Okra Cornbread

Combining two things I like: savoury cornbread and okra. So often, cornbread is sugary or bland.  I like to make it flavourful and savoury by adding diced onions.  I also like to grind my own organic cornmeal.  I find that popcorn gives a subtle, unique flavour.

In to the Vitamix grinder jar, I add equal portions of popcorn and yellow corn, along with a bit of flax seed.  Flax helps bind the bread to prevent crumbliness.

Grind the corn according to the grinder instructions - or, ya know, just buy cornmeal. It'll be a little different, but it's still going to taste good. Sift the cornmeal to get rid of any chunks.

Then add things to make cornbread: the baking soda, salt, a bit of olive oil and liquid. You can add water, but I like to use almond milk. To take this beyond plain cornbread, add in diced onions and sliced okra.

Add it all together. Mix it all up. The thing about cornbread is it's forgiving. There's no gluten to toughen, so you can make adjustments and keep mixing.

To get the perfect crust on cornbread, bake it in a preheated cast iron pan.  Simply place a seasoned cast iron pan in the oven when the preheat cycle starts.  I like to bake my cornbread at ~425˚F

After the pan is hot, remove it form the oven and add a glug of oil.  Carefully tilt the pan around so that the oil covers the entire bottom and some of the sides.  It's important to add the oil after the preheat to minimize smoking.

Pour the batter in the pan and place it (almost) immediately in the oven.  I added a bit of garnishment - halves of okra and slices of onions - to the top.

Bake until the top is golden brown ~25 minutes.  When it's done, invert the pan over a plate.  Leaving anything in a hot cast iron pan will cause it to continue cooking past the optimal point.

Golden brown crust from preheating the pan

Squash Blossom Cornbread

Squash blossoms are one of those unique treats. They're not particularly flavourful, but they're a delicacy of fragility. They last less than 12 hours, so working with them requires a fresh supply and an early morning harvest. Although they don't impart much flavour to this dish, they add a unique look.

First, I collected the blossoms from garden in the morning.  It's important to work fairly quickly since they'll wilt and become unusable.  Carefully flatten (but don't crush) them.  Mix a corn bread batter: cornmeal, almond milk, eggs, olive oil, salt and baking powder.

The trick to really great cornbread is a preheated cast iron pan.  When preheating the oven, place a cast iron skillet inside.  When the preheat cycle is over, remove the pan, add a generous glug of oil and then add the batter.  Immediately, the bread begins cooking and bubbling.  This creates a rich, thick and crispy crust.

I like to give cornbread a savoury edge by adding rings of red onion.  Finish the batter by placing the squash flowers atop the batter, drizzle or spray with olive oil, and return the skillet to the oven.

It's ready when the top is golden brown.