To me, September should be, and I’m glad to report so far has been, full of corn. Most evenings involve stripping away husks, briefly boiling, then rolling cobs in golden puddles of butter and coarsely ground black pepper. Poking the little wooden corn forks into the side of the cobs brings me an unreasonable amount of joy.
In an effort to make the most of corn season, beyond boiled and buttered iterations, I have turned to cornbread. My platonic ideal of cornbread is distinctly savoury. It’s flecked with chilli and chives. It’s crowned with a seedy kernel topping for texture. It’s tender and light, but holds together when sliced. It’s delicious served as is, but even more so with a smear of soft butter and an extra sprinkle of flaky salt. Because if my boiled and buttered corn evenings have taught me anything, it’s that corn loves butter. Almost as much as I do.
Cheddar, green chilli and chive cornbread
For any discerning, longstanding subscribers with a memory far better than mine, you may notice that this is ~ in spirit ~ a combination of the corn on the cob with green chilli, lime and nigella seed butter (from late summer last year), and the courgette, chive and cheddar soda bread (from early summer last year). If I may say so, I think this combination is even greater than the sum of its two ~ spiritual ~ parts, and I hope you’ll agree.