Sample the South with Chile and Cheddar Spoonbread
by Adrianna Adarme on Aug 7, 2013
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I was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the home of peaches, cornbread and sweet tea. I left on my third birthday and didn't return to the south 'til college. Even though I didn't grow up there, the cuisine has always attracted me.
In fact, when I started cooking on my own, southern food was some of the first I taught myself. I mastered biscuits not because my grandmother made them but because I loved eating them so very much. I soon discovered Edna Mae and devoured her cookbooks. Inevitably I came across a recipe for spoonbread. I fell in love with its pudding-like, spongy texture and the flavor was out of this world.
This spoonbread begins a bit differently. I begin by charring fresh corn and pasilla chiles. The corn is cut off the kernels and then blended with milk, resulting in a delicious corn milk that may tempt you to drink it. Don't. A smooth corn grit mixture is made and spiked with cheese, diced pasilla chiles and more charred corn kernels. The egg yolks are added, while the stiff egg whites are folded in.
The entire mixture is baked resulting in a creamy, fluffy, sort-of-spicy spoonbread that I think even Edna Mae - a Southern purist - would have enjoyed. (Or at least that would be my hope.)
Adrianna Adarme is a food blogger and author living in Los Angeles, California. She writes the blog A Cozy Kitchen, where she shares comforting, everyday recipes from her kitchen. She recently authored her first cookbook, PANCAKES: 72 Sweet and Savory Recipes for the Perfect Stack. She's a lover of breakfast, pie (and sometimes even pie for breakfast), corgis and cute things. You can find her on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.