Southwestern Spoon Bread

This recipe is from Creative Cook's Kitchen publication. MAIN DISH IDEA: To turn this into a main dish, add some cooked chopped chorizo sausage or leftover diced beef, chicken or pork to the batter. For single servings, spoon batter into mini casserole dishes and reduce baking time. SPICE IT UP: Turn up the heat by adding a pinch of chili powder to the batter. VARIATIONS: Make it Tex-Mex by serving it with chili. Make it Southern by serving it with Fried Chicken instead of biscuits.

• Ready In: 55 mins
• Serves: 6
• Yields: 1 cornbread

Ingredients

• 1 1⁄2 cups water
• 1 1⁄2 cups half-and-half
• 1  cup  coarse yellow cornmeal
• 1⁄4 cup  chopped fresh cilantro or 1⁄4 cup parsley
• 1  teaspoon salt
• 1  small tomatoes, seeded and chopped (about 1/2 cup)
• 1  small  jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
• 1⁄4 cup butter, softened
• 4  large eggs, separated

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Grease a medium casserole dish.
3. In a large saucepan, bring water to a boil over high heat, then reduce to low heat.
4. In a small bowl, combine the next 6 ingredients, then whisk the mixture into the hot water.
5. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and bubbles, about 5 minutes.
6. Stir in butter.
7. In a small bowl, whisk egg yolks.
8. Then, whisk half-and-half mixture, a little at a time, into the egg yolks.
9. Whisk egg yolk mixture into the saucepan.
10. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture bubbles again, about 2 minutes, then remove from heat.
11. In a large bowl, whisk egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold egg whites into half-and-half mixture. Try to use a rubber spatula to do this, and fold until just blended.
12. Pour mixture into prepared casserole dish, and bake until golden brown,about 40 minutes. A knife inserted into center should come out clean.