TKO’s Unusual Cornbread

This recipe comes  from my friend, Tom, who lives in British Columbia and who also gave me the recipe for Tallerone, which appeared on this blog in 2008. He also sent along this link to a fascinating article called The Real Reason Sugar Has No Place in Cornbread. If you read it, you may want to make this cornbread in a heavy black iron frying pan.

Tom says:

Somewhat cake-like, fine textured, moist.

Oven 400F

9x9” cake pan, oiled

Dry ingredients

1 C corn flour

½ C cornmeal

3/4 C flour (unbleached all-purpose, whole wheat, bread flour, whatever) 

2 T sugar (optional)

1 T baking powder

½ t salt

Wet ingredients

2 eggs

½ C oil

1 C yogurt (I use thick “Greek” style; others use buttermilk)

1/3 cup “milk” (cow, soy, rice, almond, oat, whatever)

½ C green onions, diced/chopped

Add drys to wets

Bake for about 45 minutes

Recipes For Pandemic Cooking

This is an end-of-2020 list of recipes from the New York Times that sounded so good and so different from what I've been cooking. 19 Recipes Our Food Staff Cooked on Repeat in 2020.

The list includes yummy-sounding dishes like Baked Tofu with Peanut Sauce and Coconut Lime Rice, Cumin-Lime Shrimp with Ginger, and Salmon Broiled in a Cast Iron Skillet. 

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

 Mix together:

2 eggs

1 cup ricotta cheese

3 tbl. vegetable oil

1 tsp. vanilla

Juice and grated rind of one lemon

Sift:

1 cup flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. sugar

Add the sifted ingredients for the ricotta mixture, thinning the batter with up to a cup of milk until it is to your liking. Cook on a lightly buttered griddle. 

Green Pea Soup

Good old Campbell's Green Pea Soup in the red and white can has always been my ultimate comfort food. Now the company has discontinued it, so I guess not enough people shared my love of it. This recipe makes a fine substitute and I'm sure contains way less salt than the original canned version. 

You can make this soup on the stove or in the instant pot. Soak the peas before if cooking on top of the stove, but you can skip this step with the instant pot. 

2 cups split green peas, picked through and rinsed until water runs clear. Soak for 4 hours to overnight if cooking on the stove; skip this step if cooking in the instant pot

2 tbl. vegetable oil or butter

One large onion chopped

1 cup chopped celery

1-1/2  cups chopped carrots

1 clove garlic, chopped

1/2 tsp. dried thyme

A few grinds of black pepper

1 to 1-1/2 quarts chicken stock

Fresh lemon juice to taste

Saute the chopped vegetables in the oil or butter until the onions are soft. You can do this right in the instant pot using the saute function or on top of the stove, your choice. Add the peas, thyme, pepper, and chicken stock to cover. Cook for an hour and a half on top of the stove OR if using the instant pot choose the soup/broth function and cook under pressure, then let the pot sit to release the pressure naturally.

Remove the bay leaf, add lemon juice to taste, correct seasonings. 

I used an immersion blender to make a smooth soup.