cornbread

… I haven’t looked forward to a weekend so much in ages.  As you know, it’s been all work and no play for the Belleau boys and so to have a legitimate reason to enjoy yourself and relax with good friends is, in my opinion, always a little privilege.  I don’t know if you’re like me but sometimes the ‘everyday’ aspect of blogging can become a little dull… I mean, I have to eat but I do plan meals around what i’m going to show on the blog and sometimes the brain just can’t hack it and I yearn for a special occasion to cook… an actual reason to cook… mostly so that I don’t need an excuse to make a mess in the kitchen.

This weekend our good friends Richard and Peter are coming over from Australia, in fact they’re on a plane now somewhere out there.  It’ll be the first time we’ve seen them since they moved over there last year and as you can imagine we’re all very excited.  Peter has requested a traditional Sunday roast so that will be coming this weekend… plus it was the lovely Tracey’s birthday this week so there’s cake to bake and we’re having a soup and games night tomorrow night.  Yes, it may all seem a little ordinary to you folk out there but I simply can’t wait to be home and cooking.

cornbread
in order to stretch my brain a little I wanted to try something i’ve never cooked before, plus my Californian living, Danish born step-mum requested that I have a go at cornbread, so here you are… Cornbread is one of those iconic foods that has people fighting over recipes but when you do a little research it is actually the same recipe in every book with maybe one or two regional variations… it was exceptionally cheap and easy to make and very delicious so you can understand why it’s been so popular for so many centuries but my only issue was that I could find cornmeal anywhere locally… thankfully the original mum pointed out that polenta was in fact corn meal and of course polenta is widely available everywhere… it simply needed a little grinding before use.

This is a very basic recipe and you can get more adventurous by adding all kinds of yummy stuff like cheese, garlic, chilli peppers etc but this is the base for all that and a good place to start.

and yes, I know I just said I wasn’t eating any cake more a month but I’m only having one very small piece of this, it’s for Tracey’s birthday, so get back on your horse ok…

375g plain flour
225g polenta
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
90g sugar
480ml milk
2 large free-range eggs – beaten
110g butter – melted
a little olive oil for the pan

pre-heat the oven to 200C and oil a baking dish or cake pan… mine is 30cm x 2cm and nicely deep

place the polenta into a large bowl and using a hand-blender give it a quick blitz to make it a little finer… it will still be slightly gritty but this just makes the texture a little more authentic

then place all the dry ingredients into a bowl and whisk them together, then pour in the liquid ingredients and whisk together but don’t over beat or it won’t be as light and fluffy as it could be

bake for about 20 mins or until nicely golden then set aside on a wire rack to cool a little before eating

eat and of course, enjoy!