Corn Bread with Red Flint Corn Meal by Guest Chef Deborah Madison

Corn Bread with Floriani Red Flint Corn Meal from Hands – On Cooking Class, with visiting chef Deborah Madison.

One of the exciting offerings from the farmers market has been the recent emergence of grains and flours, such as blue corn and Floriani Red Flint corn. The latter is a rare open-pollinated red corn that has become popular enough that it’s hard to find at this writing. But I see that as a sign that it is soon going to plentiful because everyone wants the best of whatever there is and some enterprising person will grow seed corn. Once milled, the flour has a yellow-orange hue flecked with red. The nutritional comparison of this flour to de-germinated corn meal from the store is truly striking: the Floriani corn meal exceeds in all values, sometimes as many as three and four times, plus the flavor is strikingly warm and rich.  Meals made from other corn varieties may appear in your market. Give them a try. You will be pleasantly wowed by their flavor.

(We found Red Flint corn available on line from a historic Nebraska mill for approximately $13 a pound; price includes shipping.)

*Makes 1 10-inch cast iron skillet

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup corn meal, such as Floriani Red Flint
• 1 cup white whole-wheat flour
• scant ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 2 large farm eggs
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 2 tablespoons honey

Directions:

1. Heat the oven to 375*F. Put the butter in a 10-inch cast iron skillet and put it in the oven to melt while and brown a little while you make the batter.
2. Stir together the corn meal, flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda and in a large bowl. Make a well in the center, add the eggs, buttermilk and honey. Stir everything together with a fork to combine the ingredients well, but do so quickly without overworking.
3. Remove the pan from the oven, brush the melted butter around the sides, then pour the rest into the batter and stir to mix it in. Scrape the batter into the hot pan. It will sizzle a bit. Bake until firm and browned a little around the edges, about 25 minutes. Eat it while it’s warm with honey or jam. The delicate leftovers are great browned in a toaster oven.

Sunday Morning Corn Bread with Fresh Corn Kernels

Add 2 teaspoons vanilla and a cup or more fresh corn kernels to the batter. They add a great pop and crunch dimension. If you make it a little sweeter, adding ¼ cup honey, say, it can even be dessert.