Smack Your Mama Good Cornbread Cooked in a Seasoned Skillet and the Cornbread Cookoff Winner

Ancho Shrimp on Smoked Gouda Corncakes

Nothing says comfort food like ‘smack you mama good’ cornbread. A form of this Southern staple has been on America’s table since the earliest of times and the tradition continues today. There’s even a National Cornbread Cookoff held in Tennessee that brings contestants and spectators from across the country and around the world.
If you were raised in the South, you are no doubt a cornbread connoisseur. Chances are you have a recipe that has been passed down in your family, and you’d swear by it. Well for those of you who don’t’ know what I’m talking about, compare it to chocolate chip cookies – most are good but some are to die for.

Cornbread is usually baked in a skillet or as muffins or sticks; sometimes fried and can be served anytime during the day. It can be served with pinto or white beans, crumbled into buttermilk, topped with butter and sorghum or honey or served alongside a bowl of chili. You can add cracklings, cheese, corn, peppers, onion or any number of favorites to your batter.

Many aficionados wouldn’t dare cook it in anything but a seasoned skillet. Now you say, what in the world is that? Well it’s a cast iron skillet that has been used to cook foods which deposit oils or fats on the pan. You can season a new pan by applying a layer of vegetable oil or lard on the cookware and heating it to bond the fat to the metal.
Because ordinary cookware cleaning techniques like scouring or washing in a dishwasher will remove or damage the seasoning on a bare cast iron pan, these pans should not be cleaned like most other cookware. Some cast iron enthusiast never clean their prize skillets at all, rather they simply wipe them out after use, or wash them with hot water and a stiff brush. Just imagine the seasoning when these skillets are passed down through the family. The layers of flavor seasonings are transparent but don’t worry, if you’ve never tasted the difference, you’ll never miss it.

Smack Your Mama Good Cornbread
1-1/2 cup stone ground cornmeal;1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour;1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder;1 teaspoon baking soda;1 teaspoon salt;1 large egg, beaten;1-1/4 cups buttermilk;4 tablespoons bacon drippings (or vegetable oil)
Preheat oven to 400° F. Stir together cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in mixing bowl. Add the beaten eggs and the buttermilk, stirring just until all the dry ingredients are wet. Do not over mix. Add vegetable oil to a cast iron skillet and place in the hot oven for 3 to 4 minutes. You want the skillet hot, but you don’t want the oil to start smoking. Remove hot pan from oven. Make sure that the pan is thoroughly coated with the oil, bottom and sides, then pour the excess oil into the batter and stir. Pour batter into the hot pan. Bake for 25 minutes or until lightly browned.
Regular cornmeal is ground between metal rollers and the hull and germ are removed so the texture is finer. It also may be enriched to return nutrients that are lost. Stone-ground is ground between two stones, obviously. The hull and germ of the corn kernel are usually left in, so the texture is coarser and the meal usually has a more noticeable "corn" flavor. It also is more perishable, so it should be stored in the refrigerator or freezer.

Why not enter your favorite recipe in the Cookoff next year? Martha White Corn Meal sponsors the Cookoff with Lodge Cast Iron Cookware and Five Star Professional Cooking Equipment the last full weekend in April each year.
Nestled alongside the Cumberland Plateau of the Appalachian Mountains, South Pittsburg, (population 3,300), attracts between 45,000 and 60,000 visitors to this annual festival. The recipes aren’t your grandmother’s variety of cornbread. Indeed, the “main dish” concept requires that recipes are prepared in a Lodge 10-inch skillet with a cup of Martha White Cornmeal as the primary ingredient, but from there you’re on your own.
Recent winners were Ancho Shrimp on Smoked Gouda Corncakes and Sausage Pepper Cheese Quiche with Cornbread Crust.

Ancho Shrimp on Smoked Gouda Corncakes
Corn cakes
1 tbsp butter
1/3 cup sliced green onions
1 cup fresh or frozen corn
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
3 tbsp sour cream
1 1/3 cups yellow self rising cornmeal
1 1/2 cups shredded smoked Gouda
1/2 cup canola oil
Shrimp
4 tbsp butter
2 large Ancho peppers split in half and seeded
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 lb fresh shrimp, shelled, deveined
Salt and pepper to taste
1 can diced petit tomatoes undrained
Sliced green onions
Corncakes: Melt 1 Tbsp butter in a 10 1/2 inch black heavy duty skillet. Add green onions and cook 1 minute. Add corn, cook 2 minutes. In a bowl mix egg, buttermilk, sour cream and cornmeal. Whisk smooth. Stir in cheese, onions and corn. Wipe out skillet with paper towel. Add 4 tbsp oil. Heat on medium high. Spoon batter into hot oil by 1/4 cupfuls for each corn cake. Cook until golden, turn and brown other side. Cook in batches using oil as needed. Drain on paper towels. Wipe out skillet. Melt 4 Tbsp of butter in skillet on medium high. Add peppers and cook 3 minutes. Add garlic cook 1 minute.
Add shrimp, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook until shrimp turns pink. Stir in tomatoes and cook until hot. Remove peppers. Place 2 corncakes slightly overlapping on serving plate. Top with shrimp and sauce. Sprinkle with green onions.

Crock Pot Chili
1 lb Italian Sausage, sliced
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp garlic powder
1 onion, chopped fine
1 cup chicken broth
2 cans red kidney beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can chili peppers, diced
1/8 cup chili powder
1 can tomato puree
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp cumin
Heat the oil in skillet and fry sausage and onion. Drain. Pour meat mixture into crock pot and remaining ingredients. Stir and cook on low for 2 ½ -3 hrs. Garnish with cheese and sour cream if desired.

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