Grilled Salmon salad with Veg skewers and Skillet Cornbread

This is all about the cornbread, really. SO suggested we have salmon and cornbread for Sunday supper. I've been slowly building up the seasoning on my 12" cast iron pan lately, and was dying to do cornbread in it, so perfect.  There's nothing easier than throwing salmon on the grill, and maybe some summer vegetables on skewers to go with it all.

Grilled salmon on salad, with vegetable skewers
and skillet cornbread

I cut the tomatoes in wedges, peeled half the skin off the zucchini and sliced thickly, and also cut some big pieces of yellow pepper. Threaded them on some skewers, and basted with a bit of Briana's Dijon Honey Mustard salad dressing. I don't normally plug specific products, but I love this one. No preservatives, lactose and egg free, etc.

Nothing special about the salmon, although I made up a quick marinade of dijon, maple syrup, and soy sauce then put it and the salmon in a ziplock for a couple hours. I tore up and washed some romaine, and lightly dressed with the same salad dressing.

Most skillet cornbread recipes are pretty similar, with minor variances in the amount of flour, sugar, and baking powder. I've seen different types of milk, usually buttermilk, and also different pan sizes.

After heating up the pan in the oven, swirl some butter around the bottom and sides.

Cast iron pan ready for the corn bread batter

Getting the eggs and milk nice and frothy is a good idea, and not over mixing is another key step. The cast iron pan is way better than normal baking pans. You get a nice crust and it keeps it warm afterwards.

All done - nice crust!

I've seen variations that use bacon grease, hot peppers, all kinds of interesting things. I used to have an old recipe that called for cream style corn, it was awesome but had like 25 ingredients so I didn't make it very often. Maybe I'll try to adapt that one.

Next Time: will play with the ingredients a bit, but the cast iron pan is great!

Me: 10/10

SO: 10/10

SSO: 3/10

Grilled Salmon salad with Veg skewers and Skillet Cornbread

Salmon

• marinate for at least an our. I used a ratio of 3:2:1 of maple syrup, dijon, and soy sauce

Veggies

• use a variety of veggies, I used tomato wedges, peppers, and zucchini. Mushrooms would also be good, or pretty much anything really. I basted with the same salad dressing I used on the same romaine greens that was a bed for the salmon

Cornbread Ingredients

• 1 stick of butter, 1 Tb for melting in the pan, the rest for the batter
• 1 1/4 Cups cornmeal
• 3/4 C flour
• 1/4 C white sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 C buttermilk
• 2 eggs

Cornbread Method

1. Preheat the oven to 375, and put the cast iron pan in for 5 minutes.
2. Whisk all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
3. In a second bowl, beat the eggs and add the milk, whisking until a bit frothy. Slowly drizzle in the melted butter.
4. Add one bowl to the other, stirring until just combined and let sit for a minute. Any lumps of flour will absorb moisture. 
5. Swirl the 1 Tb of butter in the hot pan, covering the whole bottom and sides. Pour in the batter and cook for around 20 minutes or until it looks done. I put the convection fan on towards the end, which helped get a bit of brown on the top.
6. Let the pan cool on a rack for a bit.