Cook Loose

Corn bread goes with so many dishes, chili, stew, ribs...basically any hearty chow that needs a more friendly approach to the side bread. Corn bread feels a little awkward when invited to dance with Coquilles St Jacques, but is perfectly happy to do a square dance with chicken noodle soup. If the food isn't fancy, corn bread can probably work.

I make mine in a cast iron skillet, but in the oven. However, if you don't have a cast iron skillet, why not? Go out and buy one. You'll be glad you did. If you need corn bread right now, an 8X8 cake pan will work. You can double the recipe and put in a 9X12 pan.

• 1 1/2 Cups yellow cornmeal
• 1/2 Cup white flour
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 4 Tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs beaten
• 3 Tablespoons melted shortening or oil
• 1 Cup milk

Preheat the oven to 425.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl with a whisk. Mix the wet ingedients together in a small bowl. Pour the wet on top of the dry and pull together with a spatula with as few strokes as possible. Lumps are OK. Pour/scrape into the pan and put in the oven for 15 to 18 minutes, until it is golden brown.

Options

• You can cut the milk back to 1/2 Cup and add 3/4 Cup of creamed corn. Mmmmmm.
• You can use bacon grease instead of the melted shortening. Crumbling up the bacon bits into the batter is good too.
• If you are using a cast iron skillet, put it in the oven with an extra tablespoon of shortening to melt. Don't forget about it unless you like a smoky kitchen. This makes for a particularly crispy crust.
• You can "bake" the corn bread in a covered cast iron skillet on low heat on top of the stove for about 20 minutes. This is traditional skillet bread. It is a little trickier to get it done correctly (more likely for the bottom to burn) but if you have a full oven and need to make corn bread, it's an available method.