert cornbread, bobota is a cousin of baklava. Soaked in orange-flavored honey while still warm from the oven, it's a perfect pair with strong coffee, Sauternes or, of course, Ouzo. Enjoy!

Bobota

(Greek Cornbread)

Makes 10 to 12 squares

Vegetable oil cooking spray
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unbleached white flour
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons stone-ground yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 eggs, separated
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
Finely grated zest of 1 orange, preferably organic
1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (seeds and large pieces of pulp removed, but not strained)
1 cup currants or raisins
1 recipe Orange-Honey Syrup (below)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 7 1/2 x 12 1/2-inch pan with cooking spray and set aside.

2. Sift together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt onto a piece of wax paper. Set aside.

3. In a high-sided non-plastic bowl using scrupulously clean beaters, beat the egg whites until stiff. Set aside.

4. Using the same beaters that you used on the egg whites, in a medium-sized bowl, cream together the butter and sugar, beating until fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time. Add the orange zest.

5. Add the flour-cornmeal mixture and the orange juice to the creamed butter mixture, stirring until just combined. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the egg whites and currants or raisins.

6. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan, and put it in the oven. Bake until golden brown, firm and slightly domed in the middle, 35 to 40 minutes. As the cake bakes, prepare the Orange-Honey Syrup.

7. When the cake is done, remove it from the oven and prick the top all over with a toothpick. Pour the slightly cooled syrup evenly over the cake, dousing it. Let stand 1 to 2 hours before serving.

Orange-Honey Syrup

sufficient for one Bobota

1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons honey
Juice from 1 orange plus water to equal 1 cup
Finely grated zest of one orange, preferably organic
6 whole cloves

Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, turn heat down to a simmer, and let cook until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is a thin syrup, about 4 minutes. Let the syrup cool to room temperature. Remove the cloves before pouring the syrup over the Bobota.

(Photo, clockwise from top left: Dairy Hollow House Skillet-Sizzled Cornbread, cornbread and beans, Greek Bobota, Portuguese Broa and Caldo Verde stew. All recipes from The Cornbread Gospels by Crescent Dragonwagon. Photo by Lara Bierner)

Cornbread Chronicles

Part I: Cornbread, Contraband and Keeping Good Culinary Company

As many of you already know, I'm in the midst of a writing assignment that involves cornbread. Lots and lots of cornbread. Let's just say that for the last four days out of five, I've had cornbread for breakfast. Twice for lunch.

I'm preparing a review of a new cookbook by one of my culinary heroes, Crescent Dragonwagon. Answer to obligatory question: No, that isn't her given name, but the story of how it came about is entertaining. Dragonwagon penned “Passionate Vegetarian”, a doorstop of a tome filled with recipes, stories, tips and menus. The darned thing is just about as big as my beagle, but I've nonetheless been through it several times, leaving a trail of sauce-splashed pages and margin notes in my wake. It's the “Joy of Cooking” for vegetarians. Answer to next obligatory question: No, I'm not a vegetarian...but I live to cook, and anything that presents the very essence of a cuisine, be it vegetarian, Moroccan or Coastal South Carolinian, is of great interest to people like me who love playing with their food.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0761119167/

So, cornbread. Not something I would have considered myself knowledgeable or curious about in the least – until I picked up the book. It set a place for me at the communal table shared by Native Americans, African slaves, Portuguese fishermen and a dozen or more other cultures who have embraced this humble foodstuff through the ages. Now I'm hooked.

As I mention this to friends, acquaintances and passers-by, it's a treat to witness their impassioned reactions. No one is neutral on cornbread. Everyone has something to share – family recipes, new twists and recent kitchen experiments. A checker at Whole Foods, eyes wide with interest, leaned in close when I mentioned the project. It was as though I had produced the proper handshake and could now be let in on the secret: “Amaranth,” he whispered, barely audible in the bustling market on a Sunday afternoon. “Amaranth is the key...”

I raced home, grocery bags swinging to and fro, to ask my husband if he knew of this mystery ingredient. “Amaranth? I think that's illegal here in the States.” Actually, it's a nutrient-dense grain (or herb, depending on who you ask) that was a favorite of the Mayans and Incas. I believe Jeremy was thinking of “Absinthe”; those of you who know him will not be surprised.

Now, I ask all of you (we have lots of readers now! Yay!), do you have cornbread tales to tell? Did your mom use something special – jack cheese? sweet cream? - that made hers the best? Leave a comment or shoot me an email. I'd love to hear all about it!