starches
Posted by elliemay on March 17, 2006

I have always been pretty strict in my cooking about serving a protein, a starch and a vegetable (which nearly always has to be something green) with every meal. Unlike the typical American meat and potatoes and peas, my meals tend more towards curried chickpeas with rice and okra or seared halibut with pesto pasta and sautéed snap peas. Lately, I have been feeling a bit limited with my starches. Which am I going to serve tonight – potatoes, rice or pasta? It’s getting boring. This week, I tried something new from my Tom Douglas cookbook – cornbread pudding! This is one of his famous dishes. You take cubes of cornbread, caramelized onions, fresh herbs (I used sage and thyme), and grated dry jack cheese (or high-quality parmesan) and cover it with a basic egg and cream custard and bake until set. Yum! I made it in individual ramekins rather than one big pan as the recipe suggested. This is a great way to use up that second half pan of cornbread that I always have leftover. While this could technically take the place of both starch and protein, I served it as the starch alongside roasted salmon with grilled shiitake relish and stir-fried broccoli with lemon zest and pine nuts.