August 2010

 

Otherwise known as corn smut. Lovely English name. This link is to Wikipedia, which explains the etymology. I'll let you link to it as it ain't purty. 

Huitlacoche is a delicacy that I learned to love in Mexico. I have a wonderful, somewhat complicated recipe for Crepas de Huitlacoche (Corn fungus casserole) that I'm happy to share with you if you email me requesting it. We have to buy them canned here and I gather that that is almost worse than not using them at all. But I think this casserole is delicious even so.

 

I was reminded about huitlacoche when a friend sent me a link to Zenchilada. It is something new to me—an online magazine that is a work of art and filled with wonderful looking and sounding corn-based recipes and corn lore. There are recipes for tortillas, tamales, salsa, shrimp and grits, corn soup, blue cornbread, ... The magazine is located at issuu.com, which is a digital publisher of books, magazines, reports, and catalogs. I find it frustrating that it only seems to be available online. You can print out a page or two at a time but I'd love to hold the magazine itself in my hands. Let me know if you see a way to do that.