NEW RECIPE!!
I've been feeling like embracing my home in Texas and truly digging into the food. I've got the Hispanic food down to almost a force of habit so that is not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about your down south favorites! One of my favorites is spoon bread. What is spoon bread? I'll tell you... It's like if cornbread and bread pudding had a love child that is epic and delicious! Its rich, its silky, its everything you could ever want in a lovechild "bread".
This recipe doesn't take much but it can be tricky so pay attention to the steps.
You will need:
A cast iron skillet
4 cups of milk
1 cup white cornmeal
5 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons butter
2 eggs, separated
Preheat that oven to
Alright, in that cast iron skillet heat 3 cups of milk over medium heat until it begins to simmer. At the same time, combine in your stand mixer, or by hand in a small bowl, the cornmeal, remaining milk, salt, and sugar until smooth.
Once that milk starts forming bubbles in the edge of the pan, pour in the cornmeal mixture, whisking constantly. Cook the combined mixture until it comes to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes, still whisking constantly.
Remove the skillet from the heat and sprinkle the baking powder on top. Plop the butter right on top as well and fold it in. Now here is the tricky part, so pay attention.
Those eggs you separated are coming into play! We are going to temper in the egg yolks. Take the egg yolks, pour some of the hot mixture into the bowl with them, whisking constantly. Once they are warm, you can mix them into the skillet. The reason why we do this is to keep the eggs from scrambling in the mixture. Yes, scrambled eggs are delicious, but not in this situation!
Now, its time to make stiff peaks on those egg whites. I really hope you have a hand mixer because this can hurt. If you don't, grab your whisk, take the egg whites, and whip them frantically until your arm is about to fall off. Once they look like the top of a key lime pie, they are set to be put in the skillet as well.
The beautiful part about this dish is you can just take this whole skillet and shove it in your oven. Here comes the hardest part though... Waiting. 40-45 minutes in the oven and you are golden, like the top of this spoon bread. I'm not even joking how good this is. I like to treat it like a bread pudding so I top it with chipotle honey butter, also so good. If you want that recipe, go ahead and ask for it, I don't mind.
Try it, love it, tell me what you think, I know its all going to be positive because it really is that effin good! I'm going to pour myself a sour mash whiskey and eat this whole thing... don't judge. Perfect compliment to sunshine in a shot glass.
