Tacos de xuitlacoche, cuitlacoche or huitlacoche
Xuitlacoche has variant spellings: huitlacoche, cuitlacoche, and xuitlacoche. In a way the name of this blog, or at least half of it, is a reproach. It is a response to a programme on Radio 4 where the interviewer was in California reporting on an innovative crop, Corn smut. In other words another little bit of Mexican culture was in the process of being appropriated by US imperialism. The BBC was being sold a pup; or as they say in the US, a crock.
Xuitlacoche is a Mexican delicacy. It has been eaten in Mexico for at least three thousand years.
If you go to Mexico you see an immense variety of corn. This is because it was the forebears of the Mexicans who took the corn plant out of the wild and domesticated it at about the same millet was being domesticated in the Middle East.
Corn has been so important in Mexico that for a long time Mexicans called themselves the children of corn, Los hijos del Maiz, and before the arrival of the Spanish, most of the nations each had their God or Goddess of corn. And if language and nationhood is homologous then there were at least 60 different nations in old Mexico.
The corn dough, (masa), is made in a special way. It's not corn flour. You can't make tortillas from the corn flour you can buy in Europe, Africa or Asia. If you tried to do so your tortillas would basically end up as flattened discs of polenta. Masa for tortillas goes through a dangerous process whereby the skins of the corn grains are removed with slaked lime. Slaked lime is highly caustic. The grains that are softened and peeled through this process need to be washed very carefully later on in order to remove all the lime.
You can smell tortillas baking from several blocks away. Follow your nose. Mid-morning when the shutters go up people line up to buy them in kilos. They are government subsidised, fortified tortillas. Inexpensive, Mexico's staple food.
The Heath Robinson machines starts, the conveyor belt squeaking rhythmically. The dough is fed into a chute. From the chute flattened discs appear, trundle up along the narrow belt and pass into an oven. The tortillas emerge baked, turn and trundle back.
People buy tortillas in stacks. You can run your finger over them, like a large floppy deck. They wrap the tortillas in a dishcloths to keep them moist. Put them in little baskets. Just like fresh bread, it is difficult to resist eating a soft newly made tortilla.Xuitlacoche deforms the smooth lines of a corn cob. Perhaps this is why, when it appears, it was always thrown away by farmers in the United States and Europe. But of course xuitlacoche is delicious fungus. A delicacy not blight. So poorly did the Europeans who colonised North America understand the corn they grew in such vast quantities, that have only just started to realise the value of xuitlacoche now, 200 years after they took over the land.
The xuitlacoche is stripped from the cob and sold for a high price in Mexican markets. It is hardly ever sold in large quantities. At most there is a basketful of it. One of the problems with xuitlacoche is that it is difficult to farm. It is difficult to cultivate. Four of my brothers and sisters in-law are agronomists and they have explained to me in detail how, because of the way the spores fruit and behave, there is no real guarantee if you have one cob with xuitlacoche, that it will spread to the others.
To cook with xuitlacoche is easy. Like with wild forest mushrooms, you should try to avoid washing the xuitlacoche if you can avoid it.
_________________________________
The xuitlacoche will melt into a deep black slick.
_________________________________
Heat up a little maiz oil in a pan. Chop up a little onion and fry it until it is nearly transparent. Break the fungus apart and put it into the frying pan. Add a few leaves of Epazote or its European equivalent (laurel, oregano, Thyme?). Add salt to taste.
The xuitlacoche will melt into a deep black slick. It's now ready to serve. Heat up your maize tortillas on the skillet until they puff up a little - and they will if they are good and freshly made. Spoon the xuitlacoche into the tortilla, and roll it up. Your taco de xuitlacoche is ready, there is no need to over embellish it.
Oaxaca cheese, photo Mercado Alternativa Tlaxcala
However, there are people who like to eat their xuitlacoche tacos with Oaxaca cheese. Oaxaca cheese is the Mexican spin on Mozzarella. But Mozzarella is wetter. Fresh Oaxaca cheese is very moist, but unlike Mozzarella it can unravel like a ball, into one long ribbon. It can then be separated into thin stringy white strands. It melts very well in a taco.
I do not agree with eating xuitlacoche with flor de calabaza. Combining two delicacies doesn't improve their taste. The person who does combine xuitlacoche with flor de Calabaza has missed the point of eating both foods.
____________________________
Pizza in Mexico is not a Mexican dish. Cooked Zucchini flowers in Italy is not an Italian dish.
____________________________
And by the way, squash flowers have also been eaten by Mexicans for thousands of years. Squash comes from Mexico and the dish of cooked squash flowers (zucchini flowers), is not Italian at all. It is Mexican. The Italians merely appropriated it. Pizza in Mexico is not a Mexican dish. Cooked Zucchini flowers in Italy is not an Italian dish.
Flor de calabaza, photo by James Wagner
But what is the taste of xuitlacoche? Well I made friends with an Anglo-French aristocrat and gourmet who from his chateau in France ran champagne and ballooning holidays. He came to Mexico to retire, for personal reasons, and then opened a restaurant in Guadalajara. Every day he ordered his chef to prepare xuitlacoche as his hors d'ouvre for lunch. In his opinion, the opinion of a true expert and gourmet, xuitlacoche tasted just every bit as good as truffles.
I am not such an expert as he is or was, but I do love the taste and texture of xuitlacoche. It is almost unrecognizably different from any other fungi or mushroom. It tastes of forest mushrooms and cashew. It has a sweet, complex corn finish and the flavour lingers memorably and pleasantly. I can taste it now in my mouth, though I haven't eaten it for a long time.
Xuitlacoche has variant spellings: huitlacoche, cuitlacoche, and xuitlacoche. In a way the name of this blog, or at least half of it, is a reproach. It is a response to a programme on Radio 4 where the interviewer was in California reporting on an innovative crop, Corn smut. In other words another little bit of Mexican culture was in the process of being appropriated by US imperialism. The BBC was being sold a pup; or as they say in the US, a crock.
Xuitlacoche is a Mexican delicacy. It has been eaten in Mexico for at least three thousand years.
If you go to Mexico you see an immense variety of corn. This is because it was the forebears of the Mexicans who took the corn plant out of the wild and domesticated it at about the same millet was being domesticated in the Middle East.
Corn has been so important in Mexico that for a long time Mexicans called themselves the children of corn, Los hijos del Maiz, and before the arrival of the Spanish, most of the nations each had their God or Goddess of corn. And if language and nationhood is homologous then there were at least 60 different nations in old Mexico.
The corn dough, (masa), is made in a special way. It's not corn flour. You can't make tortillas from the corn flour you can buy in Europe, Africa or Asia. If you tried to do so your tortillas would basically end up as flattened discs of polenta. Masa for tortillas goes through a dangerous process whereby the skins of the corn grains are removed with slaked lime. Slaked lime is highly caustic. The grains that are softened and peeled through this process need to be washed very carefully later on in order to remove all the lime.
You can smell tortillas baking from several blocks away. Follow your nose. Mid-morning when the shutters go up people line up to buy them in kilos. They are government subsidised, fortified tortillas. Inexpensive, Mexico's staple food.
The Heath Robinson machines starts, the conveyor belt squeaking rhythmically. The dough is fed into a chute. From the chute flattened discs appear, trundle up along the narrow belt and pass into an oven. The tortillas emerge baked, turn and trundle back.
People buy tortillas in stacks. You can run your finger over them, like a large floppy deck. They wrap the tortillas in a dishcloths to keep them moist. Put them in little baskets. Just like fresh bread, it is difficult to resist eating a soft newly made tortilla.Xuitlacoche deforms the smooth lines of a corn cob. Perhaps this is why, when it appears, it was always thrown away by farmers in the United States and Europe. But of course xuitlacoche is delicious fungus. A delicacy not blight. So poorly did the Europeans who colonised North America understand the corn they grew in such vast quantities, that have only just started to realise the value of xuitlacoche now, 200 years after they took over the land.
The xuitlacoche is stripped from the cob and sold for a high price in Mexican markets. It is hardly ever sold in large quantities. At most there is a basketful of it. One of the problems with xuitlacoche is that it is difficult to farm. It is difficult to cultivate. Four of my brothers and sisters in-law are agronomists and they have explained to me in detail how, because of the way the spores fruit and behave, there is no real guarantee if you have one cob with xuitlacoche, that it will spread to the others.
To cook with xuitlacoche is easy. Like with wild forest mushrooms, you should try to avoid washing the xuitlacoche if you can avoid it.
_________________________________
The xuitlacoche will melt into a deep black slick.
_________________________________
Heat up a little maiz oil in a pan. Chop up a little onion and fry it until it is nearly transparent. Break the fungus apart and put it into the frying pan. Add a few leaves of Epazote or its European equivalent (laurel, oregano, Thyme?). Add salt to taste.
The xuitlacoche will melt into a deep black slick. It's now ready to serve. Heat up your maize tortillas on the skillet until they puff up a little - and they will if they are good and freshly made. Spoon the xuitlacoche into the tortilla, and roll it up. Your taco de xuitlacoche is ready, there is no need to over embellish it.
Oaxaca cheese, photo Mercado Alternativa TlaxcalaHowever, there are people who like to eat their xuitlacoche tacos with Oaxaca cheese. Oaxaca cheese is the Mexican spin on Mozzarella. But Mozzarella is wetter. Fresh Oaxaca cheese is very moist, but unlike Mozzarella it can unravel like a ball, into one long ribbon. It can then be separated into thin stringy white strands. It melts very well in a taco.
I do not agree with eating xuitlacoche with flor de calabaza. Combining two delicacies doesn't improve their taste. The person who does combine xuitlacoche with flor de Calabaza has missed the point of eating both foods.
____________________________
Pizza in Mexico is not a Mexican dish. Cooked Zucchini flowers in Italy is not an Italian dish.
____________________________
And by the way, squash flowers have also been eaten by Mexicans for thousands of years. Squash comes from Mexico and the dish of cooked squash flowers (zucchini flowers), is not Italian at all. It is Mexican. The Italians merely appropriated it. Pizza in Mexico is not a Mexican dish. Cooked Zucchini flowers in Italy is not an Italian dish.
Flor de calabaza, photo by James WagnerBut what is the taste of xuitlacoche? Well I made friends with an Anglo-French aristocrat and gourmet who from his chateau in France ran champagne and ballooning holidays. He came to Mexico to retire, for personal reasons, and then opened a restaurant in Guadalajara. Every day he ordered his chef to prepare xuitlacoche as his hors d'ouvre for lunch. In his opinion, the opinion of a true expert and gourmet, xuitlacoche tasted just every bit as good as truffles.
I am not such an expert as he is or was, but I do love the taste and texture of xuitlacoche. It is almost unrecognizably different from any other fungi or mushroom. It tastes of forest mushrooms and cashew. It has a sweet, complex corn finish and the flavour lingers memorably and pleasantly. I can taste it now in my mouth, though I haven't eaten it for a long time.
Comments
Post a Comment