Cajun cornbread (cooked with pork, spices and cheese) is served with a tamer companion bread and fresh fruit at Le Village, a B&B south of Eunice, Louisiana. Don't forget the Steen's.

[imgcontainer] [img:cornbread-in-eunice530.jpg] [source]Daily Yonder[/source] Cajun cornbread (cooked with pork, spices and cheese) is served with a tamer companion bread and fresh fruit at Le Village, a B&B south of Eunice, Louisiana. Don’t forget the Steen’s. [/imgcontainer]

Louisianans have a way of turning simple food into a feast. This weekend Yonder divulges a bit of how that’s done.

The recipe comes from “Tulee” Ardoin (Juanita), the Queen of Faiquitaique. Calling it “cornbread” is like calling a tiara a “hat.”

Le Pain de Mais de la Reine

1 package Martha White Mexican Cornbread mix
1 lb. ground pork
½ onion (optional)
2 small cloves garlic (optional)
½ fresh jalapeño pepper (optional)
8 oz. Velveeta jalapeño cheese (cut & melt in microwave apx. 1 min. 30 sec.)
1 can cream style corn
1/3 cup milk
1 egg beaten
dash of Slap Ya Mama spice

Preheat oven to 425 degrees
Brown meat, onion, garlic, pepper and drain
Melt jalapeño cheese
Mix all ingredients
Put a little oil in pan and heat pan in oven apx. 5 minutes
Pour cornbread batter into pan

Bake apx. 30 minutes

(Serve as is or with butter, marmalade, or Steens syrup)

Cornbread alone is a blessing, but this is a stout and spicy meal. We had the pleasure of breaking fast with it at Le Village, Felicia Hebert Wiggins’s inn south of Eunice. She explains, “we usually make a double recipe” which bakes into 16 small loaves, one per guest.

Felicia kindly passed along the recipe and introduced us to many other regional delights, including Steens. The syrup, made from Louisiana sugar cane and manufactured in Abbeville, is now a staple around here. It’s replaced honey in our own standard cornbread – to mighty effect. Slap Ya Mama comes from Ville Platte, Louisiana.

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