Spiced beef cornbread cobbler

This meaty cobbler is an impressive, comforting, and satiating meal. It’s pretty wholesome too. There isn’t much bread overall, with the bulk of the dish made of tomatoes and beef (you can sub turkey). If you’re limiting carbohydrates, you can easily leave out the corn, but I like it for the fiber and nutritional boost, not to mention the pretty color. The abundance of spices—cinnamon, allspice, ginger—gives the dish fun flavor. Spiced beef cornbread cobbler is delicious, works with my diet plan (yay for the flexibility of weight watchers!), and is pretty enough to serve to company, as I often have.

Don’t be intimidated by the ingredient list. A lot of them are repeated in the filling and topping. And a lot are just small amounts of spices. If you’re like me, you have all these spices in your pantry. If you don’t keep around a lot of spices, consider buying them in the bulk section of your grocery. Then you can get a little baggy with just as much as you need and the price is much better. The active time in this recipe is about 30 minutes. Start to finish it takes about an hour and half. It is totally worth the time. We’ve made this often for many years.
 
What kinds of diet plans are you trying in the new year? Let me know in the comments! I’m a fan of weight watchers, which helped me lose 35 pounds and keep it off for the last five years.

Spiced beef cornbread cobbler
Modified from Gourmet, December 2006
 
Makes 4 large servings or 6 servings if you add a side dish
 
Ingredients
 
Filling
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound lean ground beef (ground turkey is good too)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon cayenne
½ teaspoon ground allspice
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice
1 ½ cups corn kernels (optional)
 
Topping
⅔ cup yellow cornmeal
⅓ cup white whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
⅓ cup whole milk
1 large egg
½ cup corn kernels (optional)
2 ounces grated sharp cheddar
 
Instructions

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 400°F.
 
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a deep 10-inch oven-safe skillet over medium high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until edges are golden, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Add beef and cook, breaking up large lumps, until no longer pink, 4 to 5 minutes. Add 1 teaspoon sugar, spices, and 1 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Add tomatoes with juice and corn. Briskly simmer, stirring occasionally, until liquid is reduced to about ½ cup, 15 minutes.
 
While beef simmers, make the topping. Whisk together cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl. Whisk together milk, egg, and 2 tablespoons oil in a small bowl, then stir into cornmeal mixture until just combined. Fold in half of the cheese and the corn.
 
Spoon mounds of cornbread batter over beef, then smooth it together a little. Sprinkle remaining cheese over batter. Bake until a wooden pick or skewer inserted into center of cornbread comes out clean, 15 to 25 minutes.
 
Cool 5 minutes and serve.