Fall Back

I have a confession to make: I am an autumn junkie. Please don’t get me wrong – a squid likes nothing more than to lie by the poolside on a hot July afternoon, or to barbeque in the park, or to have a drink (or a few) with friends on a terasse late into the summer night. But to be honest, the lack of air-conditioning in my apartment and the subsequent restless sleeps were getting to be a bit more than I could handle, not to mention the fact that turning the stove on heated the apartment up faster than you can say “incoming jellyfish!”.

No, for all its ice cream-filled virtues, summer will always be a close second to the austere beauty and serenity of early autumn. The crisp  air and the soft sun against a pale blue sky evoke images of leather boots, red leaves and... fall cooking. Because let’s face it, I am unabashedly and incurably food-crazed.

Emboldended by the cool late-summer breeze, I decided to turn the oven on for the first time in months and celebrated this joyful event by making one of my stand-bys, jalapeno cornbread. Disclaimer: anyone who knows me (M and AK, I’m looking at you) knows that I love corn. So it was a surprise to even me that I had never made cornbread until I moved to Montreal, but be certain that I am never turning back to those dark days. Cornbread is one of those strange and wonderful creations that is unlike anything else in its crowded category. Slightly nutty and subtly sweet in flavour, it is incredibly versatile – some recipes call for more sugar than others, making the bread ideal to pair with sweeter dishes (pulled pork, or ribs in a smoky barbeque sauce), while others play up the savory aspect of the dish, adding spices or cheese (cheddar pairs especially well). My favorite version of the Southern staple is studded with sharp minced jalapeno peppers; it goes very well with the dinner salad with grilled shrimp that I made this week, or with sweet potato and sausage soup, curried red lentil soup or any type of chili under the autumn sun.

Jalapeno corn bread

From epicurious.com

Ingredients

1 ½ cups yellow cornmeal (I use Milanaise Organic stone-ground yellow corn flour)

½ cup all-purpose flour

4 jalapeno pepper, seeded by no deveined, minced

2 tbsp sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 ½ cups buttermilk*

2 eggs, beaten to blend

3 tbsp butter, melted

* If you don’t have buttermilk, you can make your own by adding 1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice to 1 cup of milk and letting it sit for 10 minutes at room temperature

1.     Preheat oven to 425F and butter an 8” square baking pan.

2.     Mix dry ingredients and jalapeno peppers in a large bowl, and mix eggs, buttermilk and butter in a small bowl.

3.     Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just blended.

4.     Pour into prepared pan and bake until firm to touch and tester comes out clean, about 30 minutes.

Fall delights

A quick note – please forgive the less-than perfect photos; better ones to come in the following posts, I promise!