Chilli, Bacon & Sweetcorn Cornbread

As detailed in my earlier blog, hubby set to on Wednesday and made us a beautiful batch of Cornbread to accompany the Chilli he'd made earlier in the day.  I used to make Cornbread regularly at the weekend and we'd just munch on some when the mood took us.  A lack of the right kind of Polenta (or maize flour) stopped those sorts of shenanigans (which is probably just as well, consider the calories involved) and we sort of forgot about it for ages - literally, years.

His sudden bright idea about making it again was a stroke of brilliance, as we knew it would go beautifully with the chilli - which indeed it did.  Instead of a plain Cornbread, he made one with red chilli, bacon and sweetcorn.  For me, the bacon flavour seemed to disappear, with the chilli standing up bravely against those in the meat part of the dish and the sweetcorn providing a lovely sweet, crunchy counterpoint.  As always, the best part of the Cornbread is the corners with their gorgeously crunchy stickiness, which makes me wonder about producing it in Muffin tins in future, so as to maximise the "corner effect".  Mind you, with the melted butter glistening on the top surface, I'm thinking that this is one that doesn't bear repeating too often!

I am no longer a Creamed Corn virgin ...

.... because, owing to the lovely recipe I found on Hollow Legs' blog, I have now not only sampled the dish, but made it from scratch.

Making it from fresh sweetcorn, in season, is just the best thing.  It is simple to make and goes fabulously with chicken, or gammon, or sausages, or a piece of smoked haddock - in lots of situations where you'd use baked beans, creamed corn will happily go.

I repeat the recipe here, not in any way to claim ownership of it, but just because it is so flipping gorgeous, it deserves a greater audience - and I know my audience is also going to love it.

Someone hand me a spoon!

CREAMED CORN (serves 3-4)

Ingredients :

3-4 cobs of corn (I used 3 because they were torpedo sized)
2 shallots (I used 1 large banana shallot), diced fine
2 rashers of lean streaky bacon, diced fine
2 sprigs of rosemary, finely minced
knob of butter (original recipe states vegetable oil)
150ml double cream (I used slightly less)
Water.

Method :

1.  Using a sharp knife, remove the kernels from the cobs, reserving any of the milky liquid.

2.  In a pan, soften the shallots in the butter and add the bacon to cook.  Make sure not to brown either bacon or shallots.

3.  Add the rosemary and corn kernels, then add water to just under the level of the corn.

4.  Bring to a simmer, then cook for some 10-15 minutes and add the cream.

5.  Take a couple of ladlefuls out and blitz until pureed, then return to the pan and season to taste.

6.  Bring back up to a simmer and serve.

NOTES :

It is really entirely up to you how much you remove for blitzing, it depends on how pureed you want your creamed corn to be.

I recommend allowing the liquid to reduce somewhat before adding the cream - it all depends on how creamy you want your creamed corn to be.