Humitas

Fresh corn ground with its own milk and no flour at all, wrapped in its own husks and steamed.

Not vegetarian — contains lard, queso fresco whose rennet the source does not name.

Ingredients

• 10 ears of fresh corn, with their husks
• 100 g lard or butter, softened
• 1 onion, very finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons ají amarillo paste, as on its own page
• 150 g queso fresco, in small cubes
• 1 teaspoon ground aniseed
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar, for the sweet version
• black olives and raisins, optional

Method

1. THERE IS NO FLOUR IN IT AND THE FRESH CORN IS THE ONLY BINDER. The kernels are cut off and ground with nothing but their own milk, and the starch in them is what sets the parcel as it steams. A spoonful of cornflour or masa added to help it hold -- which is the obvious thing to reach for when the mixture looks loose -- gives a dense, pasty humita that tastes of the flour. If it is too wet, the answer is more ground corn, not another ingredient.
2. SO THE CORN MUST BE FRESH AND STARCHY, not sweetcorn from a tin or a freezer. Tinned corn has had its starch cooked and washed and will not set at all. Older, starchier field corn is better here than very sweet young corn, which is the opposite of what you would want to eat off the cob.
3. THE HUSKS ARE THE WRAPPER AND THEY COME OFF WHOLE. Stripped carefully from each ear and kept flat, then softened in hot water for ten minutes so they fold without splitting. Torn husks leak, and a leaked humita boils rather than steams.
4. THE PARCELS ARE STACKED UPRIGHT AND PACKED TIGHT against each other in the steamer, folded edge up. Laid flat or loose they unwrap in the steam and empty into the water.
5. AND THEY GO IN A STEAMER, NEVER IN BOILING WATER. An inch of water below the basket, a lid, and an hour. Boiled, the mixture waterlogs through the husk.
6. THEY ARE DONE WHEN A PARCEL UNWRAPS CLEANLY, which is a test rather than a time: open one after fifty minutes, and if the mixture comes away from the husk without sticking it is set. Still tacky, give the rest another ten minutes.
7. Husks stripped whole from the ears, the widest ones kept for wrapping, and soaked in hot water 10 MINUTES.
8. Kernels cut off the cobs with a knife, scraping the cob afterwards to get the milk.
9. Ground in a processor or a mill to a coarse, thick paste -- no water added.
10. The lard beaten until creamy, then the ground corn beaten into it a little at a time.
11. The onion softened in a little fat with the ají amarillo paste made as on its own page, 8 minutes, and cooled.
12. That folded into the corn with the aniseed and salt, and the sugar if making them sweet. The mixture should drop thickly from a spoon.
13. A husk laid flat, 3 tablespoons of mixture in the middle, a cube of cheese and an olive pressed in, and the husk folded over from both sides and the ends turned up. Tied with a strip of husk.
14. Packed UPRIGHT and tight in a steamer basket over an inch of water.
15. Steamed 50 MINUTES to 1 hour, then ONE OPENED to test: the mixture should leave the husk cleanly. Served in their husks, with salsa criolla as on its own page.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Peru · All recipes