by Joyce Rosencrans
Scripps Howard News Service
Comfort food for a cold month could be cornbread baked up in a black-iron skillet. Lace the quick bread made in a hot-hot oven with bacon bits, part of the bacon drippings and Dijon mustard for Crispy Bacon Dijon Cornbread. Beef stew or a big pot of beans should be so lucky as to have this particular cornbread beside it.
Another way to bake cornbread is on top of creamed chicken Mexican-style. This filling for "cornbread potpie" is made more dramatic with green chilies, jalapeno-Jack cheese, sour cream and crushed tortilla chips. It's a sure-fire attention-getter at the dinner table and not too troublesome to make.
Another cornbread-topper, this one laced with black pepper, can smother a deep-in-Dixie filling of crumbled sausage, black-eyed peas, canned diced tomatoes, frozen okra and bell pepper.
Finalists in this year's National Cornbread Cook-Off will compete at the National Cornbread Festival held in South Pittsburg, Tenn., a charming southern town right on the Tennessee River near Chattanooga.
According to cook-off sponsors Martha White Corn Meal (based in Nashville, Tenn.) and Lodge Cast Iron (as in skillets and other black-iron cookware manufactured in South Pittsburg, Tenn.), people from all over will gather on April 27 and 28, 2002, in this picturesque little town to enjoy food, music, historic tours and local crafts.
All kinds of recipes have been selected for the cook-off, including meaty casseroles with cornbread baked on top, cornbread dressed up with meat and vegetables and cornbread salads.
The Mexican Skillet Chicken recipe shared here was a second-place winner for Jane Flowers. More winning recipes are in the anniversary cookbook Southern Traditions, 100 Years of Recipes from the Martha White Kitchen (1999), available in bookstores everywhere. For additional recipes and contest information, visit online at www.marthwhite.com and www.lodgemfg.com.
Mexican Skillet Chicken
Filling Ingredients:
2 cups corn tortilla chips, coarsely broken
1 cup (4 oz.) shredded jalapeno/Monterey Jack cheese
2-1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken or turkey
1 (10-3/4-oz.) can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
1 (4-oz.) can chopped mild green chilies, drained
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
Topping Ingredients:
2 (6-oz.) packages yellow cornbread mix
1-1/3 cups milk
1 cup (4 oz.) shredded Cheddar cheese
Preparation:
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 10-1/2-inch cast iron skillet. Sprinkle tortilla chips evenly over bottom of skillet. Sprinkle with Jack cheese laced with jalapeno bits.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine chicken or turkey, the undiluted chicken soup, sour cream, mild green chilies and finely chopped onion. Spoon this mixture evenly over the cheese and chips in the iron skillet.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine cornbread mix and milk; stir until smooth. Stir in Cheddar cheese. Spoon over chicken mixture; spread evenly. Bake at 400 for 28 to 38 minutes or until golden brown.
Yield: 8 servings
Crispy Bacon Dijon Cornbread
Ingredients:
8 slices bacon
1 egg, beaten
1-1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 cups Martha White self-rising corn meal mix
Preparations:
Heat oven to 450 degrees. In a 12-inch cast iron skillet, cook bacon until crisp. While bacon is cooking, in medium bowl, combine egg, milk and mustard. Whisk well to combine. Stir in corn meal and blend well.
When bacon is crisp, remove bacon from skillet, reserving drippings in another heatproof container. Crumble bacon and then sprinkle evenly in the same iron skillet. Add 1 tablespoon of reserved drippings to skillet. Tilt and swirl the iron skillet to distribute the drippings.
Stir 3 tablespoons of the reserved drippings into the cornbread batter; blend well. Pour batter over bacon in skillet. Bake at 450 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes. Immediately turn out onto a serving plate.
Note: Vegetable oil may be substituted for drippings.
An old clipping from the Knoxville News-Sentinel says this is East Tennessee cornbread: Use a very hot iron skillet with some bacon drippings in it. Combine 2 cups corn meal, 1/2 cup flour, 3/4 teaspoon soda, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 eggs and 1 cup buttermilk. Pour into sizzling skillet and bake at 425 until golden.
Yield: 8 servings
Cornbread Sausage Bake
Ingredients:
1 lb. cured, smoked bulk pork sausage or regular bulk pork sausage
1 large onion, cut into thin wedges
1 large bell pepper, cut into short thin strips
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 (15-oz.) cans black-eyed peas, drained
1 (14.5-oz.) can diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1 (10-oz.) package frozen okra, thawed
Topping Ingredients:
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
1-1/2 cups Martha White self-rising corn meal mix
1 teaspoon coarsely milled black pepper
Preparation:
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Grease a 13x9-inch baking dish.
In a large skillet, cook sausage until browned, about 8 minutes. (This type of cured bulk sausage is hard to find, so you may want to use kielbasa or mild metts in link form. Slice open each link and crumble the sausage within. Recipe was tested with half kielbasa, crumbled, and half regular bulk sausage.)
Stir in onion, pepper and garlic. Cook until vegetables are tender. Stir in black-eyed peas, tomatoes and dried thyme. Cook just until heated through, 2 to 3 minutes.
Pour into the greased baking dish; stir in okra. (Be sure not to buy frozen breaded okra slices for this.)
In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients for the Cornbread Topping: the beaten egg, vegetable oil, buttermilk, self-rising corn meal mix and plenty of black pepper. Stir until smooth. Spoon batter around edges of the sausage mixture. Bake at 425 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.
Yield: 8 servings
(Contact Joyce Rosencrans of The Cincinnati Post at www.cincypost.com.)
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