Budín de Elote Oaxaqueño

This is a Oaxacan dish. Not a Mexican corn casserole, not a sweet pan de elote, not the budin you might know from central Mexico. Budin de elote oaxaqueno is its own animal, savory more than sweet, layered with rajas of charred poblano and the white-strand quesillo that nobody else makes the way Oaxaca makes it. It belongs to the rainy season, when the milpa fields around the Valles Centrales fill with elote tierno and every market stall has corn piled to the ceiling.

The corn has to be fresh and white. The yellow super-sweet corn from a supermarket is a different vegetable. If you can find Mexican white corn at a mercado or a Latino grocery, use it. If you cannot, the freshest white corn you can find at the farmer's market is the next best thing. Out of season, do not make this dish. Make sopa de elote in summer. Make calabaza in winter. Cada estado, su propia cocina, y cada cocina, su propia temporada.

The quesillo is the other non-negotiable. Real Oaxacan string cheese, pulled into thin strands the way you would for a quesadilla, melts into pockets that stretch when you cut a piece. Mozzarella will do in a pinch but it lacks the salty edge. No cheddar. No Monterey Jack. We are not making a Tex-Mex casserole.

My mother had a page in her notebook copied from a Oaxacan friend who used to bring this budin to potlucks in Colonia Roma. The note in the margin said: 'masa harina, una cucharadita generosa, sin esto se queda aguado.' She was right. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.