Beans and Cornbread: Made in Heaven

I love pinto beans and cornbread. Love. Like romantically, passionately, almost feel like I'm cheating on my wife every time I eat it love. I come by this love honestly and doubly.

First, I was born and raised in rural Tennessee. Beans and cornbread are practically the state dish here, and for good reason. It's dirt cheap to make. Dried beans are one of the cheapest things you can buy. Flour, corn meal, milk, eggs, and flour are already staples of any respectable southern cook's pantry. If you were poor, and just about everyone where I grew up was, you had beans and cornbread just about every day.

Second, I was raised in the United Methodist Church. For those who aren't Methodists, particularly southern Methodists, you have to understand something about our particular brand of the Christian faith. We firmly believe that Foodliness is next to Godliness. We have church socials like some churches have Sunday school. We sometimes call it "fellowshipping", sometimes "feed the preacher day" and sometimes "the holy stuffit buffet". Whatever you call it, you can be sure that someone would bring a big pot of pintos and a platter filled with skillet cornbread. Cornbread is practically our communion wafer, pinto bean juice our wine. Beans and cornbread were such an omnipresent part of my weekly Sunday ritual that it's no surprise that they've almost developed a holy mental association for me.

Now, since I'm talking so much about God today, let me talk a little bit about Satan as well. In the case of pinto beans and cornbread, "Satan" disguises himself with the name "Sugar"...

That's right. Putting sugar in cornbread is a sin that will get you immediately ex-communicated from any Southern church fellowship dinner. The 11th commandment, had there been room for it on the tablet, would have been "thou shalt not put no sugar in thy cornbread!" I'm convinced of it. This may surprise my Northern readers. Having married a New Yorker, I understand the abuse you all suffered at the hands of well-meaning Northern cooks who learned from their mothers who learned from their mothers to turn the holy goodness that is cornbread into a sweet corny cake of sorts, unsuitable for putting in beans, dunking in a glass of buttermilk, or eating in any way.

It's ok. You can reform your wicked ways. Consider this a culinary mission trip. Step away from your sugar bowl and follow the instructions below to make a standard southern cornbread, with a slight twist. I've given it a spin by adding Sriracha Chili Sauce. The result is the cornbread southerners know and love, with a little bit of kick.

Ingredients:
1 C. Flour
1 C. Cornmeal
1.5 C. Buttermilk
.5 C. Canola Oil
1.5 tsp. Baking Powder
2 large eggs
1 tbsp. Sriracha Chili Sauce

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 425.
Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
Add the eggs, then the canola oil, the buttermilk, and the Sriracha
Stir all ingredients together until thoroughly mixed.
Spray a cast iron skillet with cooking spray. **
Pour the mixture into the skillet and place in oven
Cook for 25 minutes. Take out and test for doneness by poking a knife into the center. If the knife comes out clean, the cornbread is done. If not, add for another 10 minutes and repeat.
Cut and serve with pinto beans.

**If you don’t have a cast iron skillet, this can be made in a pyrex dish but you won’t get the crusty ends that are the heart of true southern cornbread.