Serve up cornbread at your next brunch
Roxana Jullapat’s Hatch chili and Cotija cornbread is a vehicle for a very special heirloom cornmeal: Bloody Butcher.
Named for its sanguine colour, she was introduced to the varietal by her miller, Nan Kohler of Grist & Toll in California. Its extraordinary flavour immediately won her over.
“It is an incredible, incredible cornmeal,” says Jullapat. “The cornmeal was a meal on its own. It was like if you were in New Mexico having enchiladas. It was really, really like somebody was making tamales in your house. Just by smelling the corn. You hadn’t even cooked anything with it.”
Finding it evocative of the cuisine of the American Southwest, she naturally gravitated towards the pairing of Hatch chilies and salty cheese. Her use of Cotija, a crumbly cow’s milk cheese from the town of the same name in the Mexican state of Michoacán, places this cornbread firmly on the savoury side.
“Cornbreads, especially the
American-style, tend to have a little bit of sugar,” says Jullapat. “So even though it has sugar and eggs and butter, it still keeps that savoury note.”
If you can’t access Bloody Butcher, don’t despair. Jullapat makes this cornbread regularly using a good-quality, coarse yellow cornmeal “and it’s great. Super delicious.”
“There are a few recipes in this cookbook that really drive home the magic (of heirloom varietals). Everything stops, you hear nothing — like the matrix,” says Jullapat, laughing. “You’re given the key to paradise. Bloody Butcher is one of those grains that is just like, ‘Wow. Wow. What was that?’”
HATCH CHILI AND COTIJA CORNBREAD
Equipment: 9-inch (23-cm) cast-iron skillet
• 1 1/4 cups (190 g) coarse cornmeal, preferably an heirloom cornmeal such as Bloody Butcher (see note)
• 3/4 cup (105 g) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 cup (150 g) sugar
• 1 1/4 cups (300 ml) buttermilk
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup (80 ml) vegetable oil
• 3 tbsp butter, melted and cooled slightly, plus extra for greasing the pan
• 3/4 cup (90 g) crumbled Cotija cheese
• One 4-oz can diced Hatch chilies, drained
Step 1
Place the cornmeal, flour, salt, baking soda, and sugar in a mixing bowl and make a well in the centre with your hands. Combine the buttermilk, eggs and oil in a separate bowl. Pour the liquid mixture into the well in the dry ingredients. Using a whisk, mix until well combined. Add the melted butter and mix just to combine. Stir in the Cotija cheese and Hatch chilies and let the batter sit for 20 minutes. The cornmeal will absorb the liquid and swell up, making the batter slightly thicker.
Step 2
Place an oven rack in the middle position and preheat the oven to 350ºf (177ºc).
Step 3
Brush the skillet with melted butter. Transfer the batter to the prepared skillet, using a spatula to even out the top. Bake for 30 minutes, then rotate the skillet and bake for another 15 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Rotating the skillet halfway through the baking process will ensure that the cornbread bakes evenly. Place the skillet on a cooling rack and wait at least 30 minutes before serving, still warm or at room temperature. The corn bread can be wrapped tightly in plastic and stored in the refrigerator for two days or the freezer for two weeks. Individual wedges reheat very well in a toaster oven.
Makes: one 9-inch (23-cm) corn bread, serving 8