Spoonbread

Grandmother was nice enough to give me a container of her vegetable soup while I was in Atlanta. There a very few things I love as much as Grandmother's vegetable soup. She traditionally serves it with cornbread, so I decided that I would have to do the same. But, while I was looking for the perfect cornbread recipe I came across a few for spoonbread. Apparently you can't really call yourself a southerner if you haven't had spoonbread, so I had to try some.

Spoonbread (adapted from About.com)

1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp stone-ground cornmeal

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup boiling water

1 1/2 Tbsp melted butter

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp baking powder

Mix cornmeal and salt in mixing bowl. Add boiling water gradually, stirring well. Beat egg in separate bowl until it's light and fluffy. Beat milk into egg. Add egg mixture and baking powder to cornmeal and beat with mixer until well blended. Pour into small buttered baking dish (I used loaf-sized glass dish, but ideally it would be smaller) and bake at 375 for about 40 min, or until set and brown on top. Serves 2-3 (depending on your self control).

Stop reading this now and go make yourself some spoonbread. This stuff is delicious! It's lighter than cornbread (sort of a cross between cornbread and corn souffle), but still has the great corn flavor. And I can't imagine making anything easier. I still love cornbread, but this is a very nice alternative. I'm making an effort to cut down most recipes so that I can make more dishes every week, but I'm wishing that I had made the full recipe of this. There are very few things that I love more than Grandmother's soup, but there is virtually nothing that I love more than her soup and spoonbread.