Today a friend came down from Duluth and we went to the Walker Art Center. I made some chicken chili in the slow cooker for dinner paired with Helen Evans Brown’s Corn Chili Bread. I have made corn bread before, but it was of the very sweet and dry variety. In the words of Beard, this recipe is “an extremely moist, rich bread.”
Here are the ingredients:
Yes, this bread has 1 1/2 sticks of butter, 1 cup of sour cream, and 1/4 pound of Monterey Jack cheese. I only used 3/4 of a cup of sour cream because I forgot that an 8 ounce container is sold by weight, not by volume. This bread was so incredibly rich anyway that it didn’t make a difference.
I also substituted 1 1/2 cup frozen corn kernels (thawed) for the 3 ears of fresh corn. As I type this, I realized that this substitution was actually incorrect–one ear of corn is equivalent to 3/4 of a cup, so I should have used 2 1/4 cups. I feel a little embarrassed about that, since I have a degree in mathematics, but the bread turned out fine (it would be hard for the bread to not turn out fine, thanks to all the butter).
This was a very simple recipe to prepare–all I had to do was melt the butter and mix the ingredients together. As usual, cooking time was 55 minutes instead of one hour.
There are several words that can describe Helen Evans Brown’s Chili Corn Bread: savory, delectable, divine, and amazing spring to mind. It is so moist that you need to eat it with a fork. The chilies provide a note of spice, the melted cheese is decadent, and the buttery goodness makes for delicious forkful after delicious forkful. Beard suggests serving the bread with “plenty of butter” which would quite frankly be overkill. This bread is so rich that it eats like a main course rather than an accompaniment. Ms. Brown created a culinary masterpiece with this recipe; Mike (my husband) has ranked this bread as his favorite so far.
I am planning on eating a leftover piece of bread for lunch tomorrow, with a salad and some fruit instead of extra butter.
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