My Love for Buttermilk Continues...

 

Chapel Hill and Durham are lucky to have Foster's Market locations.  Sara Foster has written many cookbooks and I have read all of them!  Her love of Southern food and easy entertaining style excites and calms even the most nervous host.  If you crave Southern food like we do, I suggest checking out her cookbooks.  You will be giggling with delight :) 

This recipe comes from the Foster's Market Cookbook.  It is called salt and pepper skillet cornbread.  By now you all know I am a cornbread fanatic.  Come to think of it, anything with cornmeal in it (hush puppies, grits, breakfast cakes) is a must have in my mind.  If it's on the menu, I'm ordering it.  If it's in a recipe, I'm making it.  And that is just what I did for dinner last night.  Thank goodness my family shares my adoration for cornbread because this recipe makes a lot (8 large wedges to be exact).

Most of the cornbread recipes I follow are on the sweeter side but I was in the mood for something savory so this was perfect.  Pouring the batter into an already hot oil slicked cast iron skillet made for a crispy crust.  Taking extra care to sprinkle salt and pepper on top before closing the oven door made for a beautiful presentation.  This cornbread was so good that it didn't even need butter (the two tablespoons in the batter did the trick).  It was moist from the buttermilk and eggs, sandy from the cornmeal (but not too grainy, just the right amount of flour was added), and mildly sweet from the sugar.  I first fell in love with this cornbread reading Sara Foster's cookbook.  I fell in love for the second time biting into it.  It is out of this world!  It is phenomenally good and so different from the corn muffins I'm used to making, which gives me hope that restaurant style cornbread can be replicated in the comfort of your home.   

Salt and Pepper Skillet Cornbread

2 T bacon grease or olive oil

1.5 C yellow cornmeal

½ C flour

¼ C sugar

2 t baking powder

2 t sea salt, plus more for sprinkling on top

1 t pepper, plus more for sprinkling on top

½ t baking soda

2 C well shaken buttermilk

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

2 T butter, melted

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Coat a 9-10 inch cast iron skillet with grease and place in oven to heat while you mix the batter.  Combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, pepper and baking soda in large bowl and stir to mix.  Add buttermilk, eggs, and butter and stir until just combined.  Do not over mix; the batter should be lumpy.  Pour batter into hot skillet and sprinkle the top with a little salt and pepper.  Bake until top is golden brown and toothpick comes out clean, about 25 minutes.  Remove from oven, turn cornbread out of the skillet, slice into wedges and serve warm.