New Year’s Day food traditions in the South always bring a smile around our camp.
She Who Must Be Obeyed and I were both raised in Southern homes, which meant the New Year’s Day menu always included blacked eyed peas at a bare minimum, and usually the full court press Southern menu to ring the New Year in right.
That meant there was some form of pork on the table (pigs root forward symbolizing progress, and a rich pork meal signified wealth and prosperity in the old days) – typically a ham or thick-cut chops, the revered black eye peas (you’ve heard the story of ‘cowpeas’ saving the South’s starving families as the North stormed through) and some form of greens (symbolic of economic fortune).
There are other foods thought to stack the tables of good fortune in your favor (round or ring shaped cakes for instance), but the Southern table wouldn’t have been complete without a golden round of cornbread (like this cast iron skillet cornbread) hot out of the oven.
But SWMBO’s favorite cornbread recipe, first baked in our kitchen thirty years ago according to her notes (damn, how can that be right?), is this southwestern version we’re calling the Hot Damn New Year Corn Muffin in honor of the turn of the calendar in two days.
These muffins are sheer heaven right out of the oven, make a killer breakfast the next morning, and have floated in our drifters and rafts over the years in NM, CO, UT, WY, MT, and ID at one time or another. Easy enough for a kid to make and befitting any spread you’ll lay out for a company dinner – you can’t go wrong with these.
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup white flour
Scant 1/3 cup sugar
1 scant tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt1/2 cup plain yogurt (or 1 cup if not using buttermilk)
1/2 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup if not using yogurt)
8 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup grated sharp cheddar or spicy pepper jack cheese
1 cup corn
1/2 cup diced pimentos or roasted red peppers (from a jar)
1/2 cup roasted green chiles, diced
1/4 cup roasted jalapenos OR
1-2 fresh stemmed, seeded and diced jalapeno or fresno chiles
Preheat your trusty oven to 400; grease a full sized muffin tin.
Combine the first 5 (dry) ingredients in a mixing bowl; make a well in the center.
Spoon in the yogurt and/or buttermilk, melted butter and egg; stir only until just combined.
Gently fold in the cheese, corn, pimentos, green chiles and jalapenos until just combined.
Fill the muffin tin cups 2/3’s full with batter; bake until golden and done for 20-23 minutes. Cool at least 5 minutes in the pan before removing.
Guarantee you can’t eat just one, and they’re awesome with big pat of butter right out of the oven or at room temperature.
Enjoy.
