Green Chile Cornbread

Happy belated New Year everyone! Boy am I behind! We rung in 2015 back home after travels to Paris, Austin, and finally Victoria to visit family and friends. Our New Year's Eve was quiet -- just the two of us, the dog, and a bottle of champagne. On New Year's Day, I cooked a big pot of black-eyed peas studded with green chiles and bacon. In the south, there's a superstitious tradition that promises good luck for the year to come if you eat black-eyed peas on January 1st. I love silly traditions like that, and it's a great excuse to enjoy one of my favorite legumes. I served them over this green chile cornbread, and it was a delicious way to kick off the year. Here's hoping that plenty of good luck comes to all of us this year!

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup flour

1 Tb sugar

1/2 tsp salt

3 tsp baking powder

1 egg

1 cup milk

1/4 cup melted shortening

2 Hatch or Anaheim green chiles, roasted, peeled, and chopped (or a 4 oz can of green chiles)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400F. Scoop a little shortening into your cornbread pan (I use a round metal pie pan), and let it sit in the oven while it heats up.

Meanwhile, sift together cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder into a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, lightly beat the egg, and stir in the milk.

Pour the milk and egg mixture into your dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Stir in melted shortening and green chiles.

Remove the cornbread pan from the oven. By this time, the shortening should be melted. Swirl it around a bit, so that it coats the bottom of the pan. Then pour the batter into the pan. You will hear it sizzle a little bit.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown.