Cornmeal Side Dish For Christmas Ham

Not everyone serves turkey or perhaps, like us, you will be offering both at your over-laden table. Why not? Hmmmm

This is for a cornmeal spoon bread and is really a great side dish. It is easy to make and quick as well. Why letting the ham rest, getting the other food together, this can be baking. Just be sure to let this sit for about 5 minutes after removing from the oven to let it ‘settle’.

• 5 tbsp. unsalted butter at room temperature
• 4 cups of milk
• 1 cup of fine ground white cornmeal (can use regular cornmeal)
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 4 eggs, separated
• 1/8 tsp. cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 1 1/2 quart casserole (soufflé) dish with 2 tbsp. butter and set aside.

Heat milk in a saucepan until just starting to simmer. Slowly whisk in the cornmeal , and continue whisking until it begins to pulls away from the sides of the pan. Remove from the heat and let stand for 10 minutes. Beat in the salt, sugar and 3 tbsp. butter. Beat in the yolks now until well blended. Set aside.

Beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form in a clean bowl. FOLD into the cornmeal, 1/3 of the whites to ‘loosen’ the mixture. Continue to fold in the remainder carefully.

Bake for 30 minutes until puffed and golden. Enjoy. You could drizzle a little maple syrup over the top before serving. Just sayin’.