Banana Jalapeno Bread

@PoetryNEmotion

Jalapeño Cornbread is great!

Actually, being from Kentucky, all cornbread, corn pone, etc. made in cast iron is fantastic - except for overly sweet ones.

Quakertrucker

@PoetryNEmotion

I was much too short in my earlier reply. Being from the South, I love simple, strong flavored foods. This definitely included cornbread in all its varied forms.

Thus, my cookbooks tend to be Southern, Mountain - or a combination thereof - and Amish.

You can not say too much about cornbread. I generally use four Southern/Mountain cookbooks most often for cornbread. "Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread, & Scuppernong Wine" has 16 pages of cornbread recipes; "Biscuits, Spoonbread, & Sweet Potato Pie" has 13 pages; "Mountain Country Cooking" has 10 pages; while "Appalachian Cookery" has 7 pages.

There are so many variations on cornbread such as Simple Corn Bread - best in a cast iron skillet (I have five of various sizes and depths); Buttermilk Corn Bread - a personal favorite; Corn Pone; Corn Muffins or Corn Sticks - again, I have cast iron pans; Bannock Bread - also called Indian Cake (a bit on the sweet side); Corn Cakes; Corn Dodgers - almost a Hush Puppy; Cracklin' Bread; Cornmeal Batter Cakes; Gritted Corn Bread; Mexican Corn Bread - of the jalapeño variety; and, the ultimate, Spoon Bread - almost a corn bread souffle - in all of its forms.

I have made and eaten all of these - including several variations on Spoon Bread.

Having moved from Kentucky lo these 31 years ago, I often have trouble finding ingredients.

First, no one north of the Mason-Dixon Line has ever heard of "cracklin's", making it impossible to find fresh ones - from a butcher or processing plant. Thus, I have to make use of ones ordered off the internet. God only knows how many years ago, these had any connection to a hog. And, the ones ordered online, are generally flavored with something incompatible to a pan of cornbread.

Second, I believe that any cornbread that calls for milk must be made with buttermilk. And, with all of the regulations regarding milk production, homogenization, pasteurization, and storage, it is impossible to find traditional churned buttermilk - the kind, if you remember that was a bit thin, with a slightly sour taste, and with yellow butter flakes floating throughout. Now all you can find in a store is cultured buttermilk - a really poor substitute.

You have inspired me to get down my largest cast iron skillet and make a big Jalapeño Corn Bread (since I still have the better part of a gallon of Gordon's Food Service jalapeños hanging around) for myself for dinner tonight. Putting some butter, and just a bit of sorghum, on top, this will make a dinner in, and of, itself.

Thanks for the inspiration!!!

Quakertrucker

@PoetryNEmotion

By the way, I just bought a five pound bag of pinto beans at Gordon's two days ago, and three large - about two pounds each - ham shanks at Meijer today.

I am getting ready to make a large pot of "Soup Beans". This is a Southern dish - a delicacy, in fact - totally unlike bean soup.

The only ingredients in addition to the beans - and, no matter what any carpetbagger tells you, they MUST be pinto beans - and the ham shanks - ham hocks will also work, but with the thick skin and fat, much more is tossed - is salt and water.

I will simply soak the five pounds of pinto beans overnight in 35 cups of water in a very large soup pan, then throw in the 6 plus pounds of ham shanks in the morning, along with a good handful of salt, and then simmer the whole thing for 8 to 10 hours. After pulling out any bones and breaking up the meat, and stirring the mixture to a thick consistency, I am ready to luxuriate.

After that, I will have a supper fit for an Appalachian king: a big bowl of soup beans, a couple big slabs of jalapeno cornbread from tonight with butter, and some homemade sweetened ice tea. Don't need no dessert after that - not that there would be any room left.

If I did have any room left - which I won't - a nice southern pecan pie would be nice. But, I don't have the ingredients for the pie anyway, and, besides, it is 25 miles south to the nearest store.

And, after finishing my supper, I will be able to freeze 5 or 6 large containers of soup beans to feed me in the months to come.

Have I made you hungry? I hope so!

Quakertrucker

@PoetryNEmotion

Just to show you my love of cornbread, and Southern Cast Iron Cooking, I thought I would show you my "Pot Rack".

I built this house 31 years ago. The living room, dining room, and kitchen are open construction - with a 16 foot cathedral ceiling.

In the kitchen area, I put a 8 foot by 3 foot island. I then hung a 8 foot by 3 foot pot rack centered over the island.

I hung brass rods all around the bottom edge of the pot rack, and hung about 40 pots, pans, and utinsils. I also filled the middle of the bottom with racks for about 40 wine glasses of various sizes and shapes, and I placed six pock lights, wired to switches at all four entrances to the combined room.

On the top of the pot rack, are stored bread maker, large soup pots, slow cooker, stand mixer, large canning pot, etc.

I am enclosing some photos showing the pot rack and the various cast iron cookware hanging from it - including several cast iron skillets, and a cast iron dutch oven.

The one photo taken on the table is to show the grooves in the rectangular skillet. The lights in the room are not really set to aim at the pot rack, so details in the pictures are missed.

I also have smaller cast iron items such as for corn sticks that don't have eyelets and can't be hung - so they are in cabinets.










I am fixin' to get down my biggest, deepest round cast iron skillet and make up a mess of cornbread!

My wife is the real cook. I just do Mountain, Country, Southern, and Amish cooking. That works for me!

Enjoy your evening!

Quakertrucker

@Quakertrucker It sounds wonderful! Thanks for the explanation. Happy to inspire you as well. :)

@Quakertrucker You have me interested for sure. I am not fond of ham or shanks, but I would try it. Thanks.

@Quakertrucker That is some pot rack! And a really nice kitchen built for cooking. Great job. Before the cast iron skillets, what is the one with the 7 compartments for? I can almost smell cooking food. Thank you again!

@PoetryNEmotion

It is a cast iron skillet for making corn pone or corn sticks. As I explained, the lighting aimed at the pot rack itself being poor, details don't show up.

The 7 slots are designed to make corn sticks shaped like ears of corn. The ends of the slots taper inward like ears of corn, and the slots also have individual indentations showing all of the individual kernals of corn.

I have a couple other similar cast iron items that can't be hung.

If you are at all tempted, check out a recipe for "Soup Beans". Be sure to put the search in quotes or you will get just recipes for bean soup. You might even check out a Southern site like "Southern Living" magazine for the recipe.

Obviously, you don't want to make the quantity that I am tonight - at least until you decide whether you like the dish.

By the way, the round cast iron skillet with the eight wedges is to make eight individual wedge-shaped slabs if cornbread.

We worship cornbread in the South. I bet some Southern
Baptist or Pentecostal churches probably use it for Communion!

Best wishes and good luck!

Quakertrucker

@Quakertrucker I used to read Southern Living when I lived in Texas. Thanks for all the interesting info. Take care.