ham, butter beans and cornbread bake

There's a fantastic song by The Carolina Chocolate Drops called "Cornbread and Butter Beans." It's a great little diddy about being happy with the simple things in life... good food, good company, the satisfaction of a day's work and making love.

The song came up on one of my itunes playlists the other day and it made me smile and bop like it always does. It also made me want ham and beans, with sweet cornbread to sop it up. The problem was I had not filled the crockpot with Ham & Beans that morning. For shame! But the craving was fierce, so I decided to cheat and make a quick version, and while I was at it, add the cornbread to the dish to make it all-inclusive. The weather has been cold and wet lately, and I want ALL THE CASSEROLES.

Ham, Butter Beans and Cornbread Bake

-1 lb. ham, cubed

-1 cup chicken stock

-2 cans butter beans, drained and rinsed

cornbread topping

-1 1/4 cups whole wheat white flour

-3/4 cup corn meal

-2 teaspoons baking powder

-1/4 cup sugar

-1 cup buttermilk

-1 can cream corn

-1 egg

-salt to taste

Preheat oven to 400ºF. 

Brown the ham cubes in a sauce pan. Add the chicken stock and let simmer for about 20 minutes.

Mix the cornbread ingredients together until well-blended. Set aside.

Add the beans to the ham and chicken stock and let simmer about 5 minutes. Pour the Mixture into a large buttered casserole dish (or 2 smaller dishes). Pour the cornbread mixture on top in an even layer. Bake for about 30 minutes until the cornbread is cooked through. Serve warm.

Do you have a favorite food-related song? Tell me what it is in the comments!

Related posts from the archives:

Chicken Upside-Down Cake

Meatball Whoopie Pie Sliders

Shrimp & Grits Casserole

Barbecue Beef Potpie with Chipotle Masa Crust

Skank Ham Pie

English Hot Pot

Ham Stir-Fry

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Ham and Walnuts

kimchee pickled quail eggs

This is almost a non-recipe. I had a bunch of quail eggs... I bought way too many for my crab cake quail egg balls. I hard boiled the lot of them, figuring I would hatch a plan for them soon (see what I did there?!). 

Enter the anti-valentine's day dinner I mentioned last week... how perfect would pickled eggs be for that? So perfect. I lack pickling experience and time, so I had a thought... use something that's already pickled and have the eggs mooch off that liquid. Kimchee is omnipresent in my fridge, and I thought the flavors would be interesting with eggs. 

I am so glad I did this. These little sour spicy eggs were a surprise hit at the party! The hardest part is peeling the tiny shells... after that it barely even counts as work. I supplemented the kimchee's juices with some rice wine vinegar, and added cayenne pepper because I had a milder kimchee. Besides being everyone's favorite new party snack, you can make these into a healthy meat-free bento lunch by serving some of the eggs & kimchee with brown rice and raw cabbage... kind of a deconstructed salad. 

Kimchee Pickled Quail Eggs 

-24 quail eggs, hard boiled
-1.5 cups kimchee
-about 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
-cayenne pepper to taste 

Chop the kimchee pretty finely. Layer 1/4 of it in the bottom of a tight-sealing jar or container. add 8 of the eggs and cover those with more kimchee, followed by vinegar and a sprinkle of cayenne. continue layering like this until you've used all the ingredients. Seal the container or jar, turn upside down a couple times and put in the fridge. Let marinated at least for 1 day, up to 3 weeks. Serve!

Similar recipes from the archive:

Crab cake Scotch Quail Eggs

Mini Pizzas with prosciutto and quail eggs

My first week of bento lunches

A couple more bentos - sushi and pink garlic

Another whole week of bentos

Inarizushi

Egg "noodles"

Crockpot 3 cup chicken and eggs