Summer’s Bounty Pot Pie

When I read Clotilde’s post about her birthday dinner the other day, I was reminded of her Broccoli and Cornmeal Upside Down Cake which had sounded so good to me when she first wrote about it

Originally, I was thinking that I would create some sort of cornmeal upside down cake like Clotilde’s, but with tomatoes, corn, and chile peppers rather than broccoli. I thought that the tomatoes might be a little wet for this arrangement, though, and was also concerned that the leftovers might not keep well. So instead, I decided I would prepare something like a pot pie – a stew-like mixture of tomatoes, corn, chiles, onion, and black beans crowned with a circle of cornbread.

I’m really happy with the result. It tasted great and was very filling. The amounts of the fresh ingredients were based on what I had on hand as much as anything. You could vary both the types of chiles and the amounts according to your taste and what you have available. I ended up with about three servings and some extra cornbread.

Summer’s Bounty Pot Pie

Filling:
1 tbs olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 Anaheim chiles, chopped
1 Poblano chile, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 ½ cups corn, cut from the cobs
2 ½ cups tomatoes, skinned, seeded and chopped
15 ½ oz can black beans
1 cup water
¾ tsp salt (reduce or eliminate if using canned tomatoes)
1/3 cup chopped cilantro

Cornbread top:
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
¼ cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 cup skim milk
¼ cup canola oil
1 egg
1 cup of onion and chile mixture, reserved from filling

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Heat olive oil in a large non-stick sauté pan over medium high heat. Add onion, chiles and garlic to pan and cook, stirring often, until softened – 5 minutes or so. Remove about one cup of the mixture and set it aside for use in the cornbread. Add the corn to the pan and stir for a couple of minutes. Add the tomatoes, black beans, water, and salt and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium low while you make the cornbread.

Prepare a 13x9 inch pan by spraying it with cooking spray and lining it with parchment. The parchment should cover the two long sides of the pan and the bottom.

Stir the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Beat the egg lightly in a small bowl with a fork. Stir in the oil and then the milk. With a rubber spatula, stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until blended (there may still be a few lumps) and then stir in the onion and chile mixture. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and spread it into a smooth layer. Bake for about 20 minutes.

While the cornbread is baking, add the cilantro to the filling. Stir it in and leave it to simmer a minute or two. Then place about 1 ½ cups of the filling (be sure to include some of the liquid) in a blender and puree. Pour the pureed mixture back into the pan. If the filling is too thin, let it continue to cook at medium low. When it has reached the desired consistency, cover the pan and remove it from the heat

When the cornbread is done, use the parchment paper to lift the cornbread out of the pan onto a rack. Use a biscuit or other ring cutter to cut circles of cornbread. Ladle the filling into bowls and top each with a round of cornbread.