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When I tasted cornbread for the first time (I made it myself) I have to say that I was not particularly impressed – it was so bland! Now, I know that at that point, I considered all foods bland that were not chilli-hot. That’s an attitude endemic to (most of) us Indians because so much of our food contains chillies and/or strong spices and flavourings. If you’re used to loading vegetables with lots of masala, for instance, plain boiled green beans with just salt and pepper would definitely be termed as “bland”. It’s not just vegetarians, either – even non-veg Indians find it difficult to face plain roasted chicken (or other meat)… they usually like their meat cooked in a spicy sauce or maybe coated in a fiery masala.
I remember going with my friend Lakshmi (or KiwiGee fame, such as it is) to a restaurant in Mount Road that specialised in “western” food (I cant remember the restaurant name now, it was many years ago while I was working in the Indian Express). We had been there before and enjoyed the vegetable au gratin – or maybe it was the sheer novelty of it, vegetables in a cheesy white sauce - and decided it was time we educated another colleague and friend in the ways of international cuisine.
Poor chap, he had the most awful struggle to get it down. He was through-and-through a traditional South Indian - he wasn't even really into North Indian cuisine, and he had probably never wanted to try anything European at all. But he was a sweet uncomplaining pal, and he let himself be forced by us into having a go. Two forkfuls into the gratin, and he turned green and said he couldn’t finish it. We, being cruel to be kind, perhaps – or maybe just determined to introduce him to “sophisticated” food - sat there, one on either side of him, insisting that he shouldn’t give up so easily. He sprinkled crushed red chillies, stirred in industrial quantities of chilli sauce, and in general did all he could to mask the blandness of the white sauce and the grilled cheese topping… but in the end, he just balked at eating any more of it. For quite a while after that I think he avoided any mention of “treats” from us…
What I didn’t realize then, I do now – that it takes a conscious effort to let your taste buds slow down and adjust to fewer spices, and enjoy the real flavour of whatever vegetable you’re eating... or even get used to the lack of chillies and the presence of unfamiliar spices and seasonings. Of course, in this I speak mostly for myself and my taste buds, which sadly did not grow up amidst authentic international cuisine and therefore were ignorant and inexperienced in many ways for the longest time.
So anyway, long story short, I did eventually learn to like vegetables that weren’t cooked to mush, steamed veg that had the most basic of seasonings - I may have mentioned this before, but fresh green beans cooked just so, eaten immediately with just a sprinkling of salt is probably one of my greatest pleasures now! - pasta that did not have crushed red chillies (at the very least) sprinkled all over it, cheese-on-toast without sliced green chillies on it… and so on. I tried to keep my mind and tastebuds open to new flavours and give new foods at least one good try before condemning them.
But this cornbread – plain cornbread without cheese or onions or anything else savoury... it literally WAS too bland and boring. It was just blah - and blah it remained despite my sternest lectures to myself to be open-minded. I didn’t bother with making cornbread again for ages, until I came across other recipes for it on the Net (this after I had started this food blog) and decided to give the whole thing another go.
Now of course I adore cornbread – as long as there’s no sweetness involved. I don’t understand or like the addition of honey or sugar. I do add onions, scallions, quick-cook vegetables like spinach, cheese (although not excessively) but, most important of all, green chillies. Yes, I'm aware that I lectured about chillies or the lack thereof, thanks - but there are SOME things which totally require heat. Cornbread, as far as I’m concerned, is one of those things. That’s how it has to be. It’s just one of those things.
These muffins make a nice snack by themselves or, more traditionally, you could serve them with chili con (or sin, in my case) carne. I didnt use fresh chillies this time - I just chopped up some super-hot-but-fruity sliced manzano chillies in vinegar that were lurking in my fridge, and used those.
Recipe for: Spinach corn muffins
Ingredients:
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup plain flour
1 large egg
1 cup milk (I used semi-skim)
1/2 cup canned corn niblets
1/8 cup oil
1/2 cup spinach leaves, shredded
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp freshly milled black pepper
2 tsp finely chopped jalapeno peppers (I used manzano chillies)
salt to taste
Method:
1. In a medium mixing bowl, mix together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt.
2. In another, smaller bowl, whisk together the oil and egg.
3. Pour in the milk and stir it in.
4. Pour the egg-milk mixture into the bowl containing the flour
and stir till just combined. Do not beat.
5. Add the corn and spinach and stir them in gently.
6. Sprinkle the ground pepper
and add the jalapenos (if using), and stir them in.
7. Fill muffin pans with the batter about 3/4 of the way to the top and bake in a 180C/350F oven for about 15 minutes. Test to see if the muffins are done; if not, give them another 5 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, and serve warm.
There's no real reason to post the photo above (even though I used the chillies in the recipe), just as there was no real reason to take the photo in the first place. My heatless green chillies have been remarked on enough times, and photographed and posted enough times on this blog, that any regular reader would likely recognise them and wait with sinking heart for the inevitable whine about how chillies with no heat aren't worth the time...
But I'm not going to whine this time. Besides, I grew the darn things from scratch - and just the fact that the plant survived and the chillies fruited is remarkable enough in itself to merit a mention without the accompanying whine.
The reason I took the photo is because I thought the two chillies looked really cute. Yes, anthropomorphising food items is probably not, strictly speaking, entirely normal - but sue me, I thought they were cute. Like little green mice with long tails, plotting to raid the pantry in secret.
Thanks for indulging me in my moment of whimsy. Now back to the real world and on with the recipe. It's totally fat-free (aside from the garnish of roasted peanuts, which is entirely optional - so any nit-picking anonymous dissenting commenters please take note, without the garnish, this IS totally fat-free) and makes a nice cold (or warm) vegetarian "salad". For non-vegetarians and fishytarians, serve warm as a side with roasted meat dishes, or as a light lunch mixed with smoked mackerel or tuna chunks (as Pete did).
Recipe for: Fat-free bulgur salad
Ingredients:
1 cup bulgur wheat
1 large onion
Handful of herbs of choice (I used mint, oregano, chives and basil)
2 green chillies, de-seeded and chopped fine (optional)
1 cup canned sweetcorn, drained
1 medium tomato, chopped
3 tbsp lemon juice
Salt to taste
Fresh ground black pepper to taste
Handful of roasted peanuts (optional, for crunch)
1. Cook the bulgur wheat according to the packet instructions (or boil 1.75 cups water, add the bulgur, stir well, let it boil for 2 minutes, then turn the heat off, cover the pan tightly and let the bulgur sit for 20 minutes undisturbed. Fluff with a fork to separate the grains.)
2. Slice the onion thinly.
3. Toss the sliced onions with the lemon juice and place under a hot grill for 5-7 minutes,
or till the onions start browning slightly and are done to taste. Remove from the oven.
4. Fluff up the cooked bulgur and place in a large bowl.
6. Chop the herbs finely and add to the bowl.
7. Add the chopped tomato and the sweetcorn,
and the grilled onions.
8. Mix with a large fork, add salt to taste. Squeeze a little more lemon juice over, if required. Garnish with roasted peanuts if desired, for crunch, and serve the bulgur as a side dish with fish, or eat by itself as a healthy snack or a light lunch.
One of the burdens that has to be borne by reasonably musical adults who have had anything to do with children, directly or indirectly, is the retention in memory of nursery rhymes set to music. My knowledge of nursery rhymes was extensive - even before I spent a lot of time with my little cousin (right from when she was a baby to until she was about 11 years old). But at least I didn’t sing any of them, because I’d only ever read them. Unfortunately, however, Hema as a toddler was extremely attached to her nursery rhyme tape, with the songs sung by some famous(ish) Indian female singer whose name I can’t remember. (For some reason Tarla Dalal comes to mind, but it was NOT her, that much I’m sure of. She doesn’t sing, does she?)
Anyway, coming back to unintentionally selective programmed memory, I assure you that I hardly ever think of nursery rhymes in normal circumstances. BUT – let a trigger word happen and, like an obedient robot, my brain clicks on and plays the relevant rhyme on a permanent loop. Yesterday, somebody in the office mentioned a problem with mice in their home, and all day my brain was singing “Three blind mice, three blind mice. See how they run. See how they run. They all ran after the farmer’s wife, she cut off their tails with a carving knife, did ever you see such a thing in your life as three blind mice.” (I wrote the entire rhyme down in the faint hope of someone else acquiring the ear-worm. Misery shared is… well, misery doubled, but at least I won’t be alone.)
So. All that was merely a prelude to posting about the one-pot vegetable-and-pasta dinner that I made to accompany what remained of my pav buns. One of the ingredients in this recipe was macaroni. Yep, I made the recipe to my personal internal music system which had set itself to play “Yankee Doodle went to town, riding on a pony. He tucked a feather in his cap and called it macaroni. (chorus) Laa la la la la la la, laa la la la laa lah. Laa la la la la la la la la la la la laa lah” all the time - and, as it turned out, all night.
(My brain didn’t leave out a single la, and neither have I. Just thought I’d mention it.)
Recipe for: Vegetable-macaroni hotpot
Ingredients:
1 large cup macaroni, slightly undercooked
1 large onion, chopped fine
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 potatoes boiled, cooled and grated
1 green bell pepper, cut into strips
1/2 cup canned or frozen sweetcorn kernels
2-3 spring onions, chopped fine
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
1 tsp red chilli powder (or to taste)
1/2 tsp sambar powder
1 tsp sugar
1 htbsp corn flour
2 tbsp grated cheese of choice (sharp cheddar is good - jalapeno or habanero cheese if you like it spicy)
1 tbsp coriander leaves, chopped
1 tbsp butter
Salt to taste
Method:
1. Heat the butter in a pan till it melts.
2. Add ginger-garlic paste, fry for 15 seconds, then add the chopped onion and spring onions.
3. Add the capsicum
then the tomatoes and corn and fry for 2 minutes.
4. Mix the cornflour in 1 cup water till dissolved, add chilli powder and salt. Pour into the pan, stirring well.
5. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil, then turn down the heat and simmer until thickened but not till it becomes solid. It should still be pourable.
6. Place the cooked macaroni in a buttered oven-safe casserole dish.
7. Pour the vegetable sauce over the macaroni.
8. Mix together the cheese and grated potato
and sprinkle evenly over the sauce, followed by the chopped coriander.
9. Bake in a hot oven (200C) for 15 minutes or till the potato-cheese topping becomes golden brown.
10. Serve hot with warm, lightly buttered dinner rolls.
