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Jim Dixon wrote about food for WW for more than 20 years, but these days most of his time is spent at his olive oil-focused specialty food business Wellspent Market. Jim’s always loved to eat, and he encourages his customers to cook by sending them recipes every week through his newsletter. We’re happy to have him back creating some special dishes just for WW readers.
Basically a soufflélike cornbread so soft it must be eaten with a spoon, spoonbread tastes much better than its goofy name implies. It also carries some history. Indigenous tribes showed the first colonists how to cook native corn and kept them from starving. Enslaved Africans like Jefferson’s chef James Hemings applied European technique to cornmeal to make it more palatable. Southern food writer John Egerton wrote that the evolution of cornbread was “similar to studying history through fossils,” and that spoonbread offered proof of the “perfectibility of humankind.”
Culinary hyperbole aside, a skillet of puffy spoonbread looks great and tastes even better. It starts with good whole grain cornmeal cooked briefly in a combination of milk and cream. Traditionally, butter boosted the flavor, but I use extra virgin olive oil instead; either or a combination of both works well. This version gets amplified with collard greens slow-cooked with bacon; sharp cheddar and Parmigiano cheeses add another flavor note. Egg yolks make it even richer, and beating the whites captures the air that makes it soft and spoonable.
Note: I prefer to cook an entire bunch of greens even though it makes more than you need for the spoonbread. Save the rest and eat them with a bowl of beans another night.
Recipe
1 bunch collard greens, chopped
1 shallot, chopped
2-3 slices bacon, cut into smallish pieces
1 cup cornmeal, preferably stoneground whole grain
1 teaspoon kosher-style sea salt
2 cups milk
1 cup cream
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
½ cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated
¼ cup olive oil plus more to grease the skillet
4 eggs, separated
Cook the shallot and bacon in a little olive oil over medium heat until the bacon just starts to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the greens and about 1 cup of water, cover, reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook for about 40 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Combine the cornmeal, salt, milk, and cream in a saucepan and bring gently to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring often, until it thickens, about 15 minutes. Stir in the grated cheese, about 1½ cups of the cooked greens, and the olive oil. Let cool for 10–15 minutes, then add the egg yolks.
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, then gently stir about ⅓ into the cornmeal mix. Fold in the rest of the whites. Grease an 8–to–9–inch skillet with a little more olive oil, then add the batter. Bake at 350 F for about 45 minutes or until the top is nicely browned. Serve immediately.