Wheat la what?

Huitlacolche. Corn Fungus! Corn flavored mushroom, mushroom flavored corn. It's "whoo eat la coal chay".

It's a fun discussion to come up with the next menu or ingredient to focus on at the next Mujeres gathering and this time was no exception. Huitlacolche. I have seen this in the markets and wondered what to do with it. Olivia had seen it, and heard of it, but didn't know either. Since our friend, Obet, own's a restaurant, and we'd had an entree made with this, we asked him. He was willing to be our 'maestro' - teacher for another event, featuring this corn fungus.



And an event this was to be. Our friends Pam and Tim from SV Savarna of Vashon Island, had decided to celebrate Pam's birthday with a visit to La Paz. Pam's daughter Alacia and her husband Gavin, would also be in town at the same time. Kevin of MV Andante, also of Seattle was bringing his boat back from the mainland to see them also. In our photo album, there are many images of Eagle, Andante and Savarna all rafted together! Lot's of food fests fondly remembered.

Also still in or back in town were Charles and Carol, SV Shadowfax, Vashon Island, Lyn SV Fellowship - Rich was bashing their boat back to San Diego, Greg and Anna SV Aventura, Mike and Shelly of Avatar, BJ of MV New School, Ron and Crisket, SV Mystic Island, Francisco of San Francisco, Dulce and other friends who have attended previous cooking sessions.

What is this stuff - our main ingredient? It seems that corn farmers will leave a whole crop, uncut, unharvested, just before the rainy season. The rains mold the corn, which in turn becomes sort of a mushroom. At least that's the flavor and texture of it, with a light corn hint in the background. On closer inspection of the kernels of 'corn' they are whitish, grey, similar to a mushroom, firmer in texture, and some pieces even have a corn silk attached. The taste of corny mushrooms! Our guest, Shelly is not a fan of mushrooms. To her the huitlacolche tasted just like them! We cooked up a couple of items without huitlacolche so she, too , could enjoy the meal.

Our menu for the evening was, home made corn tortillas with a mixture of sautéed huitlacolche, cebolla y ajo (onions and garlic), and asadera cheese - Mexican style string cheese.
Our entrée was stuffed, and rolled breast of chicken with the huitlacolche, onion, garlic mixture and cheese, topped with a roasted poblano pepper sauce, and a huitlacolche and cream sauce, on a bed of cilantro rice.

Dark chocolate tamales with Fuentes vanilla ice cream finished the meal.

We gathered at Olivia's at 4 to prep and make the meal to be served a 6:45. It's amazing to me, how these all seem to flow together. To a non- foodie or kitchen
person it most likely looks like chaos!

It all seems to work out fine. Everyone helps and pitches in with the chopping, peeling, stirring, folding and of course cleaning of all the pans and the dishes.

Because of the bigger group this time, we opted for disposable dishes, the Mexican way.


Several things had to happen simultaneously - the tamale husks needed to be rinsed and soaked in water -
Ron took care of this in the outside sink....... He told me the bottle of tequila was to keep the husks in the water... likely story!

Soni, a staff member of Obets, is a pro at making tortillas. She arrived with her wooden press and headed to the back patio and the outdoor grill. We'd placed a comal baking sheet for her to grill the tortillas on. In a large bowl, she mixed two bags of maseca with one bag of regular flour, then kneads it with her hands. It's all about the right feel.


Kevin helped by making the dough rounds. The rounds were placed between two pieces of plastic bags and squished with the press, then right onto the grill.




Inside the kitchen the chocolate tamales were underway. Obet was at the stove using a double boiler melting the dark chocolate, adding some butter and milk, then the white chocolate.



Once all melted and blended that mixture was poured over maseca the corn blend for tamales and tortillas. A bit of baking powder, and some nuts were also added. Kneading and mixing by hand is much easier. A bit more milk until the right consistency.



The husks were folded around the chocolate mixture, in thirds, the bottom end folded under and the top left open. They are placed in the tamale cooker with the tops up to steam. The tamale filled pot, with water in the bottom, was placed on the bbq's burner for 30 minutes of steaming time, or until the tamales had sort of a brownie texture.