You should have been here for dinner on Sunday.  Ciara, KP and I made a roasted eggplant soup & a caramelized garlic tart that called for two different kinds of goat cheese – I didn’t even know that goat gouda was out there for me to love.  It was a decadent, delicious feast, but it would have been labour-intensive even without the culinary misadventures, like forgetting to defrost the puff pastry, or using rice to blind-bake the tart without laying down parchment paper first.  That tart was a labour of love, squinty-eyed determination, and delayed dinner time – good thing we had the foresight to eat dessert first.  It’s perhaps not surprising that the next day, an overcast, rainy Monday, I wanted food that would look after itself.  I made a slow-cooked chili with cornmeal muffins.

This muffin recipe came to my family via my mum’s good friend Marcia, and it’s my perfect cornbread.  I grew up with its crispy exterior & soft gentle crumb, and I take for granted its ability to elevate a standard chili into something really fabulous.  Most important on this occasion, however, was its quick, no-fuss batter.  It even brought the sun out.

Notes: Let’s say you’re tired of muffins or really hate cleaning out a muffin tray.  Pour the batter into a loaf pan instead – it’ll take longer to bake, but the end product is the very same.

Cornmeal Muffins

Ingredients

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup milk or soy milk
1 1/2 cup flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup margarine or butter
1 egg

———————————————-

1.  In a medium bowl, combine cornmeal with milk; set aside.

2.  In a separate medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder & salt; set aside.

3.  In a large bowl, beat margarine with sugar & egg.  Add the following, mixing after each addition: 1/2 the cornmeal mixture; 1/2 the flour mixture; 1/2 the cornmeal mixture; 1/2 the flour mixture.  Scoop into a greased muffin tin or loaf pan.  If making muffins, bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.  If making a loaf, bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes.