Maque Choux Cornbread Muffins #MuffinMonday

Maque choux is a spicy Cajun corn dish that makes an appearance at every holiday meal at my house. I am quite happy to eat leftovers from a bowl with a spoon but maque choux cornbread muffins are another delightful choice.

Welcome to the final Muffin Monday for 2016! It's been a year of change and challenge for many of us, but coming together once a month to bake and share muffins is therapeutic, at least for me. I hope you all have enjoyed the variety of muffins as much as I do.

I created this little group because muffins are one of the easiest things to bake. I wanted to motivate readers who are intimidated by baking to give muffins a try. You don't need electric beaters for mixing, just two bowls and a spoon or spatula. All the wet ingredients in one bowl. All the dry ingredients in the other. Fold them together and bake in a greased muffin pan. What could be simpler?

Ingredients
1 cup or 200g fine cornmeal or polenta
1 cup or 125g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup or 235g leftover maque choux from this recipe
1/2 cup or 113g butter, melted and cooled
1/3 cup or 80g thick sour cream
2 large eggs

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 12-cup muffin pan by lining it with paper muffin cups or greasing it.

In a large mixing bowl, combine your cornmeal and flour with the baking powder, baking soda and salt

In another mixing bowl, combine your maque choux, eggs, sour cream and melted butter.

Pour the wet ingredients into dry mixture and stir until well combined. Spoon the thick batter evenly into the muffin cups.

Bake for about 20 minutes in your preheated oven or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

These make a great addition to any brunch or luncheon menu.

Enjoy!

Have any of our Muffin Monday posts motivated you to get in the kitchen and bake? I'd love to hear from you if they have.  After all, with recipes as delicious as the ones the Muffin Monday bakers share, you have a great selection of both savory and sweet recipes to try.

Check out this month's tasty links.

• Blueberry Corn Muffins from Palatable Pastime
• Cheddar Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Fruitcake Muffins from Passion Kneaded
• Maque Choux Cornbread Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Sweet Bacon and Cheese Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.

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Maque Choux – Spicy Cajun Corn

 In the hotel suite in Cairo, I have a two-burner stove.  With confidence, I went out and bought two cooking vessels:  a frying pan and a small pot.  What you can’t cook in those two, really doesn’t need cooking, right?  Funny thing is, they can’t sit on the stove together.   Yeah, I know I have a strange sense of humor but when I got back from Carrefour and realized that I had overestimated my space allotment, it made me laugh.  Oh, well, it gets more and more like camping.  And I enjoy a challenge. 

Dinner was simple, spaghetti Bolognaise, so I am not going to bore you with that recipe.  Instead, here are instructions for another Louisiana specialty that Thanksgiving or Christmas at our house would not be Thanksgiving or Christmas without.  While the ham was baking the other day, this was one of the two other dishes I made to bring along to the Christmas party.

My grandmothers made maque choux from fresh sweet corn on the cob, first cutting the niblets off and then scraping the cob to get the “milk” out.  Many places I have lived over the years didn’t have sweet corn, just what we would call cows’ corn – hard and indigestible for humans, used only as feed for cattle – so I learned that frozen corn is an excellent substitute.  And when your fresh cobs are not so juicy, the frozen is actually closer what my grandmothers would have used.

Ingredients

About 3 lbs or 1.350kg frozen sweet corn 

1 medium or two small green bell peppers or capsicums

2 medium onions

3 medium red ripe tomatoes

7 oz or 200g butter

Olive oil

1/2 cup or 120ml whole milk

Sea salt

Cayenne

Method

Halve the tomatoes and discard the seeds.  Chop the tomatoes, onions and bell peppers.

Sautee the vegetables in the butter with just a glug of olive oil added.   

When the onions are translucent, add in the corn.  

Add the milk and then the sea salt and cayenne to taste.  

Cook over a slow fire until the corn is soft and the other vegetables are almost a memory.  My mom likes the corn still crunchy so, if you agree with her, about 10-15 minutes will probably do.  I cooked this about 30-45 minutes because I wanted it soft and I wanted it to dry out just a bit.  

 This is meant to be a spicy dish so don't be shy with the cayenne! 

Enjoy!