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.

Irish Soda Bread

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! Are you wearing green? In honor of the occasion, I want to share my trusty Irish Soda Bread recipe with you. Though to be fair, it's not really my recipe at all. The sweet mother of my friend James was kind enough to share it with me years ago. They're a good Boston-Irish family, so unsurprisingly her version has never let me down. I make it at least once a year, and this year, I actually get to make it with my own mom since she's visiting! What day isn't made better by a warm loaf of bread fresh out of the oven (with the exception of those super hot summer days where you can't bear to turn on your oven)?

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose white flour
(or 1 1/2 cup white flour and 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour)

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tb sugar

6 Tb unsalted butter

heaping 1/2 cup raisins

1/2 to 3/4 cup buttermilk

Directions

Preheat oven 375 F. Have all ingredients around room temperature.

Sift flour, baking soda, salt, and sugar together in a large bowl.

Cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal (you can also work the butter into the flour with your fingertips)

Stir in the raisins, breaking them up so there aren't any clumps.

Gradually add the buttermilk to the bowl, mixing at first with a wooden spoon.  As the dough begins to form, I switch to using my hands, carefully gathering the dough into a ball, adding buttermilk little by little until it just comes together.

Gently pat the dough into a slightly flattened disc, and place on greased cast iron skillet or baking sheet. Brush lightly with buttermilk, and cut a cross into the top of the bread (this is said to bless the bread and to help it crack when baking)

Bake for about 30-35 minutes until nicely browned.

Cool on wire rack for at least 20-30 min (I wrap mine once in a clean cotton dish towel to keep the crust somewhat soft; otherwise it can get pretty hard).

Serve at room temperature or warm and spread with a little butter. And enjoy!