Cornbread, Southern Style #Recipe

My friend, Sue Ward, lives in the UK and recently asked for a recipe for cornbread. So I am dedicating today’s post to her.

My mother was born in Kentucky and grew up in the mountains of West Virginia in a coal town called Red Dragon. My father was born in Virginia, and when his father took a job on the railroad, the family moved to Hinton, West Virginia. So I come for a long line of true Southerners.

Having learned to bake cornbread from my mother and my father’s mother, I bake from an age-old recipe that I feel is authentically southern. And savory. (I can hear my grandmother now, “No self-respecting Southerner puts sugar in cornbread.” Oh, how I miss that genuine, straightforward woman!) So here is the recipe handed down to me from my mother. (Please note: the original recipe calls for bacon grease rather than vegetable oil, but everyone I know is trying to eat healthier these days. Also, my mother and grandmother always baked their cornbread in an iron skillet which gave the bread a nice crust, but not everyone has an 8 inch iron skillet, so I've replaced that with an 8 inch square pan.)

Southern Style Cornbread

1 cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal

1 cup all purpose flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

1 egg

1/4 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees (for UK cooks: 218 Celsius, gas mark 7)

1.    In a bowl, stir together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and salt.

2.    In a second bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, and oil.

3.    Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just enough to combine. Do not over mix.

4.    Pour batter into a greased, 8 inch square pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

I often add a teaspoon of liquid smoke which offers the smoky flavor of bacon without the added animal fat.

Everyone should try the original recipe (using 1/4 cup bacon grease, from American-style smoked bacon, instead of the oil) at least once in their life. It is absolutely delicious!

Irish Stew and Irish Soda Bread - 2 Delicious #Recipes

Irish Stew made with B&Z Brown Ale

It's that time of year. March has me wishing for spring, but the winter winds continue to blow something fierce through the woods behind my house, sounding as loud as a freight train. The chilly temperatures call for something hot and hearty. Here's a meal that is sure to stick to your bones and ward off the cold. Enjoy!

Irish Beef Stew

The broth of this stew is so rich and complex that it completely transforms everyday beef cubes, potatoes, and carrots into something extraordinary. I. Am. Not. Joking. I used a brown ale home-brewed by my son (the "B" in B & Z), but any store-bought brown ale will do.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 ½ pounds of chuck beef, cut into 1 inch cubes

4 large garlic cloves, minced

6 cups beef stock (store bought is fine)

1 cup of hearty brown ale

1 cup of good red wine

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 tablespoon sugar

½ tablespoon dried thyme

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 - 3 bay leaves, depending on the size

3 pounds golden potatoes, peeled, cut into 1 inch cubes

1 large onion, chopped

5 - 6 carrots, peeled, cut into 1 inch pieces

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Salt and Pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Sear the beef cubes until brown on all sides. Work in batches if necessary. Crowding the pan will steam the beef, not brown it. The resulting brown bits in the bottom of the pot add lots of flavor to the finished stew. Searing the meat should take about 8 minutes. Remove all beef from the pot and set aside.

Add garlic to the pot and sauté for about a minute. Add beef stock, brown ale, red wine, tomato paste, sugar, thyme, Worcestershire, and bay leaves. Stir to combine. Bring mixture to simmer. Add beef back to the pot. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

After meat has cooked for an hour, add potatoes, onion, and carrots to the stew. Simmer until vegetables are tender, approximately 30 more minutes. Remove the bay leaves. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in fresh parsley and serve this rich, delicious stew steaming hot.

Irish Soda Bread

Real Irish Soda Bread

Soda bread is a quick bread that uses baking soda as the leavening ingredient, rather than yeast. The buttermilk contains lactic acid that reacts with the soda to make the dough rise. Do not knead this bread. Simply mix, pat into a circle and bake. The resulting "round" of baked bread will be rustic and lumpy. The crust will be crisp and the inside will be dense and chewy. Here's an interesting tidbit: read the oldest known recipe for Irish Soda Bread at the Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread.

Ingredients:

4 cups cake flour (all purpose will also work)
1 ½  teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups buttermilk

Directions:

Heat oven to 425º F. Spray baking sheet with non-stick spray. (I bake my soda bread directly on a pizza stone.)

Combine flour, soda, and salt in a large bowl. Gradually stir in buttermilk, mixing constantly, until dough is moist enough to be gathered into a ball. If dough is dry, add a little more buttermilk, a couple tablespoons at a time, until it's moist enough to hold together.

Place dough on a lightly floured board and pat into an 8-inch round loaf. Don't over handle it to avoid developing the gluten.  
 
Place loaf on baking sheet and slash the traditional, deep "X" into the top of the dough with a sharp knife.

Bake about 40 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

Serve warm with soften butter.