The Cornbread Gospels (44 page)

Can we do less with America’s native bread? Back in the days when zip-top bag after zip-top bag was filled with the odd wedge or two or three remaining even after inn guests and then staff had partaken, I would look at that bounty and be filled with a sense of challenge. For I thought then, as I do now, that cornbread itself is a national treasure, to be respected, enjoyed, savored, appreciated … and that leftover cornbread, too, could and should be held in high esteem and put to good use.

In this chapter you’ll find soups, salads, stuffings, dressings, and many more ways to do just that. And don’t forget to see
chapter 12
, on Sweet Somethings, for an extra helping.

S
ERVES
1

This simplest of leftover cornbread preparations is served in a tall glass or a bowl and is eaten with a spoon. It’s a traditional light supper in the American South that is oh so much more satisfying than it sounds. Please note that for this simple preparation to work you
must
, I repeat
must
, use an all-cornmeal cornbread, either wholly unsweetened or just barely sweet. Many of the Southern cornbreads (
pages 7
–
33
) fit the bill. But pass on using sweet cornbreads or cornbreads that contain flour, otherwise you will not understand the magic of this dish nor grasp why it has pleased generations of Southerners, including my friend George West’s late father, who now eats, always, at the table of George’s memory.

1 slice stale cornbread

1 to 2 cups buttermilk

1 scallion, trimmed (optional)

1.
Crumble the stale cornbread into a single-serving bowl or a glass.

2.
Pour the buttermilk to taste over the cornbread. Let it sit, for a minute or two, no more.

3.
Eat, using a spoon (an iced-tea spoon if using a tall glass), with the scallion on the side. Take little nibbles of scallion, bite by bite, along with your cornbread.

S
ERVES
2
AS THE MAIN DISH
, 4
AS PART
OF A SUBSTANTIAL BREAKFAST

Nothing went to waste in the thrifty mountain kitchens of the Ozarks and the Appalachians, least of all perfectly good cornbread crumbs. These would often find their way into some form of pan-fried cakes, usually called corn dodgers. To my Missouri-born friend Blake Clark, who recalls his childhood as one of “adventuring in woods that were a mixture of Twain’s woods and Burroughs’s jungles,” these were even better than the original cornbread. Since you needed “a good amount of cornbread left over from the night before,” Blake remembers, “everyone ate as little cornbread as they could, well knowing that the less they ate now, the more for dodgers in the morning.”

Blake’s Missouri mama’s dodgers were simple: cornbread crumbs soaked in milk and fried in patties. But my friend Ronni’s mama’s Kentucky dodgers were a bit more elaborate, more of a pancake batter with cornbread crumbs stirred in. Here’s my adaptation of Ronni’s version.

The best cornbreads to use here are simple, unsweetened Southern cornbreads, such as Ronni’s Appalachian (
page 21
), Truman Capote’s Family’s (
page 13
), or White River (
page 25
).

1 cup fine, dry cornbread crumbs

1 cup milk

1 cup unbleached white flour

1 teaspoon salt

¾ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 to 2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons mild vegetable oil, plus extra as needed

1 cup buttermilk

2 eggs

Vegetable oil cooking spray (optional)

Optional accompaniments: butter or Better (
page 346
), pure maple syrup, sliced fruit, and/or Warm Maple-Apple Sauté (
page 206
)

1.
Combine the cornbread crumbs and milk in a small bowl. Cover and let soak, refrigerated, for at least 1 hour or as long as overnight.

2.
When ready to fix your dodgers, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a medium bowl.

3.
Whisk together the brown sugar, 2 teaspoons oil, buttermilk, and eggs in a medium bowl. Stir in the flour mixture and the soaked cornbread crumbs.

4.
Heat a large skillet over medium heat. If it’s a well-seasoned cast-iron skillet, all you need by way of greasing it is a good spritz of cooking oil spray or a few drops of oil. If it’s nonstick, you can do without any fat at all. When the skillet is good and hot, drop in small spoonfuls of batter, about 3 inches in diameter. Cook, turning once when bubbles appear around the dodgers’ edges. Serve them straight from the griddle, with the accompaniments of your choice.

S
ERVES
2
AS THE MAIN ITEM
, 4
AS A SIDE DISH

This makes one large, thick cake—something like a substantial, open-face, flipped-over omelet, nice and brown on both sides. It’s delicious finished with or without cheese and any of a variety of sauces. If you choose to prepare one of the variations that follow, have the fixings ready before you begin the frittata. Hearty enough for lunch (with salad) or supper (with soup and salad, cooked greens, or a mixed vegetable stir-fry), it’s also very quick, assuming you have leftover cornbread.

4 eggs

¼ cup milk

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 to 1½ cups any style crumbled cornbread, preferably quite stale

Vegetable oil cooking spray

About 1 tablespoon butter or olive oil

½ to ¾ cup (2 to 3 ounces) grated cheese of your choice (optional)

1.
Whisk together the eggs, milk, and salt and pepper to taste in a medium bowl. Stir in the cornbread crumbs.

2.
Spray a large, heavy pan, preferably a sauté pan with curved sides, with oil and place the pan over medium-high heat. When the pan is good and hot, add the butter or olive oil.

3.
When the butter melts, sizzles, and then stops sizzling, or when the olive oil thins, scrape in the egg-cornbread mixture. It should sizzle as it goes in. Lower the heat to medium.

4.
Let the frittata cook uncovered, without stirring, for 5 to 8 minutes. When it’s partially set but still wet on top, you may lift the edges with a spatula and tip the pan slightly to allow any uncooked egg to flow in that direction, as you would with an omelet. You’ll also want to peek underneath to see how well it’s browning.

5.
When the frittata is golden brown underneath and slightly moist but no longer wet on top, and is fairly solid, screw up your courage, take your spatula, and flip the whole thing over, so the other side can get nice and brown, too, again 5 to 8 minutes. There! Was that so hard?

6.
If you are using the optional cheese, sprinkle it on the golden side you’ve just placed on top, so it can melt as you let the second side cook.

7.
Serve hot, at room temperature, or even cold, cut into wedges.

Cook the frittata in olive oil, then sprinkle on Monterey Jack cheese in step 6. Once finished, top the frittata with salsa, warmed verde or enchilada sauce, a scatter of fresh cilantro, and/or a slice of avocado for garnish.

In step 6, use Parmesan, sharp Cheddar, or a combination of the two. Top the finished frittata with fresh broccoli, broccoli rabe, kale, Swiss chard, or a combo of greens, blanched and sautéed in olive oil with lots of garlic and a broken-up dried red chile or two.

Use Swiss, Gruyère, or Jarlsberg cheese in step 6. Top the finished frittata with big fat slices of portobello mushrooms, sautéed with lots of garlic in oil and a little butter, and a sprinkle of minced fresh parsley.

Cook the frittata in olive oil, and use Parmesan in step 6. Dollop with your favorite marinara sauce, homemade or commercial, well heated. And could a scattering of good black olives and some shreds of fresh basil atop the marinara sauce be amiss? You can also make a much more substantial meal of this variation by adding sliced sautéed Italian–style sausage or soysage to the tomato sauce.

Use butter to cook the frittata, and Swiss, Gruyère, or Jarlsberg cheese, or a crumble of a nice creamy chèvre (Goat cheese) in step 6. Then, sauté in butter 1 onion sliced vertically into crescents, adding 2 julienned carrots after the onion has cooked for a few minutes. Sauté the onion-carrot mixture for 5 minutes more, then toss in two handfuls of chopped spinach. Stir till the spinach wilts, and shower the finished frittata with this bright mix.

Layer on top of the frittata some fresh sliced tomatoes, a little finely diced raw red onion, a scattering of fresh dill, a few strips of roasted red or green pepper, plus some coarsely chopped kalamata olives. The cheese for step 6? Crumbles of feta.

Add a sliced scallion or two and/or ½ to 1 cup corn kernels cut from 1 to 2 ears of fresh (raw) corn (see Shuck and Jive,
page 49
) to the frittata batter.

S
ERVES
6
TO
8
AS AN ENTRÉE

Layered, strata-type savory bread pudding is a standby at many inns, for it tastes very, very good, yet is easy to make ahead and has countless variations. The Dairy Hollow House version was stuffed with a bit of cream cheese and green chiles, and was made with cornbread crumbs rather than conventional bread: the inspiration of my late husband, Ned. Thus a good dish became great, and there was a large uptick in how often visitors requested the recipe.

Use canned green chiles or fresh; if you like heat, amp up the amount of chiles.

Vegetable oil cooking spray

1 batch Dairy Hollow House Skillet-Sizzled Cornbread (
page 12
), crumbled into large chunks and left to dry out overnight