In the middle of August in the middle of the week, I ran out of field-grown tomatoes. Not wanting to wait until the farmers market on Sunday, I went over to Sandy Spring Gardens, where Tom Farquhar raises organic vegetables on a farm a 15-minute walk from my house.
Tom was out in the field, just finishing up with a harrow, and had a problem with his corn crop. “I have a row infested with corn smut – huitlacoche,” he told me. He was unhappy; I was delighted. Cooking fresh huitlacoche has long been on my bucket list, but it’s scarcer in my neighborhood than Aztec pyramids. Until now.
Tom gave me some. I have to admit it looked a little daunting. Had he tried it? He had, but did not consider the dish a success. He knew it was considered a delicacy in Mexico, but allowed that it might be an acquired taste.
It looks scary – a fungus that distorts the corn kernels into big grey blobs – but I had been assured it is delicious. And it is, when properly cooked. I first relied on Mr. Google for a recipe, and found one for a sauce with onions, garlic and chilies, cooked for 20 minutes and mashed “like potatoes.” It resulted in an unappetizing-looking black mass and tasted about the same as it looked.
I thought it would be better if diluted, so I mixed in some of the uninfected corn kernels and served it with pasta.
Still unsatisfactory.
I resorted to the good old-fashioned research method: searching through my cookbook collection. I know I have at least one Diana Kennedy book somewhere, but I couldn’t find it. (This is where I have to admit that my house is far less organized than it might be.) But of course I have others, which I joyfully located, and found a clue in Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger’s Mesa Mexicana. They incorporated huitlacoche into a quesadilla recipe, and guess what? The huitlacoche was cooked for a total of two minutes and thirty seconds.
That was the magic! Just barely cooking (or even just warming up) the stuff was all it needed. I added it, just before serving, to a batch of NYT Cooking’s Spicy Corn and Coconut Soup, made using the unaffected corn kernels and broth simmered with the cobs.
It was excellent! It imparted a slightly sweet, ethereally mushroom-y component to the soup. My daughter, a less adventurous eater than myself, agreed. (She also averred that she only decided to try the huitlacoche after I assured her that I had been eating it for several days, “and you’re not dead.” Thanks for that vote of confidence, kid!)
I now have several pouches of huitlacoche in my freezer. I look forward to adding it to a few more meals. I might even make those quesadillas from Mesa Mexicana.
