Dennis’ Cornbread

 

When I was a kid, weekend mornings meant CBC Radio and my dad in the kitchen making either waffles or cornbread. My dad was a refiner of recipes, rather than a restless cook like me. He would work on his versions of cornbread, jerk marinade and coconut rice until he had it perfect.

Now cornbread is a contentious issue I know, everyone having opinions about yeast-raised or not, with chili pepper bits or not. I don't feel particularly concerned with these arguments as my cornbread was passed down through my dad's Jamaican family and I grew up in Canada, not exactly a hotbed of cornbread activity – so it's not like there were arguments about what is or is not cornbread in my frozen neck of the woods.

So to me, this is cornbread… made into muffins or in a square glass dish. Serve it warm with a bit of butter and honey drizzled on top. Recipe after the bump.

[Oh, and UK-related note, it took me an absolute age to find cornmeal of the variety I was used to in Canada, but finally I spied it on the bottom shelf in a big Waitrose, in the Indian food section. It's even labelled 'foreign produce'.]

Dennis' Cornbread

1 cup cornmeal
1cup flour
1 cup frozen corn niblets
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Mix together dry ingredients. Put frozen corn and milk in food processor
and process until niblets are chopped. Add to dry ingredients. Mix in egg
and vegetable oil until all is combined. Spoon batter into greased muffin
tin. Bake in 200º pre-heated oven for approximately 15 minutes. Makes six
muffins.