Hush Puppies

-hushin' dem puppies-

every culture seems to have their own catchy name for this deep fried treat / side dish. i've heard name that range from "corn doggers" to "corn fritters" to "mandoca" in venezuela to "yanikeke" in the dominical republic to my favorite "festivals" in jamaica. yep, believe it people places outside of the american bible belt enjoy these miraculously simply and tasty bites. everyone loves deep fried balls of cornmeal dough - everyone. you can vary the sweet to savory ratios and easily move from side dish to dessert - or carnival fare.

now for a bit of american southern history (supposed history - which can describe about 60% of all my "historical" knowledge). evidently history has it that these little guys were usually tossed to the dogs by hunters, soldiers even runaway slaves to "hush the puppies". pretty clever eh? funny because when i do make these - which is rare, but holds as a semi-yearly summer farm tradition - they never make it to anyplace other than the grubby hands of the beer macerated men folk. a puppy would never have a chance of tasting one of these.

HUSH PUPPIES

-or whatever you call em'-

1c cornmeal

1/2c flour

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

16 oz cream corn

1/2c finely minced onion

milk if needed

oil for frying

*heat 2"-3" of oil to 350F

*in a large bowl combine the cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt and baking powder

*in a separate bowl combine the cream corn and onions

*add the corn mixture to the flour mixture and stir to combine - add a bit of milk if the batter seems too thick. it should be about the constancy of a thick muffin or quick bread batter.

*drop by the tablespoonful into the preheated oil and fry, turning once, until golden. this should take only 2-3 minutes.

*place on a paper towel lined plate and serve with ketchup or my favorite, tartar sauce.

Brown Butter Honey Corn Muffins

-mmmm brown butter and honey-

cornmeal - simple and sunny but somehow at the same time cozy. its one of those rare season "crossover" foods; its great in fluffy blueberry muffins, stewed in cream as an early morning poridge or baked into a quick bread and severed up with a steaming bowl of winter warming chili. what can go wrong when you are playing with cornmeal i ask you?! not much in my book. so i continued my love of all things brown butter i decided to try it out in a loaf of cornbread and while i was in an "ode to all things brown" mode i forged forward with brown butter and honey too. don't skip on the buttermilk here it keeps a moist crumb because really, who doesn't love a moist crumb? slather on the jam and you have yourself a breakfast fit for a british queen. slather on honey butter and you have a pre dinner warm-up treat fit for my husband.

BROWN BUTTER HONEY CORN MUFFINS

1c cornmeal

1c AP flour

1/4c packed light brown sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

1c buttermilk

3oz browned butter

2tbs honey

*preheat oven to 400F, grease your pan

*in a large bowl combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, soda and salt

*in a smaller bowl whisk together the buttermilk, egg, browned butter and honey

*pour the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture and stir just to combine -- do not over mix!

*pour/ ladle into your prepared pan

*cook for 15-18 minutes, until toothpick is clean - start checking after 15 minutes

Blueberry Corn Muffins

-there's basically sunshine rays beaming out of this muffin-

i don't know about you but, breakfast is sacred. there seems to be two kinds of people when it comes to the morning meal. exhibit A: roll out of bed ready to devour the kitchen and all the goodness it has to offer. exhibit B: rolls out of bed, checks emails, hangs around a few hours then scrounges up some lame "meal" of something like box cereal or worse yet a coke paired with a candy bar (my god!). forgive me if i am offending any of you exhibit Bs out there, but really guys? lets get through this together. i understand that yogurt and granola isn't for everyone BUT muffins are. there is not one human being that doesn't enjoy a nice buttery golden blueberry muffin. add in some cornmeal, which not only adds a whole grain, and you have yourself an all around perfect day starter. if you think you can muster it slather on a bit of honey butter and you just elevated yourself to deity. have i convinced you to out that box of trix up yet?

BLUEBERRY CORN MUFFINS

1 1/2c AP flour

1/4 c sugar

1/4c brown sugar (light packed)

1/2c cornmeal

1tbs baking powder

3/4tsp salt

2 tsp lemon zest

3/4c buttermilk

4oz butter, melted

1 egg

1c fresh or frozen (unthawed) blueberries

*line 12 muffin tins with paper cups, preheat oven to 350F

*sift together flours, sugar, salt and baking powder

*in separate bowl combine zest, buttermilk, butter and egg

*quickly combine the wet and dry ingredients

*fold in blueberries

*spoon into prepared pan and cook 20-25 minutes, until toothpick is clean

Cali Succotash

- sunny, sunny california food-

somehow over the short span of a 3 day visit to LA to see josh i found myself stumbling around at 8am in the little bare-bones apt the theater has him in trying to figure out what i was going to make for this impromptu bbq the company was putting on for the everyone. hmmm, what's quick, easy and doesn't have mayo in it? oh and because i have a genetic strain of southern in me - how can i use bacon? well, enter succotash. i really just winged this as per what trader joe's had to offer that morning. usually lima beans (also known as butter beans) would be in place of the edamame, but i figured - hey its california don't they eat a lot of soy and you know other healthy stuff that doesn't have a nickname with "butter" in it? yeah ok, toss it in. to give back some of the creamy sweetness that was lost with the exclusion of the lima i threw in a bit of sweet english peas. all in all i liked it and it appeared that i wasn't the only one.

this makes a ton, enough to feed about 10-15 as a side and you can easily half this if needed.

1lb grape tomatoes

2 1/2c corn

1c english peas

2 1/2c edamame (soy beans)

4 slices apple smoked bacon, diced

2 shallots, chopped

handful fresh basil leaves, chopped chiffonade style

*allow corn and peas to defrost (if they are frozen)

*cook edamame according to package, seasoning well

*heat a large pot over medium high

*add chopped bacon, cook long enough to render the fat and allow bits to crisp

*remove with a slotted spoon, leaving the fat and add the shallots

*cook stirring occasionally for 3-4 minutes until translucent

*add tomatoes, cook for 2-3 minutes more or until skins begin to wrinkle / burst

*add corn, peas and edamame and cook about 5 minutes more to allow everything to heat up and come to same temp.

*add reserved bacon, stir to combine

*taste for seasoning then take off heat

*add the chopped basil and stir to combine

*serve warm or chilled.

Cornmeal Jam Muffins

-cormeal jam muffins that kinda resemble a rooster-

I've been promising josh, for about a year, that i would make some breakfast corn muffins. cornbread is much adored around this apartment so i'm not really sure why these haven't come into existence until yesterday morning. so thank god i woke myself up, against my will, at 6 am yesterday morning. i had an extra hour to kill before heading to work, where i would spend my day wondering why i was so tired, and remembering the fancy jellies i scored from the fancy breakfast platter someone (not me) had donated to the community office kitchen after their fancy meeting. don't worry i don't get invited to the fancy meetings, i just do the work for them and then scavenger the left overs after the fact. ahhh the joys.

so anyways i remembered all that and got to work with hep from my trusty culinary friend - ina garten. i only made a small change, substituting half of the sugar with brown sugar. i think it makes a difference - but try it yourself. the jam i used was actually a mix of raspberry, grape and apricot - hence the "sample" sizes i swiped. non-the less these are delish and as far as i'm concerned you can use whatever jam you have on hand, they all kinda taste the same after a while anyways - right?

CORNMEAL JAM MUFFINS

via Ina Garten

1 1/2c AP flour

1/4c granulated sugar

1/4c light brown sugar (lightly packed)

1/2c yellow cornmeal

1 tbs baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

3/4c whole milk

4 oz butter, melted and cooled

1 large egg

6 tbs jam (of your choosing)

*preheat oven to 350F, line muffin tin

*sift together flours, baking powder, salt, and sugar

*in a separate bowl combine the milk, butter and egg

*quickly stir in the milk mixture into the flour mixture - do not over mix

*pour into lined muffins tins (about 10-11)

*cook for 20 minutes, or until toothpick is clean

*once the muffins have cooled, fill a pastry bag with fitted with a round tip and squeeze in the jam into middle of the muffins.

'THE' CORNBREAD

cornbread - when done correctly - is god's gift to cheap people. i am a cheap person. well most of the time. anyways cornbread; its crumbly, takes over your mouth, then melts away into a tasty cloud-like texture. Is it cake or bread? i don;t know. but it can be used for anything.

everyone has their favorite use. mine happens to be for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. try it and tell me its not awesome, my father likes to drown his in honey for an after dinner snack, josh likes to eat his anytime after 2am with whipped honey butter slathered on top, my mom dissolves her in soups, my grandfather mashed his up with a wedge of cheddar cheese, a few spoons of molasses and a pool of milk (just a touch of the south there). yum. its quintessential soul food and we all know about soul food.

growing up (and i believe even to this day) my mom had a special cast iron pan that was sectioned off into equally sized wedges. pour the batter in, pop in the oven and 20 minutes later you have 8 perfectly sized servings waiting for their butter therapy. they beg for greedy hands to grab onto one of those triangles of gluttonous opportunity. my mother's kitchen, unlike my miniaturized one, had storage for such specialty items like that, mine: no way. I have to have at least 3 uses for an object to justify letting it take up real estate in my kitchen.

so i made chicken chili the other night - and really there is no other option but cornbread. really, i dare you to name an accompaniment that compliments chili any better, or even equally. don't even think of saying rice. just no. so i am going to share with you my cornbread recipe. only because when cornbread isn't done correctly its worthless; how something can be gritty, gooey and dry all at the same time is beyond me, but i happens. this took me somewhere around 6 years to get right and this is THE cornbread recipe. no more no less - don't experiment. if you do i will not be held responsible. broccoli is especially banned. sorry.

CORNBREAD

1c all-purpose flour

1c cornmeal

1/4c + 1tbs sugar

1 tbs baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4c shortening (crisco works well), softened at room temp

1 c milk

1 egg

* preheat oven to 425 F

* combine all the dry ingredients : flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt

* cut in the shortening with your hands to a fine crumble. similar to pie crust, but finer and more even.

* in a separate bowl whisk together the milk and egg.

* quickly add the milk mixture to the flour mixture. mixing only enough to combine. it will be a bit lumpy.

* pour into a greased 9 x 9 square pan.

* cook 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

* cut and serve