BLOODY BUTCHER CORN

We are making some cornbread with some freshly ground cornmeal from  ‘Bloody Butcher Corn’. Bloody Butcher Corn is something with such a fun name I could not pass this up at the farmers market. It was procured from ‘Full Belly Farms. This is an organic heirloom variety of dent corn. Dent corn is a field variety known for its high starch content. This variety dates back to the 1800’s. The name Bloody Butcher gets its influence from the blood red kernels of the corn. It has been coarsely ground leaving a beautiful red flecked cornmeal.  Let’s make some cornbread.

I will refer you to a past post for the cornbread recipe. (Recipe Here).  I changed the recipe slightly by using a half cup more of the Bloody Butcher and a half cup less of the white flour. This cornmeal is really colorful. The batter has a red hue that really catches your eye. The house smelled wonderful with roasted corn aroma as the bread baked.  The cornbread had a beautiful reddish hue as it emerged from the oven. This particular bread turned out a little denser than normal possibly because of the flour ratios. The flavor department went to the top floor on this bread. Deep rich corn flavor delivered  with this wonderful bread. Ms. Goofy made some honey butter to make this a decadent accompaniment to our meal. I think I will attempt to make some polenta next.

CORNBREAD ON THE GRILL

This will be a quick post on baking on a Weber grill. Zoomie, a friend of Mad Meat Genius has a kitchen project that has left her without an oven. It is rumored that she hired the company;"Pyramid Building & Kitchen Remolding Inc.". I suggested to use her Weber grill to bake. We use our covered kettle grill as an oven when we do not want to heat up the kitchen or free up space in the oven. We have a new favorite recipe for cornbread or you can use your own. Bank 30 lit coals on each side of the bottom grate of your grill for a total of 60 charcoal briquettes. Place your bread pan (cast iron works great) in center of grill and cover. Follow suggested cooking times. When time is up insert knife and if it pulls cleanly remove. With the Weber our cooking times were a fraction longer but very close. Enjoy.

BEST CORNBREAD EVER

 We have been trying numerous recipes for cornbread over the years. Do you like your cornbread sweet, cake-like and or savory? We all have our favorites. We have recently found a recipe using fresh corn. This cornbread is sweet, rich with butter and with plenty of corn flavor. It has several extra steps than your basic recipe but is worth the effort. This is a great chance to break out your trusty cast iron pan. Let’s all go to the kitchen.

Best Cornbread Ever.

3 ears of fresh corn (cut niblets off of cob)

1 1/3 cups of stone ground corn meal

1 cup of flour

1 cup of buttermilk

2 eggs and 1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons sugar (optional)

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons butter

Combine all dry ingredients and reserve. Place corn in a food processor and puree. Scrape corn puree into a pan and cook, stirring frequently for five minutes on medium heat. The puree will reduce and turn a little darker. Remove from heat and whisk in 5 tablespoons of butter. Let cool slightly. When mixture is a little cooler add buttermilk and eggs to combine. Fold wet ingredients into dry. Heat up your cast iron skillet and add last tablespoon of butter. When the butter is melted and bubbling add cornbread mixture. Immediately put into preheated 400 degree oven and cook for 25 minutes. Cornbread is done when knife inserted comes out clean.

We enjoyed our cornbread with some habanero honey. This recipe is a keeper. I actually forgot to add the extra sugar and it turned out perfectly fine. The sweetness from the corn shined through. With sweet fresh corn at the markets we will be making this again.

CANDIED BACON DUTCH OVEN CORNBREAD

 Foothill Meat Company in Oroville California sells candied bacon. This is bacon that has been soaked in a sugar mixture and baked. Foothill Meat Company sells several strips conveniently sealed in plastic. This was one purchase that was a no brainer. Once home they were stashed in the back of the ice cave. Several weeks have passed and my package of candy has been forgotten. When they were rediscovered it was like finding that hundred dollar bill in your coat pocket that was long forgotten. Eureka! “There’s gold in them thar hills”. Tonight’s dinner included Dutch oven cornbread. The addition of candied bacon just made sense.

Cooking in a Dutch oven has numerous advantages to cooking in a conventional oven. The actual cooking is more efficient with the charcoal heats direct contact to the black iron. Heat control can be managed by time and charcoal count with accuracy. The kitchen does not get heated up the oven. Most important, Dutch oven cooking is just plain fun. Anything your indoor oven can cook a Dutch  oven can too. Today we are following a simple corn bread recipe and adding chopped candied bacon.

We snuck a quick sample of our bacon. It was salty, sweet, savory, and had a slight chew. This bacon also had a great pork flavor. The chopped pieces were folded into our cornbread mixture at the last minute. We counted our lit charcoals and began to bake. While baking, we would get little wisps of flavor smoke escaping from our black iron. It was intoxicating and gave us a hint of the flavor treat to come.

We served our cornbread with some smoked ribs. The cornbread was all that and some more. Candied bacon is a great ingredient to snazz up any cornbread dish.  What cooking fun we have.

FLOSSIE’S CORN DOG MIX

Ms. Goofy had a hankerin for corndogs. The county fair circuit does not start for several more months. We had to fill this corny desire for the ‘big dog’ of the Mad Meat Genius household. While in Las Vegas, we went shopping at the only store I actually like to shop at, ‘Bass Pro Shop’. This huge store has everything a man needs or wants for the outdoors. They also happen to sell ‘Flossie’s’ corn dog mix. Sticks are included and all you do is add water. This was perfect to inspire and fill Ms. Goofy’s corn dog wish.


Skewer your hot dog with the included stick and dip in batter. Heat the oil to 375 degrees and cook until golden brown. Four minutes later it is the county fair in our kitchen. I did throw in a couple of mushrooms into this corny batter. The corn dogs were just as you can imagine. This batter was on the sweet side. Flossie’s filled a need and delivered.

JALAPENO CHEESE CORN BREAD

This recipe is a keeper. The addition of jalapeno hot sauce and pepper jack cheese is the secret for a moist and spicy cornbread. This can be cooked in the oven or outside in a Dutch oven. Cooking this bread in the Dutch oven is fun and makes for a great presentation. Either way you cook this bread, it is delicious.

Jalapeno Cheese Corn Bread

1 cup corn meal
1 cup flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup diced canned jalapenos
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoons salt
1 ½ cup of buttermilk
2 eggs beaten
2 teaspoons jalapeno hot sauce
4 tablespoons melted butter
4 ounces grated pepper jack cheese.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a separate mixing bowl. Mix the eggs, buttermilk, hot sauce and jalapenos in a separate bowl. Combine wet and dry ingredients. Fold in cheese. In a 425 degree oven heat your cooking vessel with butter. When the butter is melted swirl pan to coat. Pour excess butter into batter mixture and combine. Pour all into buttered pan and return to oven. Cook for 30 minutes until golden brown.

S### HAPPENS!

Stuff Happens! Every dish is not a winner. Sometimes you have to walk a way and wait for the next competition or meal. This is an example of Cranberry Cornbread that was cooked way to long on the bottom. This would have been a disaster in competition. At the house, the bottom was sliced away, presto chango a great sweet cornbread was saved. This is why we practice!!!!

BLACK BEAN SOUP & CHIPOTLE BACON CORNBREAD

If you are a resident of the Bay Area you may remember a restaurant called Solomon Grundy's. It was located on the Marina of Berkeley. It was a nice place with a bay view and a great place to watch the sunset. I would go for the black bean soup. This soup was 'Black Bean Heaven'. It was thick and hearty. Sadly they closed and took their soup with them. In the food section the other day was a recipe for Solomon Grundy's black bean soup. I could not resist to give it a try. Of course a couple of Chilebrown touches were added. I accompanied this soup with corn bread made with freshly ground corn meal laced with chipotle powder that was found at the Tierrra Vegetable stand at the Ferry Plaza. It had corn bread written all over it.

Cornbread

1. 1 1/2 cup of corn meal
2. 1 1/2 cup of flour
3. 1 egg
4. 1/4 cup honey
5. 1 cup buttermilk
6. 1/4 bacon fat from Nueske bacon
7. 2 slices Nueske bacon cooked and chopped
8. 1 teaspoon salt
9. 1/4 cup corn
10. 1 teaspoon baking powder
11. 1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients and bake in a hot oiled black iron skillet for aprox 30 minutes at 400 degrees. It is done when bread is brown and a knife pulls out clean.

Solomon Grundy's Black Bean Soup

1. 8 ounces black beans
2. 2 bay leaves
3. 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
4. 1 teaspoon black pepper
5. 1 slice of bacon finely chopped
6. 3 quarts of water
7. 2 ounces sherry
8. 1/2 teaspoon celery salt
9. 4 tablespoons of Nueske Bacon Fat
10. 4 tablespoons of flour

Place beans, bay leaves, bacon,spices and water in a large pot. Bring to boil and lower to simmer. Cook for two hours or until beans are falling apart. Make a roux by mixing flour and fat together in a separate bowl. Slowly add to soup mixture stirring constantly. Add sherry and simmer for 15 more minutes.

Let me tell you how good the corn bread was. If you get a chance to go to the Ferry Plaza, be sure to pick up some freshly ground chipotle corn meal. The soup was okay. Sometimes pleasant memories are just that.

BACON, LETTUCE & TOMATO

These are the Magic words of summer. How can you beat a vine ripe tomato paired with a crisp wedge of lettuce and some sweet,smoky bacon. I am going to try. I am going to make a BLT Chilebrown style. I will not deviate from the classic very much. My version will have some home made corn bread and some home smoked bacon.The tomatos will be from the garden. Let's start with the bread.

Ingredients:

1. 1 1/2 cup of water
2. 1 tablespoon yeast
3. 2 tablspoons honey
4. 1 teaspoon salt
5. 1 cup of corn flour
6. 1 ear of corn shucked and sliced off of cob
7. 3 cups of flour
8. 2 eggs
9. 2 tablespoons olive oil
10. 1 egg for wash

Let yeast proof in warm water. I used a food processor. I added all the rest of the ingredients and let the food processor do its magic. It is a sticky dough. Place in another bowl and let rise for 1 1/2 hour. Place in well oiled loaf pan and let rise for another hour or until the bread rises above the loaf pan. This can take more than an hour, so just be patient.Wash top of loaf with beaten egg. Bake in a 350 oven for approx 50 minutes. Remove pans from loaf pan and let cool on a rack.

I I took a cup of Mayonnaise and added a teaspoon of home made Chipotle en Adobo. I fried the bread with a tablespoon of butter on a grill. I used some chilled iceberg lettuce and a heaping tablespoon of chipotle mayonnaise. I topped it off with a couple of pieces of home made bacon I think this this is the best BLT in my world.!!!!

CRANBERRY CORNMEAL QUICK BREAD & STOVE POKERS

It is time to tweak the recipes for the Dutch Oven Cookoff. It will be held next month at the Rendezvous in Carson City, Nevada. This cornbread recipe caught my eye. The only leavening is baking powder. This will probably be a good thing because Carson City's elevation is 4800 feet. I am not familiar with how a yeast bread would react at this elevation. I normally cook at sea level, so the Rendezvous will be a challenge. My team the "Meatmen" is fired up over this competition. We just came off a Second Place victory at the Sacramento Sportsmen Show. We would like this competition to be a stepping stone to the finals in Utah. This bread has Maple Syrup and dried cranberries in it. I am considering adding corn and bacon to make this a sweet savory bread. I followed the recipe this time.

Ingredients

1. 1 cup of flour
2. 1 cup of white whole wheat flour or regular whole wheat flour
3. 1 cup medium grind whole grain cornmeal or regular cornmeal
4. 1/2 cup of sugar
5. 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
6. 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
7. 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
8. 1/2 cup unsalted butter
9. 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
10. 2 large eggs
11. 1/2 teaspoon maple extract
12. 3/4 cup chopped pecans plus 10 pecan halves for garnish
13. 3/4 cup dried cranberries (4 ounces)

Whisk both flours, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder in large bowl. Whisk buttermilk, melted butter, maple syrup, eggs and extract in medium bowl. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture, stir until blended. Stir in 3/4 cup chopped pecans and cranberries. Spoon butter into pan. Arrange pecan halves in row down center of batter.

Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes or until Golden brown and knife inserted comes out clean. I really like the Maple flavor. I am going to try adding bacon and corn next time. I will have it down by competition time.

Mojo and Oscar want to remind you that this weekend is the Asparagus Festival. It will be held in Stocton California. We will be there at noon to see if Joey Chestnut can become the Champion Asparagus eater. See you there!