Corn pudding is one of those old family recipes that has been enjoyed for almost every holiday meal and on special occasions since the end of time. I have tried many recipes through the years, but have always come back to this one.
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It is quite simply the best, most delicious corn pudding ever. And no small wonder. It's grandmother's recipe. It uses all natural ingredients. No mix required.
I will apologise up front for the lack of appealing photos. There is no way to make this look even half as good as it tastes.
I hope that doesn't put you off. I will tell you that this is quite simply the best recipe and you can then make up your own mind.
Let me tell you why I keep coming back to this recipe. Other's that I have tried have ended up being too soggy or creamy, with a texture I was not fond of.
This one is somewhere in between a soufflé and a cornbread. It holds its shape when you take it out of the dish, and you can fry the leftovers in a bit of butter for breakfast the next morning.
Plus with two kinds of corn, as well as cornmeal, you get plenty of full on corn flavor! Its just really yummy.
A bit sweet, nice and buttery, totally delicious!
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE GRANDMOTHER'S CORN PUDDING
There is nothing out of the ordinary here and if you are like me and always have cornmeal, corn niblets and cream style corn in your larder you will always have the makings of this delicious casserole!
- all purpose plain flour
- granulated sugar
- butter (I just use regular salted)
- large free range eggs
- yellow cornmeal (Not the self rising one. In the UK you can use coarse polenta)
- Sour cream (there is a time for low fat, this is NOT one of them)
- Full fat milk (again, see above)
- baking powder
- salt
- whole kernel sweet corn niblets, drained
- cream style sweet corn
I have a great affection for sweet corn, although now in my later years it doesn't always sit well with me. *ahem* I eat it anyways and pay for it later.
I ADORE cream-style corn. I could eat it cold right out of the can. Call me crazy if you will.
Another thing I really like about this sweet corn pudding is that it does not require the use of a corn bread muffin mix. This is something which has never been easily available where I have lived.
I have always had to source it via mail order, or an expensive online American grocery supplier. If I am going to have to use an expensive corn bread muffin mix, I want it to go into something which I enjoy.
HOW TO MAKE GRANDMOTHER'S CORN PUDDING
This is really simple and quick to throw together. I find that if you gather all of the elements ahead and have them mis en place, it goes together in a jiffy!
First preheat your oven to 325*F/160*C. Also you will need a 13 by 9 inch baking pan or casserole dish. Butter it really well so that nothing sticks.
Whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt, ready to add together at the end. Set it aside. Whisking them together like this helps to distribute the baking powder evenly.
You need to cream room temperature butter with some sugar until it is light and fluffy. I use my electric hand mixer for this.
Once you have done that you can start beating in the eggs. I do this one at a time. If your mixture starts to look curdled, you can beat in a tiny bit of the flour mixture to bring it back together.
Beat in the sour cream. I always use full fat for this casserole. Its a casserole that is meant to be served as a part of an occasion and I cannot attest to the results if you use low fat. But if you do use low fat and it works, do let us know! Thanks!
Once you have all of that mixed together, it is time to add your flour mixture and your milk (again full fat.) I usually do this by hand, using a wooden spoon.
I do it like I would do for a cake, making three dry and two wet additions, beginning and ending with the flour. It will start to rise right away, but don't worry, that's normal and you're almost done.
To finish off you fold in both cans of corn. Make sure you drain the whole kernel corn really well. Just fold it in until you have mixed it all in evenly.
Pour into the prepared baking pan and bake it uncovered in your preheated oven until you have a lovely light brown, set mixture. This smells really good when it is baking.
Leave it to cool in your pan for about 10 minutes before cutting into squares to serve.
You could probably cut the recipe in half successfully, but it is meant to really be enjoyed when you have a nice crowd around your table, and you will have to figure out what to do with the other halves of your cans of corn.
I never mind having leftovers of this as they are really delicious cut into squares and fried in butter the next day for breakfast. With some maple syrup drizzled over top there is nothing tastier! (I know I am such a glutton!)
I am not sure if you can freeze this or not. There has never been enough of it leftover to put that to the test.
We love to enjoy this with baked beans and ham. But its also good with turkey, pork, beef, chicken, etc. I enjoy it any which way I can get it!
Grandmother's Corn Pudding
Yield: 8
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 50 MinTotal time: 1 Hour
This recipe is perfect for the holidays and is especially great served with roasts of any kind. We love it with ham and beans. Best of all it uses ingredients we all have in our homes most of the time. Simple, simple, delicious!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (120g) butter at room temperature
- 1/2 cup + 2TBS (124g) sugar
- 2 large free range eggs at room temperature
- 1 cup (120g) full fat sour cream
- 1/2 cup + 1 TBS (150g)plain all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (85g)yellow cornmeal
- 1 TBS baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (120ml) whole milk
- 1 can (15 1/4 ounces/425g) whole kernel sweet corn, drained
- 1 can(14 3/4 ounces/420g) cream-style corn
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325*F/160&C/ gas mark 3. Butter a 9 by 13 inch pan really well and set aside.
- Whisk the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt together in a bowl and set aside.
- Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. (5 to 7 minutes) Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the sour cream. Stir in the dry ingredients, alternately with the milk, making three dry and two wet additions.
- Fold in the corn and the cream corn until everything is combined. pour into the prepared pan, shaking slightly to even it out.
- Bake in the preheated oven, uncovered, for 50 to 60 minutes until lightly golden. Leave to cool in the baking dish for about 10 minutes, then serve cut into squares.
I am really excited to be able to share this recipe for a cheese and olive bread with you. I have had the ingredients at the ready to make it for a few days now, and today was the day!
The original recipe comes from that cookery book I shared with you the other day, The Vintage Church Cookbook. In fact it was one of the first recipes in this delicious book that caught my eye!
Church cookbooks are always filled with the best recipes I think. Most people who share a recipe to be inserted into a church cookbook share only their absolute favorite and best recipes.
Recipes which other people have favorited through the years and which are family favorites. As with a Junior League type of cookbook, or a community cookbook, a church cookbook is filled with real pleasers!
I had some really old church/community cookbooks in my possession when I was in the UK. I had been collecting them for years. Unfortunately I had to leave them all behind when I moved back to Canada last year.
Its okay. I have no doubt that someone picked them up in the charity shop they were taken to and are now enjoying them as much as I did. Or at least I hope that they are!
It would be impossible for me to replace them anyways. Most are no longer available and the cost of doing so is prohibitive. I did find this book however and took a chance on it.
I am glad that I did. It is filled with real gems such as this recipe I am sharing today. Olive Bread makes a great side dish for any kind of a meal as well as a wonderful appetizer for holiday get-togethers!
It reminds me very much of some of the appetizers I used to make for the dinner parties I prepared and cooked for when I was cooking at the Manor.
Albeit for those occasions the olive spread would have been placed onto smaller bite sized squares of bread, in fitting with dinner party appetizer fare!
I used to make a similar one which was very much like this with the exception of there being no garlic, and no olives. You cannot risk garlic breath or black olives between the teeth when millionaires are getting together! The Mrs. used to call those occasions "networking."
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE OLIVE BREAD
Not a long list of ingredients is needed to make this delicious party/dinner fare!
- butter (I use regular salted)
- mayonnaise (use full fat, not light)
- garlic powder (do NOT use garlic salt)
- grated Italian 4 cheese blend
- spring onions (also called scallions or green onions)
- black olives (both sliced and chopped)
- a loaf of French bread (I used a whole grain seeded one today, and it was fabulous)
If I was doing this as an appetizer I would cut the bread into much smaller pieces, but cut like this into sixteen it is perfectly suitable to serve either as a side bread to an Italian meal, or even as a snack bread for those game or footie nights!
What I love most about it (other than its deliciousness) is the ease of preparation! This is a truly simple make!
HOW TO MAKE OLIVE BREAD
Nothing could be easier to make than this delicious bread. If you can turn on a stove, stir together and spread, then you can make this!
It really is that simple!
You begin by preheating the oven to a moderate temperature. I used a small baking sheet, but I lined it with some aluminum foil for ease of clean up.
You will need a regular sized loaf of French Bread. Mine was about 12 inches long and 3 inches wide. A full sized baguette as they would call it in the UK. Mine was also a whole grain baguette and it was delicious.
The baguette needs to be sliced horizontally in half through the middle. Place the two halves on your baking sheet.
You can thinly slice the spring onions, or chop it. I cut mine in half lengthwise and then cut them into thin slices across.
I used one small bag of sliced black olives (Unico). Half of the bag I left in slices and the other half was chopped finer.
I also used a ready grated blend of four Italian cheeses.
The recipe does use rather a large amount of butter, which if you don't mind a bit of an indulgence works well. I think personally that you could get away with half the amount and still have a very delicious bread.
Everything simply gets stirred together to combine and then spread onto the French bread halves evenly.
It then gets baked in a moderate oven until the cheese gets all melty and gooey. I did bake mine for slightly longer than the recipe suggested. I wanted crisper edges on mine.
You can also pop it underneath the grill/broiler if you want it to be golden brown.
As with most cheesy things such as this, it is best to let it sit for 8 minutes or so before cutting into it. If you cut it right out of the oven, you risk the topping sliding right off. So do resist for a tiny while.
If you do, your reward will be lovely, indulgent, cheesy, rich, and crispy slices of gooey deliciousness! Very moreish and slightly salty from those meaty black olives. Oh my, but this was some good.
I think it would be excellent served with soups or salads as well as next to pasta dishes or stews. And of course, it would make a great snack for game nights, or (cut into smaller pieces) a perfectly delicious appetizer for all occasions!
Olive Bread
Yield: 16 slices
Prep time: 5 MinCook time: 18 Mininactive time: 8 MinTotal time: 31 Min
A fabulously delicious bread that is just as comfortable as a side dish for a special meal as it is cut into thinnish slices/cubes and served as an appetizer. Perfect for the holidays!
Ingredients
- 8 TBS (115g) butter, softened
- 1/4 cup (60g) full fat mayonnaise
- 1 tsp garlic powder (not salt)
- 2 spring onions, trimmed and thinly sliced
- 2 cups (170g) grated Italian four cheese blend
- 1/4 cup (45g)sliced black olives
- 1/4 cup (45g) chopped black olives
- 1 loaf of French bread, halved lengthwise
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/gas mark 4. Have ready a medium sized baking sheet.
- Whip together the butter and mayonnaise until smooth and creamy.
- Mix in the garlic powder, cheese, onions and olives.
- Place the halves of the French bread on the baking sheet. Spread half of the cheese mixture over each piece of bread evenly.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the cheese has melted and set.
- Leave to sit for 5 to 8 minutes and then cut into slices to serve.
Notes:
If you want you can pop it under the broiler for a minute or two to get a crisper golden brown top.
Pork chops are not something I eat very often now that I am on my own. I used to cook them more when I had a man around the house. Men like chops.
Now I am just one, I mostly eat chicken or fish, or no meat at all. I was in the grocery store earlier today and they had some lovely looking chops marked down as they needed to be cooked and eaten today, so I could not resist.
I often buy my meat when it is marked down like that. There is nothing wrong with it. You simply need to either cook it on the day or freeze it today and cook it on the day when you do thaw it out.
Today I bought a package of chops with four in it (I froze half), a strip loin steak and a prime rib steak, all marked down 30%. That was considerable savings for me. I consider that a win! Of course I froze most of it!
This recipe today is for deliciously tender pork chops with pepper gravy, a creamy pepper gravy. The same type of cream gravy that you might enjoy on biscuits with sausage.
The chops are perfectly cooked, well flavored and spiced. The cream gravy is rich and the perfect accompaniment. Together they are excellent eating!
Long gone are the days when pork needs to be cooked to death. When I was a child my mother whenever my mother was cooking pork chops she would cook them until they were almost inedible.
For what seems like forever, people overcooked and ate dry, tough pork. They did so for good reasons.
Trichanella spiralis is the culprit for the previous believed need for higher temperature requirements for cooking pork. Trichanella spiralis is a parasite that was historically found in pigs.
The parasite invaded the muscle and was transferred through eating under cooked meat. The good news is it has been virtually eliminated from modern pig populations.
The other good news is that it is killed when cooked to 137*F/58.33*C. The new cooking guidelines for pork chops allow for juicier pork, resulting in a much more enjoyable eating experience.
Seriously you could have shingled roofs with my mother's chops!
Most people buy boneless loin chops when they buy pork chops. Mostly because they are lean and people are into lower fat food these days.
I don't eat pork chops very often and so I prefer to buy and cook bone in chops. They taste much better, have the perfect ration of fat to lean and as a result taste better, cook up nicer and have much more flavor. They are also far less likely to be dry than the boneless chops.
WHAT YOU NEED TO COOK PORK CHOPS WITH CREAM GRAVY
You will be surprised at just how simple this list of ingredients is!
- butter
- flour
- dried basil
- montreal steak spice
- salt and pepper
- bone in pork rib cut loin chops
- milk
I like to use Center Cut Loin Chops most of the time. They are generally a bit larger than other chops and contain most times, a nice little nugget of the tenderloin.
When I can't get them, I use the next best thing, the Pork Loin End Chop. They are basically the same thing, but that little nugget of tenderloin is missing.
Both are excellent cuts and, when properly cooked, give you a chop that is tender and delicious.
I also like to slash the fatty edge of my chops before I cook them. If there is a lot of fat I will trim most of it off, but you do want to leave some.
I then use a pair of sharp kitchen scissors to slash the fatty edge of the chops at 1/3 inch intervals. This helps to prevent the chops from curling up when you cook them.
If you always do this, your chops will lay flat for cooking on both sides, giving you even browning surfaces.
HOW TO COOK PORK CHOPS WITH CREAM GRAVY
I think these are some of the easiest chops to cook. You begin by making an herb and flour mixture which will be used to make the gravy.
Simply whisk the ingredients for that together in a small bowl and set aside.
The chops are rubbed all over with Montreal Steak Spice. You can adjust how much of that you choose to use if you don't like spicy food.
I quite like Montreal Steak Spice and find it imparts a lovely flavor onto most meats you cook with it.
A bit of butter is melted over moderate heat and once it begins to foam you add the chops. Cook first one side and then on the other.
About 7 to 8 minutes per side (depending on the thickness of your chops). At that time they should be golden brown all over and cooked through with just a small amount of pinkness in the centre.
That is when they are perfectly cooked. Take them out of the pan and set aside to rest and keep warm. They will continue to cook upon sitting and be perfection by the time you go to eat.
To make the cream gravy, add some more butter to the drippings in the pan and an amount of black pepper. You heat this to impart that lovely pepperiness to the butter. Once you have done that, whisk in the flour mixture.
You need to cook out the flour taste, so continue to cook and stir this mixture until the flour begins to brown slightly. This only takes a couple of minutes.
Milk is then slowly whisked into the browned flour/butter mixture. Cook and whisk constantly over moderate heat until the mixture bubbles and thickens. Cook for a minute or two longer and your cream gravy is done.
It should be smooth and nicely thick, without being over thick. If you think it is too thick, you can whisk in a bit more milk, whisking it in thoroughly and heating it through.
And that's it, its time to serve your chops with the pepper cream gravy spooned over top!
Today I enjoyed mine with some fluffy mashed potatoes and a nice tossed salad on the side. How will you enjoy yours?
I really want to know!
Pork Chops with Cream Gravy
Yield: 2
Prep time: 5 MinCook time: 35 MinTotal time: 40 Min
Tender, perfectly cooked chops with a lush black pepper cream gravy. These are quite simply delicious.
Ingredients
- 2 tsp all purpose plain flour
- 3/4 tsp dried basil
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 TBS butter
- 2 (i-inch thick) bone in pork loin chops, fatty edge slashed
- 1/2 tsp Montreal steak seasoning
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 cup (120ml) whole milk
- parsley flakes to garnish
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, basil and salt together in a bowl. Set aside.
- Rub the steak seasoning onto the chops on both sides. Melt half the butter in a heavy bottomed skillet over medium high heat. Add the chops. Cook for 7 to 10 minutes per side, until golden brown and cooked through but still slightly pink in the center. (A meat thermometer should read 145*F/63*C.)
- Remove the chops from the pan and keep warm.
- Add the remaining butter to the pan, along with the black pepper. Cook and stir for a minutes, scraping up any meat juices, etc. Add the flour mixture to the pan and cook for a few minutes until it begins to lightly brown.
- Slowly whisk in the milk. Cook, whisking constantly until the mixture bubbles and thickens. Cook at a slow simmer for at least two minutes.
- Serve the chops hot with some of the gravy spooned over top. Delicious!
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