JC: June 7 2011 : Red Liecester Cornbread with Mediterranean herbs and Lentil Loaf.

It’s been kinda quiet on the cooking front, due to the business of Christmas and a new year that bought with it some expected and some unexpected family needs that took over our lives; some for a short time others still ongoing. It is only now, 3 months after being made redundant and deciding that it seemed a good time to retire, that I am finding little bits of time to myself. Hence a few weeks back I was once again enjoying a coffee and watching the Barefoot Contessa on TV. Oh my what a lot of lovely food, but way too much salt, fat, cream, and oil for us Brits.

However the cheddar and dill cornbread looked good, so I took down the recipe and though it would be good to blog on my attempt to make it.

Well as usual I did not keep to the recipe. I halved the quantities as below:

1½ cups of self raising flour

½ cup cornmeal – vegetarian shop had none but the guy had made cornmeal muffins using polenta so that’s what I used

1/8 cup sugar – not sure why sugar was required in a savory dish but I did put it in!

1 tsp of baking powder

1 tsp of salt

4 oz butter [= 1 stick I think]

1 large egg, plus extra milk [hard to divide 3 eggs in half!]

1 cup of milk

1 cup sharp cheddar cheese – keep a handful for top of bread [I used left over red Leicester]

1 cup chopped dill [could not find fresh or dried dill so used 1 tbs of Mediterranean herbs]

Whisk egg and milk together and add melted butter. Pour into dry ingredients. Do not stir too much and let it stand. This went into a 6” x 12” dish and was baked for 25-30 mins at 350F [150C].

Considering the recipe is similar to a UK scone, this bread was so much lighter. Was that the baking powder or the polenta? I put baking powder into my scones but the result is not so light. I froze half the cornbread and have enjoyed eating the rest over several days with a variety of meals. Will definitely make this again. Maybe for Church lunch.

The lentil loaf was cooked a few days earlier and was not intended as a blog but looked so good it deserves a mention.

I used the recipe from a Woman’s Day magazine that did the classic meat loaf plus variations. So I did the classic with ground beef for my other half and the lentil one for myself – and yes once again with some variation to the original recipe including halving the ingredients!!! This made 5 small ‘cakes’ rather than loaves.

1 large egg

1 tbs oil – [not used]

½ a 15oz can lentils rinsed – [used 8oz of red lentils cooked as directed on package]

1 cup baby spinach chopped, about 2 oz –[used 4 cubes frozen, cooked as instructed]

½ jar roasted red peppers – [used frozen roasted mediterranean vegetables cooked as instructed – about 1 ½ cups]

1 oz feta cheese crumbled – [used mini baby bel one per ramkin dish]

3 oz of falafel mix or herb stuffing – [missed this out]

I drained the cooked lentils and mixed with the cooked spinach and roasted veggies. Add the beaten egg. The roasted veggies were flavoured so I did not add any extra seasoning. I greased 5 ramkin dishes – 3 ½ ” diameter and 2 ¼” deep. The mixture was quiet runny and as I was spooning it into the 3^rd dish realized that I had not added the cheese!!! So I quickly removed some of the mixture and placed a mini baby bel cheese in the middle of each dish and then added more mixture. They cooked at 350F [150C] for abut 20mins. It was a bit of guess work as the original was done in a 9x3 ½ loaf tin for 35 mins.

These were much better than expected. Can’t remember if I added any oats to the runny mixture or not. Panic set in when I realised I had not added the cheese. I kept one for the following day and 3 are in the freezer yet to be eaten.

So, two good dishes to do again, neither very costly. An important part of food planning with the rising cost of food.