Hearty Cornbread

For family lunch this past Sunday, I made some red beans and rice.  Of course, you have to have cornbread when you have red beans and rice.  I think it's the law.  My regular old cornbread recipe has never been very interesting or tasty to me, so I looked online for something with a little more pizazz.  I found this recipe, and it turned out to be some of the best cornbread I've ever eaten!!  I tweaked it a little from the online version, so here's my take:

HEARTY CORNBREAD

1/2 cup (8 Tbs) unsalted butter, chilled & cubed

1 cup onion, chopped

1 3/4 cups cornmeal (I used yellow)

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups pepperjack cheese, shredded

1 1/3 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed and drained

2 ounces roasted red peppers, drained and chopped

1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped

Butter a 9x9 inch baking pan.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Melt 1 Tbs of the cubed butter in a medium size skillet over medium heat.  Add onion and saute until tender, about 10 minutes.  Allow to cool.

Mix the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda, in a large bowl.  Add the remaining 7 Tbs of butter.  Blend with a pastry blender, then use fingertips to blend into a coarse meal consistency.

Whisk buttermilk and eggs in small bowl to blend. Add this mixture to dry ingredients and stir until blended.  Mix in grated cheese, corn, red peppers, basil, and onion.

Transfer to prepared pan. (The batter is pretty thick, so you may have to spread it with a spatula.)  Bake about 45 minutes, until cornbread is golden and tester inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool 20 minutes in pan, and cut into squares for serving.

This is soooo gooood!!