Cornbread with jalapeño and halloumi

Cornbread is a popular staple on dinner tables in the US, but is rarely made in the UK. I can’t think why – we have all the ingredients readily available, it comes together very quickly and tastes divine.

In the US it is often served with chilli, soups or recipes containing beans. But it’s also great with a little butter smeared on or just eaten out of your hand while you stomp across the Yorkshire Dales (okay, maybe that’s just me).

There are simpler ways to make cornbread, using only polenta (cornmeal) and no fresh corn, but the addition of fresh corn, blended and cooked down to a purée so it doesn’t add too much extra moisture, takes the corn flavour in this bread to the next level.

You can adjust the spiciness of this bread in several ways – reduce the amount of chilli, use a different type of chilli or scrape out the seeds and membranes of the chilli before chopping it finely. However I do think the chilli is important here and should not be omitted. It adds a lovely layer of fresh chilli flavour to the bread, as opposed to mere hotness.

Cypriot halloumi is not a traditional choice, but it should certainly become one. As it doesn’t melt, you’re left with big, chewy, salty chunks of cheese in the dough that are a very nice surprise when you come across them.

Cornbread is best eaten warm, not too long after it has come out of the oven, but if that’s not practical or you have leftovers, store the bread in the freezer. Out on the work surface or in the fridge it will go stale very quickly.