Z’Tejas Style Cornbread

January is its own kind of discipline. The garden is empty, the wild onions are underground, the deer season is closed, and the kitchen has to work with what is in the freezer and what is in the pantry — the stored and the preserved and the dried and the frozen, all the things you laid up in October so that January would not be a problem. January is not a problem. The freezer is full. The pantry has dried corn and dried beans and dried chiles and the wild onions I dried in the fall the way Danny's grandmother dried them. We are fine in January. Danny's grandmother knew what she was doing and by extension so do I.

Kai is in kindergarten. I keep saying pre-K but he moved up in August and he is in kindergarten now, Cherokee-language-integrated kindergarten, and he is reading simple words, both English and Cherokee syllabary characters that Miss Janet taught them before Christmas. He brings home worksheets and reads them to me at the kitchen table in a voice that is not entirely sure of itself but is absolutely sure of its commitment to getting it right. He read a sentence in Cherokee last week. He did not know what all the words meant but he read them, which means the sounds are in his mouth and the symbols are in his eyes and the words will come.

Luna is twenty-two months old and she has been saying words at a rate that requires me to update my estimate of her vocabulary weekly. She knows "wado" — thank you, in Cherokee, the word we have been saying to her since she was six months old. She says it when you give her food, when you hand her something, when you pick her up. She says it correctly, with the slight elongation on the second syllable. She learned it the way she learns everything: by watching and waiting and then doing it exactly right the first time.

I made bean bread on Sunday. The kitchen smells like cooked beans and cornmeal and something that is almost warmth, almost earth, almost winter provision. This is what January is for.

Bean bread is cornmeal and cooked beans and patience, and Sunday was the right day for it. This cornbread recipe is not identical to what came out of that kitchen — nothing written down ever quite is — but it carries the same instinct: dried things reconstituted by heat, pantry staples doing serious work, a result that smells like warmth and earth and the good sense of people who knew how to lay up enough for January. Make it in cast iron if you have it. Luna will want the corner piece.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 45 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

1 cup yellow cornmeal, stone-ground if available
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 cup cooked pinto or October beans, drained (canned works; home-cooked from dried is better)
1 cup whole buttermilk
2 large eggs
1/4 cup honey
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
1 jalapeño, seeded and finely diced (optional)
1/2 cup sharp cheddar, shredded (optional)

Instructions

Preheat and prep the pan. Preheat your oven to 400°F. Place a 10-inch cast iron skillet on the center rack while the oven heats. This is what gives the crust its character.
Mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt, and smoked paprika until evenly combined.
Smash the beans. In a separate bowl, roughly mash the cooked beans with a fork — you want texture, not paste. About half the beans should remain mostly whole. Stir in the buttermilk, eggs, and honey until combined.
Combine wet and dry. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until just combined. Do not overmix. Fold in the jalapeño and cheddar if using.
Butter the hot pan. Carefully remove the skillet from the oven. Add 2 tablespoons of butter and swirl to coat the bottom and sides — it will sizzle. Pour the batter in immediately.
Bake. Return the skillet to the oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The edges will pull slightly from the pan.
Rest and serve. Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter over the top as soon as it comes out of the oven. Let it rest 5 minutes before cutting. Serve warm, directly from the skillet.

Nutrition (per serving)

Z’Tejas Style Cornbread — The Bread That Keeps January Honest