Chinese Cornmeal Cake - "yu mi gao"

One fresh produce that makes me think of harvest, is corn. The full ears of yellow corn on a cob, with neat rows of kernels in various shades of yellow and cream colors, wrapped in deep green layers of beautiful corn leaves - is a thing of beauty on its own. Starting this time of year, corn is being sold on farms, in grocers in a barrel, and by the basket in the farmer's market. Corn is cheap, yet delicious source of nutrients and fiber. I like corn a lot: sweet or sometimes creamy, and has a crunch to it. Think... major umami! In season or not, we can always get a hold of corn meal all year around. Corn meal (ground up corn kernels) is much more exciting than your average wheat flour and 10 times tastier. Cornmeal cake (aka "yu mi gao") is a Chinese dish grandma used to make at home. Making it this week was a nod to grandma and her awesome cooking skills. I loved the taste of these and am happy to share this family recipe.

Corn, back in the day, is apparently poor man's food. People thought it was lower class and a common man's meal. I guess when the wheat grain was first produced, the processing, bleaching and perhaps selection makes it more expensive? The story I heard, was that when families can't afford full wheat flour dishes, they mix half corn meal into the dish - so it's still tasty and you feel like you are eating something a bit more hoity toity. "yu mi" is corn, "gao" is a cake-like consistency, think something like banana cake. Today, the high fibre content, high nutrition content corn is being valued - no more a poor man's food that's for sure. Corn has loads of vitamins and antioxidants, making it almost a health food. Though highly caloric, the taste of corn is rich and complex, making it highly satisfying. The beauty of it all is we are going back to the basics. In fact, many historical cuisines all corn a lot as their staple - think Mexican tortillas! Also, corn flour does not contain gluten, making this a great ingredient for gluten-free dieters and people with Celiac disease. No need to say more, let's move on to the recipe.

What you need:

- 1 cup corn meal

- 1 cup flour

- 1/2 cup of almond milk (regular milk or other plant milk is fine)

- 1 tsp of baking powder

- 2 eggs

- 1/4 cup of brown sugar

- 1/4 cup of almonds

- 1/4 cup of crasins (dried sweet cranberries)

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 1 tsp almond extract (optional)

Recipe:

- mix flour, corn meal, sugar, baking powder together in a bowl. Pour eggs, extracts, and almond milk into the bowl and mix. Until the dough is binded together into a ball.

- add almonds and crasins and mix somewhat evenly.

- butter/oil the baking tin. I used an 8x8 square glass bakeware.

- baked at 350F for 20-25min. 

The original version of this as I remember had dried dates in it and some type of beans. It was also mostly likely steamed as Asian households didn't traditionally have any ovens. My mom actually makes hers with regular milk and pre-cooked soft red beans. The texture difference is what you are going for. And the bits of crunchy and sweet berries or dates add complexity and great variation to each bite. 

Buy the finer ground corn meal. The coarse version is better for soup but may be too hard in the cornmeal cake. Mine says #400 - presumably it's the level of ground-ness (is that a word?) of the corn. Anyway, it should look more like the consistency of flour, not so much like grain or quinoa.

I hope you will enjoy this tasty little treat, brought to you by Jia's grandma.