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Dear John,
It's high summer, and corn is everywhere in your local grocery stores and farmer's markets. This installment of Recipe of the Month lets you make use of corn and other seasonal produce.
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Chef Virginia Willis’ Vegetable Cornbread
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Serves 8
The suggested vegetables here are just that, a gentle suggestion. Mix it up depending on what’s in season and it’s a great use of leftovers, too. This recipe will support about five cups of chopped vegetables Any more and the batter doesn’t hold together very well, and any less, it’s not really vegetable cornbread. Serve this on it’s own or as a side dish for a bowl of beans. |
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Ingredients:
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2 tablespoons canola oil
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2 cups yellow whole-grain cornmeal
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1 teaspoon fine sea salt |
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1 teaspoon baking soda |
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6 fresh okra pods, stem ends trimmed, very thinly sliced (about 1 cup) |
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1 red onion, chopped |
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Cut and scraped kernels from 2 ears of fresh corn, cut from the cob (about 1 cup) |
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1 banana pepper, thinly sliced into rings
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1 jalapeño chile, thinly sliced into rings |
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1 small red chile, such as bird’s eye or Thai, thinly sliced into rings |
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1/2 poblano chile, cored, seeded, and chopped |
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2 cups low-fat buttermilk |
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1 large egg, lightly beaten |
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Method:
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1.
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Preheat the oven to 450°F. Place the oil in a large cast-iron skillet or ovenproof baking dish and heat in the oven until the oil is piping hot, about 10 minutes. |
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2.
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Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine the cornmeal, salt, and baking soda. Add the okra, onion, corn, banana pepper, and chiles and toss to coat. Set aside. In a large measuring cup, combine the buttermilk and egg. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir to combine.
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3.
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Remove the heated skillet from the oven and pour the hot oil into the batter. Stir to combine, and then pour the batter back into the hot skillet. Bake until golden brown, about 35 minutes. Remove to a rack to cool slightly. Using a serrated knife, slice into wedges and serve warm.
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Permissions
Reprinted with permission from Lighten Up, Y’all by Virginia Willis © 2015. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Penguin Random House, Inc. Photography © 2015 by Angie Mosier. For more information please visit www.virginiawillis.com.
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About Virginia Willis
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Georgia-born French-trained Chef Virginia Willis has made chocolate chip cookies with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, foraged for berries in the Alaskan wilderness, harvested capers in the shadow of a smoldering volcano in Sicily, and hunted for truffles in France. She was the celebrity chef at the Mansion at Churchill Downs for the 143rd running of the Kentucky Derby, has spoken at SXSW, and beguiled celebrities such as Bill Clinton, Morgan Freeman, and Aretha Franklin with her cooking — but it all started in her grandmother’s country kitchen.
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