Chili Pie and Muffuletta Pizza

I’d mentioned a while back that we were trying to eat our big meal in early afternoon and go lighter in the evening. I didn’t blog about it because it was pretty much our standard, which I’d posted about previously, but we made a pot of chili the other day. The only differences were that I intended to use a blend of 2# of venison and 3# of ground beef, except the three packages of beef I used were 2# each verses the 1# in my mind. I ended up using about 40% more meat than normal and we all thought it was great – a mistake spawns a recipe change.

So for the main meal, it was one of Bev’s favorite uses for leftover chili - chili pie - which she usually makes by putting her normal cornbread recipe on the bottom, pouring the chili on top and letting the cornbread rise to the top as it cooks. This method works great and makes an excellent dish, but for today, she decided to use her Mexican cornbread recipe, which includes onions, peppers, and corn. As I was typing this, while she was cooking, it occurred to me that the cornbread ingredients wouldn’t necessarily rise to the top along with the bread so she decided it would be best to put the chili in the skillet first and top with the cornbread. I thought I’d previously posted the cornbread recipe, but couldn’t find it, so this is it. It came from a friend and it’s been a favorite of all who have tried it.

MEXICAN CORNBREAD
Carol Myers
Makes 12” skillet full

2 cup self rising corn meal mix
3 lg Eggs, lightly beaten
2/3 cup Vegetable oil
1 sml Onion, finely chopped
1 sml Green pepper, finely chopped
1 cup Cheese, shredded
1 cup Buttermilk
½ tsp Baking soda
1 ea Jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely diced
1 cup Whole kernel corn, drained

1. Preheat oven to 400F and warm greased cast iron skillet.
2. Mix together meal, eggs, oil, soda, and buttermilk.
3. Stir in other ingredients.
4. Bake until top is browned and toothpick pulls out cleanly.

For this dish, she made just a half recipe and since she didn’t have any corn, she chopped up some canned hominy – she’s more creative than me.

It would have looked better had I cut it with a knife, but we just dipped it out.

And for supper, it ended up being a little heavier than I intended.  I’d mentioned earlier, we brought back a jar of olive salad from the Central Grocery in Nawlins and I made a sandwich with it the other day. Since this was supposed to be our lighter evening meal, I wanted to use less bread and opted for the same ingredients but on a piece of Naan bread. I spread a coating of the olive salad on the bread, topped with sliced provolone then, added the julienned meat – mortadella, ham, and salami, and a little chopped green onion. I popped it in the toaster oven until the cheese was melted and here’s the result, which Bev and I split.  Here it is with just the olive salad.

Ready for the oven.

Ready to eat.

Some time back, I tried making an omelet  from a smoked salmon pizza recipe and cooking really diminished the flavors. This on the only hand turned out really good and Bev’s first comment was “I like this better than a muffuletta.” Of course she thought the Central Grocery sandwich was just ok, but I thought the pizza was delicious as well, with all of the flavors standing up to or being improved by the heat. I heated it in the toaster oven at 350* for about 12 minutes then used the toast feature for a few more minutes. The bread got very lightly crusted, the cheese was melted and the meat was warmed through. I could have added more items, but I’d already deviated form the recipe with the onions, although a last minute addition of another layer of cheese on top would have fit ok. I guess what I had was a heated and open-faced muffuletta and in the near future I’ll have to try heating the normal sandwich.  Even though I read somewhere that it's considered blasphemy to heat a muffuletta, it's probably ok to do so with an Italian meat and cheese with olive salad sandwich :-).  
Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry