My friend Noah and his girlfriend Leah came over for dinner last night. I'd discovered left over corn meal and wanted to make corn bread. Found "the best" recipe and thought I'd try it.
Now for the rest of the meal - gingered greens, fried tofu and butternut squash.
Corn Bread from Mark Bittman of the NY Times
- 4 tablespoons butter, olive oil, lard or bacon drippings
- 1 1/2 cups medium-grind cornmeal
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/4 cups milk, more if needed
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put fat in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet or in an 8-inch square baking pan. Place pan in oven.
2. Meanwhile, combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix eggs into milk, then stir this mixture into dry ingredients, combining with a few swift strokes. If mixture seems dry, add another tablespoon or two of milk.
3. When fat and oven are hot, remove skillet or pan from oven, pour batter into it and smooth out top. Return pan to oven. Bake about 30 minutes, until top is lightly browned and sides have pulled away from pan; a toothpick inserted into center will come out clean. Serve hot or warm.
I thought the amount of fat in the pan was a bit extreme and in the end it was a lot, but it sure made it tasty! I would say 3T would be enough. I also ended up with some eggy bits once baked, so I would say make sure you really mix the eggs before you mix it with the dry ingredients.
Gingered GreensIn a sautee pan, place roughly chopped, cleaned greens (chard, kale, collards, mustard greens) with a little water and butter. Once they cook down, add freshly grated ginger and serve hot!
Fried Tofu from the PPK
The recipes says to freeze the tofu for 2 days, but it doesn't say why. Being short on time and a skeptic, I froze it for about an hour. Worked fine. I also altered the recipe a little.
Ingredients
1 block of tofu defrosted and cut into triangles.
Organic White Flour
*Cayenne pepper
*Sea Salt
*Fresh ground pepper
1/4 C. Nutritional yeast
1 cup warm water
1 heaping tablespoon of miso
Olive and canola oil for frying
*All of these are according to taste*
Directions
In a separate bowl, mix the 1 cup of warm water with the miso until it dissolves.
In a larger shallow bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients together.
It turns out better if you 'double dip' the tofu. Take a triangle and dip it into the flour mixture first. After that, dip in the miso mixture and then back into the flour until evenly covered. Set the battered tofu on a plate and prepare the rest of the pieces the same way. Get your oil good and hot.
Fry your battered tofu and turn regularly until brown on all sides.
Delicious!
Butternut Squash
Halve and bake at 400F until tender
Leah had the great idea to put cinnamon and butter on it. Delish!
Basic Scones
