Easy Southwest Corn Pudding

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When we went on a huge driving trip one year from Denver to Los Angeles and back again, our first stop was at Arches National Park in Utah. In their gift shop was the gorgeous cookbook Seasonal Southwest Cooking. I decided that it would be my one souvenir for the trip, and I’ve made a number of its recipes. The one below has come in very useful whenever I’m feeding a breakfast crowd, as at the Saturday-morning rehearsals of the community chorale to which I belong. People go absolutely nuts over it, and it’s vegetarian and gluten-free! So almost everyone is a crowd can eat it. Highly, highly recommended.

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SOUTHWEST CORN PUDDING

This is the dish I serve at the retreats that everyone likes so much. It is adapted from the world’s most beautiful cookbook, Seasonal Southwest Cooking. I have simplified it quite a bit, using regular old cheese instead of exotic Mexican types and canned chiles instead of fresh ones that have to be roasted and peeled. For our retreats I have made six times the recipe, baking a batch and a half each in a standard half-size chafing-dish pan (about 9" x 11"), therefore making four pansful. The following is the regular size recipe from the book for an 8"x8" pan.

Be sure to read the notes at the end of the recipe, as there are a couple of tweaks that can make a real difference in the outcome.

Course Breakfast
Cuisine Mexican
Servings 9
Debi Simons Debi Simons

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup cornmeal
  • 1/2 tsp . baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp . Salt
  • 1 15- oz . can creamed corn
  • 1/2 cup finely-chopped green onions (These are optional. Frankly, I’m usually throwing this together at the last minute and don’t include it, but I think it would be good. You could also use finely-chopped sauteed onions.)
  • ½ cup finely-chopped red pepper (I have never been well-organized enough to put this in, but I think it would add some nice color and crunch.)
  • 1-2 4-oz. cans diced green chiles, drained,* depending on how hot you want it. (These chiles are pretty mild, so if you want some serious heat you could use jalapenos as well, or some chile powder.)
  • 2 cups grated cheese** (I usually use part Cheddar and part pepper jack and you can certainly put in more cheese than this.
  • 1/2 stick melted butter (The best way to melt butter, and believe me, I’ve melted a lot, is to microwave it on 50% power. This amount should take 45 seconds to 1 minute, depending on how cold it is. See instructions below for more on this procedure. The original recipe calls for a whole stick of butter, which I think makes the pudding a little greasy, and I'm a great butter fan.)
  • 1 cup buttermilk (or you can use buttermilk powder,which is very handy to have on hand and keeps forever in the fridge. If you do use the powder, then mix it in with the dry ingredients above and put a cup of water in here.)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 heaping tsp. taco seasoning, optional, for extra heat

Instructions

  1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

    Here's the easiest way to mix this up, especially if you're doing a big batch:

    Grate the cheese and sprinkle into the bottom of your baking pan. Sprinkle the chopped onions and red pepper, if using, on top of cheese. Stir the dry ingredients together in a small bowl. Put the butter in a medium bowl and microwave at 50% power for about 45 seconds, then beat in the eggs and the buttermilk or water, then the creamed corn. and chiles, then mix in your combined dry ingredients.  Pour that mixture into the prepared pan over the cheese/vegetables, trying not to disturb that layer too much, and bake until set and somewhat brown on top, 35-40 minutes. You can make it a little more custardy by having it still be somewhat jiggly in the center, or you can think of it as more like cornbread and bake until it’s firm. I like it on the softer side, as then it’s more like a spoonbread. (If you're making the bigger batches in the half-size chafing-dish pans, these will need more time to bake--more like an hour.)

Recipe Notes

*I've usually drained the chiles at least somewhat, but the last time I made this I was in a serious hurry and didn't do so. While the casserole was still good, it was a little watery on the bottom. As I thought about it, though, I realized that I didn't want to just throw out that chile liquid because it has flavor. So here's my advice: drain the chiles into the container you're going to use for measuring the buttermilk or water, then add your liquid of choice up to the cup line. I would be fairly vigorous in draining, either pressing down on the chiles with the lid while they're still in the can or putting them into a strainer and pressing down over your cup measure.

**I would stick to the Cheddar/pepper jack combo. I used Mexican queso fresco recently and wasn't really pleased with the results--it came out kind of curdled, and queso fresco is pretty mild. A good sharp Cheddar and the peppery jack cheese have always worked great.