Crema de Huitlacoche

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 4-quart cazuela or enameled cast iron pot
• •Sharp knife for stripping corn kernels and cutting huitlacoche off the cob
• •High-powered blender
• •Wooden spoon for stirring without scratching the pot
• •Clay cuencos or barro bowls for serving

Instructions

1. 1

   Clean the huitlacoche

   If you have fresh huitlacoche from a mercado, look it over carefully. Pull off any pieces of dried husk or silk. Cut the larger black-grey lobes off the cob with a sharp knife. Do not rinse it. Water washes away the flavor. If you are using canned huitlacoche, drain it well and give it a quick rinse to take the metallic edge off the brine. Then let it sit in a sieve while you work the aromatics. Fresh is the version. Canned is a compromise, not an upgrade.

   Good huitlacoche should smell like wet earth and sweet corn at the same time. If it smells sour or fermented, it is past its window. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado which day the new delivery comes in.
2. 2

   Render the lard and sweat the onion

   Melt the manteca in a heavy 4-quart cazuela or pot over medium heat. When it shimmers, add the diced onion and a pinch of salt. Cook for about 6 minutes, stirring, until the onion turns translucent and the edges just start to gild. No browning. You want the sweetness, not the caramel. La manteca es el sabor, even in a soup that hides behind cream.

3. 3

   Build the aromatic base

   Add the garlic and the chile serrano. Cook for about 90 seconds, stirring constantly, until the garlic is fragrant but still pale. Burnt garlic turns bitter and there is no recovering from it in a cream soup. Add the fresh corn kernels and cook another two minutes. The corn deepens the body of the crema and reminds the diner that huitlacoche is, after all, a fruit of the corn.

4. 4

   Cook the huitlacoche with epazote

   Add the cleaned huitlacoche and the chopped epazote. Raise the heat to medium-high. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often. The huitlacoche will release a black ink-like liquid that paints the pot. Let that liquid reduce until it coats the spoon. This is the moment the kitchen smells like nothing else, mushroom, sweet corn, the wet smell of a Mexican field after rain. That is the smell that tells you the dish is working. Pull out a generous half cup of the cooked huitlacoche and set it aside for the garnish.

   Epazote is not optional. It is the herb that has been paired with corn fungus in central Mexico since before the Spanish arrived. Cilantro is not a substitute. Mexican oregano is not a substitute. If you cannot find epazote fresh, use it dried, half the quantity, but find it.
5. 5

   Simmer with broth

   Pour in the warm chicken broth. Add the salt and pepper. Bring to a low simmer and cook uncovered for 15 minutes. The flavors marry and the broth takes on the deep black-grey color of the huitlacoche. Taste it now, before the cream goes in. It should taste of earth and corn with a quiet heat at the back. Adjust salt as needed.

6. 6

   Blend until smooth

   Working in batches, transfer the soup to a blender. Fill the blender no more than two-thirds full, hold the lid down with a folded kitchen towel, and start on low before going to high. Blend each batch for a full minute until completely smooth. Return the puree to the pot. The crema should be the color of wet slate, dark grey with a faint olive undertone. If it looks brown, your huitlacoche was old.

7. 7

   Finish with crema

   Set the pot over low heat. Stir in the cup of crema mexicana. Warm gently for two or three minutes, never boiling. Boiling crema breaks the soup and leaves you with grainy flecks of fat floating on the surface. Taste one more time for salt. The crema dulls the seasoning and the soup almost always needs another pinch at this point. Así se hace y punto.

8. 8

   Serve in clay

   Ladle into shallow clay cuencos or barro bowls. Spoon a small mound of the reserved sautéed huitlacoche in the center of each bowl. Drizzle a swirl of cold crema mexicana across the surface, the white against the slate-grey is the visual signature of this soup. Scatter a few crumbles of queso fresco and a few small epazote leaves. Serve with warm hand-pressed tortillas. La cocina no es decoración, es trabajo, but a swirl of crema on a black-grey soup is the one decoration this dish earns.

Chef Tips

• •Fresh huitlacoche is in season during the rainy months, roughly July through September in central Mexico, and a few weeks longer if you can find it at a serious Latin mercado. If the season is wrong and you are determined to make this dish, the canned version from a good Mexican brand like San Miguel or La Costeña will get you there. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade, but in this case the compromise is honest.
• •Crema mexicana is not sour cream. It is thinner, less tangy, and it will not break as easily over heat. If your store only carries sour cream, thin it with a tablespoon of whole milk and a squeeze of lime, but understand you are improvising. Real crema is sold in plastic tubs in any Mexican market and most Latin grocery stores.
• •The swirl of crema on top is not garnish for the photograph. The cold cream against the hot soup is part of the eating, each spoonful pulls a little of both. Use a spoon, not a squeeze bottle. This is a home kitchen, not a restaurant.

Advance Preparation

• •The base of the soup, through the blending step, can be made one day ahead and refrigerated. Reheat gently over low heat and then stir in the crema just before serving. Do not add the crema and then store, it can break on reheating.
• •Do not freeze this soup. The crema separates on thawing and the texture turns grainy. Huitlacoche is a fresh-season ingredient and the dish belongs to the day it is cooked.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 390g)