Red Hot Mama's Cornbread

[Guest]

Red Hot Mama's Cornbread

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Mix:
 1 cup stone-ground cornmeal
 1 cup unbleached flour
 1/3 cup sugar
 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
 1/4 teaspoon salt
 3 jalapeno peppers
 2 cups sharp cheddar, shredded

Chop up the jalapeno peppers into tiny pieces. When you chop the peppers, first slice them the long way and remove the seeds and the white skin that holds the seeds in the pepper. Be careful not to put your fingers near your eyes after you have handled the peppers--they can give you a nasty burn! Stir the minced peppers and the shredded cheese into the dry ingredients.

In a small bowl mix:
 1 egg
 1 cup milk

Make a well in the dry ingredients and quickly stir in the egg and milk until the dry ingredients are just moistened. If you stir too much, you'll just develop the gluten in the flour and you'll get tough cornbread.

Put 6 tablespoons of butter in a well-seasoned 9-inch skillet and stick in the oven. When the butter is melted and sizzling, quickly pour the batter into the pan. The cornbread will start to fry around the edges as it hit s the pan. Spread out the batter so that it covers the whole bottom of the pan.

Bake for about 25 minutes.

When the cornbread is baked, flip the bread out of the pan and eat it right away with lots of butter dripping out! If you have to let the bread sit for a few minutes, put it on a wire rack so that the steam doesn't make it soggy. If you don't have a wire rack, put the bread on a plate and stick a butter knife under it and turn the knife on its side so the steam can escape.