Pumpkin Cornbread
Recipe!
I really like cooking. There's three ways that I develop my cooking skills. One is tradition: I find someone in my family who makes a specific dish and I help them make it until I understand the dish and all of its variations. There are few recipes that come out of this, unless it's some basic proportion work and hints about how to handle the ingredients. Successes? Green bean stew, macaroni and cheese, meatballs in the oven and potatoes, leeks and rice, stuffed turkey, apple (cranberry) pie, roasted salmon, lentil soup, strawberry shortcake, gingerbread and whipped cream. Failures? Pancakes, stuffed peppers, avgolemono.
The second method is necessity: I need to impress someone/make something for someone/make something for me to prove that I can. Usually this is focused on one specific recipe, that I then work through, seeing if I can. Successes? Homemade brownies, raspberry lemonade bars, cranberry sauce, cherry almond crisp, meatballs politiki, tzatziki, varieties of spinach salads and vinagrettes. Failures? olive oil cake, blood orange compote, this orecchiette dish with anchovies that I will never attempt again.
The last one is my favorite one, exploration: I wake up in the morning, sometimes, with a hankering to bake something using some ingredient. Or I smell something somewhere, and I want to work with it, see if I can replicate it. The key with this is that I find several recipes and then make my own from them. Successes? Vegan potato leek soup, poached black cod, potato kale soup with chorizo, chicken hearts and onions, jalapeno guacamole, fried eggplants, cranberry jalapeno relish, and the triumph of my life, a recipe that my family has come to ask for every summer - Blueberry rhubard streusel cake. Failures? Pan-seared apricots (I still think I can make that work).
And now, one more success for the exploration section: Pumpkin cornbread!
Heat oven to 400-425 degrees, grease or line an 8x8 baking pan.
Mix together:
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
Mix together in a bowl and make a well. Into that well put 1/4 tsp cinnamon, dash of ginger, dash of nutmeg, dash of cloves.
In separate bowl:
Beat 2 eggs and a splash of milk together very well.
Add barely 1/2 cup of brown sugar, tightly packed.
If using dark brown sugar - add dash of maple syrup.
If using light brown sugar - add dash of molasses.
1/4 cup olive oil.
1 cup pumpkin puree.
Mix the wet together very well and then pour into the well of the dry. Using a wooden spoon, mix together dry and wet. Do not worry about lumps. Lumps happen.
Pour batter into pan. Put pan in oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Eat. Mmmmmmmmmm.
I really like cooking. There's three ways that I develop my cooking skills. One is tradition: I find someone in my family who makes a specific dish and I help them make it until I understand the dish and all of its variations. There are few recipes that come out of this, unless it's some basic proportion work and hints about how to handle the ingredients. Successes? Green bean stew, macaroni and cheese, meatballs in the oven and potatoes, leeks and rice, stuffed turkey, apple (cranberry) pie, roasted salmon, lentil soup, strawberry shortcake, gingerbread and whipped cream. Failures? Pancakes, stuffed peppers, avgolemono.
The second method is necessity: I need to impress someone/make something for someone/make something for me to prove that I can. Usually this is focused on one specific recipe, that I then work through, seeing if I can. Successes? Homemade brownies, raspberry lemonade bars, cranberry sauce, cherry almond crisp, meatballs politiki, tzatziki, varieties of spinach salads and vinagrettes. Failures? olive oil cake, blood orange compote, this orecchiette dish with anchovies that I will never attempt again.
The last one is my favorite one, exploration: I wake up in the morning, sometimes, with a hankering to bake something using some ingredient. Or I smell something somewhere, and I want to work with it, see if I can replicate it. The key with this is that I find several recipes and then make my own from them. Successes? Vegan potato leek soup, poached black cod, potato kale soup with chorizo, chicken hearts and onions, jalapeno guacamole, fried eggplants, cranberry jalapeno relish, and the triumph of my life, a recipe that my family has come to ask for every summer - Blueberry rhubard streusel cake. Failures? Pan-seared apricots (I still think I can make that work).
And now, one more success for the exploration section: Pumpkin cornbread!
Heat oven to 400-425 degrees, grease or line an 8x8 baking pan.
Mix together:
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
Mix together in a bowl and make a well. Into that well put 1/4 tsp cinnamon, dash of ginger, dash of nutmeg, dash of cloves.
In separate bowl:
Beat 2 eggs and a splash of milk together very well.
Add barely 1/2 cup of brown sugar, tightly packed.
If using dark brown sugar - add dash of maple syrup.
If using light brown sugar - add dash of molasses.
1/4 cup olive oil.
1 cup pumpkin puree.
Mix the wet together very well and then pour into the well of the dry. Using a wooden spoon, mix together dry and wet. Do not worry about lumps. Lumps happen.
Pour batter into pan. Put pan in oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Eat. Mmmmmmmmmm.