COOKBOOK/A TABLE - Plant-Based Cornbread

In the 1989 Batman movie, Jack Nicholson’s Joker gleefully declared, “This town needs an enema!” As remakes often reflect the current climate of the culture, I can only imagine a new version of the film where The Joker might instead declare, “The entire world needs an enema!”

So think globally, but act locally, right? With that buoyant expression in mind, I offer a solution to our constipated world—a plant-based corn bread that I find to be most cleansing. (The recipe calls for jalapeños but I’m not going there.)

Jessica Murnane wrote the cookbook One Part Plant: A Simple Guide to Eating Real, One Meal at a Time to combat her chronic, painful endometriosis. After teaching herself how to cook, she changed her diet to incorporate whole plant-based meals into her daily life with life-changing results. The recipe for jalapeño cornbread is just one of many recipes resulting from her efforts in the kitchen while she created the book she wished she’d had during her personal struggle.

The struggle is real—everywhere. But don’t give up. In the meantime, this cornbread is delicious!

Jalapeño Cornbread
Adapted from One Part Plant by Jessica Murnane https://www.jessicamurnane.com/one-part-plant
Makes 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon flax meal
3 tablespoons water
1 cup medium grind cornmeal
Half cup almond meal
Half cup brown rice flour
2 teaspoons aluminum free baking powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup real Maple syrup
2 jalapeños seeded and diced
3 tablespoons olive oil
Raw honey or real maple syrup

Method
Preheat the oven to 400°. Grease an 8 inch square pan or line it with parchment paper.

Next line in a small bowl, combine the almond milk and apple cider vinegar. In another small bowl, make a flax egg: flax meal and water together. Set both the almond milk mixture and the flax egg aside and let them sit for at least 10 minutes.

Next line in a large bowl, mix the cornmeal, almond meal, rice flour, baking powder, installed together. Add the almond milk mixture, flax egg, maple syrup, and half of the jalapeño slices. Stir to combine, but do not over stir. Add the olive oil and give it a few more stirs.

Pour the batter into your prepared pan. Spread the remaining jalapeños on top. Bake for 20 minutes or until a fork or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let it cool for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

Thanks to jessicainthekitchen.com for the photo!

BOOK/A TABLE - Cornbread with Sausage Gravy

Looking back, I scarcely imagine I was prepared to read Truman Capote’s Other Voices, Other Rooms in high school. At the time I only knew Capote as that funny little man draped in silver fox with a lavender-gray fedora who appeared in my favorite movie Murder by Death and was also the celebrated author of Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Whether or not I understood exactly what was going on in Other Voices (I at least knew I was missing something), I was certainly transfixed by Capote’s use of language. In his coming-of-age story, the pages are filled with images of mouldering mansions and ghostly faces drifting through the languid summer afternoons at Skully’s Landing—pure Southern Gothic. I remember the mysteries our delicate young hero Joel Knox encountered; catching glimpses of cousin Randolph, for example, wrapped in a faded kimono and smoking something called asthma cigarettes while sipping on perfumed concoctions. I loved Joel’s vaguely threatening friendships with mule-driver Jesus Fever and Idabel, the feisty tomboy who would grow up to be the real Harper Lee.

All beautiful, stirring stuff, but as a teen I wasn’t quite sure what it could mean. The vivid fever dream (starring the diminutive Miss Wisteria) that takes over the latter half confounded me for years. I kept returning to the book until I was able to make head and perhaps tail of it. 

However, the breakfast that Missouri cooks for Joel always made perfect sense to me:

“With a cut of cornbread, Joel mopped bone-dry the steaming plate of fried eggs and grits, sopping rich with sausage gravy, that Missouri had set before him.”

I love cornbread and have had a fond appreciation for the Jiffy mixes since I was a kid, but I bet Missouri would cuff me upside the head for the store-bought sacrilege. Have you picked up Jiffy corn muffin mix lately? It’s still pretty good! Here’s a tip: add a can of creamed corn to the mix. And blend a tablespoon or so of honey into softened butter and slather it with abandon on your cornbread, hot out of the oven. Use a pretty pan!

Now, was there a mention of gravy...?

Sausage Gravy 
Adapted from sugarspunrun.com
Ingredients
1 lb (455 g) pork breakfast sausage I recommend using sage flavored
¼ cup (31 g) all-purpose (plain) flour
2 ½ cups (590 ml) whole milk
⅛ teaspoon crushed red pepper optional
Salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

Method
Place sausage in a skillet over medium/high heat.
Use a spatula or wooden spoon to break up and crumble sausage as it cooks, cooking until completely browned and no pink remains. Do not drain your skillet.
Sprinkle flour evenly over the sausage crumbles. Stir frequently until flour is absorbed (about 1 minute).
¼ cup (31 g) all-purpose (plain) flour
Slowly drizzle the milk into your skillet, stirring as you pour. Add crushed red pepper, if using.
2 ½ cups (590 ml) whole milk,⅛ teaspoon crushed red pepper
Continue to cook, stirring frequently until mixture is thickened and desired consistency is reached.
Add salt and pepper to taste and serve warm with your cornbread!