It’s funny sometimes how there will be a dish that you love and make fairly often and then time passes, you discover new dishes and some of your old faves are relegated to the past, albeit unintentionally. Then something happens and you think of it and you’re like, wow, how could I have forgotten about that.
That happened to me not long ago when a friend of mine referred to a dish that I used to make fairly regularly, and she commented on how much a mutual friend of ours always loved it. It was a dish I’d completely forgotten about.
The dish to which I refer is Mexican Cornbread. My grandmother and one of her sisters used to make it all the time and it became a family staple. It’s basically cornbread that has a layer of browned ground beef and onions in the center of it, with a can of cream style corn, a good helping of shredded cheddar cheese and chopped jalapenos in it as well.
Ever since my friend mentioned it, I’ve had a hankering to make it. And now that we’re empty-nesters, it seemed the perfect time. Daughter doesn’t care for cornbread or hushpuppies or basically anything with cornmeal, so to appease her, I basically quit making anything that had cornmeal as a main ingredient.
The dish is pretty much a meal in and of itself, but in an attempt to be a little more civilized, I decided to pair it with a side. I made a simple salad and a homemade vinaigrette. Then I looked over and saw some yukon gold potatoes that weren’t long for this world so I decided to cut them into wedges and roast them as an additional side.
For the salad, I just bought a premixed bag of a baby spinach and spring green combo and tossed in some halved grape tomatoes for color. I then whisked together a vinaigrette with extra virgin olive oil, white wine vinegar, minced garlic, chopped shallots, freshly chopped chives, thyme and dill and some salt and pepper.
As for the potatoes, I cut them into wedges and mixed them in a bowl with some extra virgin olive oil, garlic powder, dried oregano, dried thyme and salt and pepper and roasted them on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet for about 25 minutes in a 450-degree oven, turning about halfway through the cooking time.
It all came together easily and made a nice combo. Hubby liked it all and said that we definitely need to add the Mexican Cornbread to the rotation. Sounds good to me. And when the weather finally cools off, it sure will be good alongside a big bowl of chili.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. As the oven preheats, place the ¼ cup of bacon grease in a cast iron skillet in the oven to melt. Once melted, remove and set aside.
Brown ground beef with onion in a different skillet and drain.
In a mixing bowl, combine cornmeal, baking soda, buttermilk, bacon grease, corn, salt and peppers.
Pour half of the batter into the greased cast iron skillet, then add meat and cheese. Add remaining batter on top.
Cook for 50-60 minutes.
