Jalapeño cornbread with poached egg

Kirsty is studying at Central St. Martins in London so her stomping ground is around King’s Cross. This is a trendy, sometimes quirky part of London, becoming even more so with the influx of really cool businesses being attracted by CSM. Kirsty’s college opens onto Granary square, and one of the restaurants there is called “Caravan.” They are well known for their all day breakfasts and innovative ideas. This is my take on an idea I got from looking at their menu online.

Cornbread is not native to St. Lucia, but we do make use of cornmeal quite extensively through the Caribbean. I am reminded of a very old Calypso that had the line…”crab and callaloo is sweeter than flying fish and coo coo” This is making fun of one of the national dishes of Barbados which is the flying fish, and coo coo is cornmeal cooked like a “pone” or in other words, solid enough to be sliced.

Jalapeño peppers too are not native to St. Lucia but we do get them from time to time. You can tell in the photo below that my peppers had been in the freezer. I have found that all peppers which are destined to be chopped and cooked in with something seem to keep beautifully in the freezer and come out smiling. I’m not sure they would work so well if you needed them to turn up “fresh faced” in a recipe though. You could substitute another pepper here like a green chilli or seasoning peppers. It just needs to be something which will not blow your socks off.

Serves 4

150g (1 c) cornmeal

70g (1/2 c) spelt flour

70g (1/2 c) fresh corn kernels (I cut mine off a fresh corn cob)

2 tsp baking powder

dash salt

1 medium jalapeño pepper finely chopped

1 beaten egg

1/2 c plain yogurt

1/2 c milk

50g melted butter (more for cooking)

small bunch of coriander

Mix all the dry ingredients together. Mix all the wet ingredients together and throw in the chopped jalapeño.  Bring the two together, mixing thoroughly but being careful not to over work. Heat up some butter in your large frying pan and ladle in approximately 1/4 c for each cornbread. You will need to spread the batter out slightly keeping a nice round shape. Don’t go too thin though, they are supposed to be a bit chunky.

While you are cooking the cornbreads, heat up the water for the poached eggs. Please read the section in Sunday, green and sunny side up, for the technique on poaching eggs, and before you do, remember it really is easy peasy. The coriander is a bit more than a garnish. It actively contributes to the taste so don’t eliminate it if at all possible.

While I was lovingly assembling my poached egg/cornbread concoction, an idea popped into my head which I simply had to act on, which is, these very same cornbread served with maple syrup. So kind reader, you have got 2 breakfast ideas for the price of 1. They were delicious and filling both ways. Go easy on the maple syrup though as we want to avoid blood sugar spikes as much as possible for health.