Guadalajara, Mexico
Slow down… Gawk for a lingering second… Pick up the pace… There is nothing to see here. That was my stand-offish, fear-filled reaction towards the piles of huitlacoche I would let intimidate me last year. Well, not this year! The rainy season has come and gone, and I can proudly say that I gave huitlacoche a solid go…..and liked it.
Huitlacoche is a type of corn smut, ustilago maydis. Sometimes called corn fungus, it grows on corn cobs underneath the husk during the rainy season. It is a prized delicacy in Mexico and is used in traditional cooking as well as in the emerging nouveau-Mexican cuisine. There are over 500 different types of smut in the world and the variety that grows on corn is one of the only edible ones. Too bad, we could be experimenting with 500 different types of edible smuts; oh, life is so unfair! I have heard it referred to as Mexican truffles, but that is pure blasphemy and anyone who makes such a misguided comparison should be sent to culinary hell and be only allowed to eat liver and white pepper for the rest of eternity.
Upon close inspection I was surprised to see that the loose nuggets of huitlacoche were firm and bulbous with a soft pearly-white flesh. I was expecting a gory spore-like mass emitting an unearthly stench. The farmer selling them had separated the more ripe ones from the less ripe. The more mature smuts were turning black and were a bit mushier in texture, leaving adeep black ink on my fingers when I touched them. I carefully filled a bag full of the pretty silvery ones, some squash blossoms and a few poblano peppers and the wheels started turning. What should I do with them?
For some reason I associated huitlacoche with mushrooms and was therefore expecting an earthy flavor. After removing the corn silks that were left behind and cleaning them with a mushroom brush, I sautéed them in a pan with garlic and onion and added chopped squash blossoms and roasted poblano strips and served it over a creamy, cheesy polenta. It was very good, but I was expecting something along the lines of a rare wild mushroom, tasting remotely of a mossy tree trunk and my taste-buds were confused if not a bit disappointed. The huitlacoche had a fresh springy flavor that I could not really put my finger on.
In search of the words to describe this now very un-scary and intriguing smut, I sought to get to the bottom of the flavor by making a soup. A singular concentration of flavor would certainly demystify my curious subject. This time I selected more mature huitlachoche, thinking that the more ripened smut would have more depth of flavor. I must say the soup was fantastic and the taste very surprising. Huitlacoche tastes very much like fresh pea shoots or mung bean sprouts. It has a bright, mild, young flavor. I cooked them through, but perhaps could have cooked them longer, as even after aggressively pureeing them, a crunch something like that of a water chestnut lingered.
I am pleased with my initial investigation, and I am already scheming about what I will do with them once they reappear next rainy season. I am thinking I will sauté them with pea sprouts, fresh peas, zucchini, squash blossom flowers, and corn served with an herby-lemony roasted chicken. Bring on the smut!
Huitlacoche Soup
2 T butter
1 white onion, med chop
2 clove garlic, fine chop
3 cups fresh huitlacoche*, med chop
½ cup cream
4 cups vegetable stock
1 bay leaf
2 dried chile arbol
5 sprigs fresh thyme
Salt
crème fraise
1. Melt the butter in a sauté pan, over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Stir occasionally until onion is translucent, or about 5 minutes.
2. Add huitlacoche, chilies and bay leaf and cook until the huitlacoche are tender, retaining some moisture, but not soft and mushy, about 10 minutes. Season with salt.
3. Add cream and thyme and cook until cream is 80% reduced, about 4 minutes.
4. Remove chiles and bay leaf and pour mixture into a blender or kitchen-aid. Add a cup or two of the vegetable stock and woosh until very very smooth. You may need to do this in two batches. It is very important for the texture of the soup that you let the machine spin for at least 5 minutes.
5. Pour the soup into a pot. Let the soup simmer until you have the desired consistency- this should not take very long. Serve the soup hot with a garnish of crème fraise if desired.
*Apparently, huitlacoche is starting to show up in select farmer’s markets in the States. There is the option of using canned huitlacoche, which is easily found in Mexican grocery stores, but I cannot attest to the flavor.
2 T butter
1 white onion, med chop
2 clove garlic, fine chop
3 cups fresh huitlacoche*, med chop
½ cup cream
4 cups vegetable stock
1 bay leaf
2 dried chile arbol
5 sprigs fresh thyme
Salt
crème fraise
1. Melt the butter in a sauté pan, over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Stir occasionally until onion is translucent, or about 5 minutes.
2. Add huitlacoche, chilies and bay leaf and cook until the huitlacoche are tender, retaining some moisture, but not soft and mushy, about 10 minutes. Season with salt.
3. Add cream and thyme and cook until cream is 80% reduced, about 4 minutes.
4. Remove chiles and bay leaf and pour mixture into a blender or kitchen-aid. Add a cup or two of the vegetable stock and woosh until very very smooth. You may need to do this in two batches. It is very important for the texture of the soup that you let the machine spin for at least 5 minutes.
5. Pour the soup into a pot. Let the soup simmer until you have the desired consistency- this should not take very long. Serve the soup hot with a garnish of crème fraise if desired.
*Apparently, huitlacoche is starting to show up in select farmer’s markets in the States. There is the option of using canned huitlacoche, which is easily found in Mexican grocery stores, but I cannot attest to the flavor.
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