One Local Summer week #4

Ever since beginning the One Local Summer exercise, I have been in search of something that has long since vanished from the typical American diet: traditional cuisine. I have been convinced there must be a way to go back to eating before freezers, chemical preservatives, and round-the-world shipping changed our concept of dinner (and changed dinner's environmental footprint). Very much in line with Gary Nabhan in his book Coming Home to Eat, I found myself wanting to eat meals made without processed goods prepared by strangers, machines, and corporations.

Certain of these meals are easy for me—I can whip up a salad in no time, throw some vegetables on the grill, or prepare some fish or some eggs for a more substantial meal. But I’m participating in One Local Summer partly because I want to step outside my comfort zone, to go beyond what I already know to see what is possible eating within my own foodshed.

An idea I had since starting One Local Summer, which I’d only pursued haphazardly until now, was to investigate traditional uses of corn, which constitutes the staple grain of much of Southern and Central America. For me, eating corn meant throwing fresh corn cobs onto the grill, but I wanted to move past this. I wanted to transform corn from a vegetable to a starch—to have it serve as an alternative to potatoes, rice, or pasta rather than vegetal accompaniment.

Of course, using corn as a starch means converting it into flour, known as masa. Of course, since the whole idea of this exercise is to not rely on transported commercial products, I quickly realized this would mean doing it myself. Daunted but determined (the process looked quite labor intensive), my mind raced with possibilities. Converting corn into flour would mean using corn to make bread and dough (or tortillas and tamales), a remarkably luring possibility from an eating-local standpoint, considering there aren’t any flour mills to be found in Southern California.

That’s when I came across a recipe adapted for Epicurious from Chef Francis Mallman, an Argentine Chef: Andean Humita en Chala. Humitas are a traditional Argentinian food similar to the tamal of Central America. This recipe, as well as one I later found in the book Tamales 101, by Alice Guadalupe Tapp, used only fresh corn, not processed corn masa. Happily putting the whole corn-to-masa process on hold, I had this week’s meal.

While the recipe I found was for plain Humitas, I decided to spice mine up a bit, mostly because I came across two new local products this week (which also happen to be two of my favorite food categories): mushrooms and cheese.

The mushrooms were from Mountain Meadow Mushroom Farm in Escondido, a gorgeous bag of shitake and portabella caps. The cheese was actually two kinds of Gouda from Winchester Cheese Company--possibly the only commercial farmstead cheese within 150 miles of me. Mary Palmer, who sold me the cheese at Taste cheese shop in Hillcrest, was kind enough to emphasize that the cheese was not just artisinal--made in small batches with the utmost care--but was farmstead, meaning that everything that went into the making of the cheese was gathered from the Winchester cheese property. She urged me to go out to visit, as they gladly offer tours and demonstrations (she also recommended waiting until the fall, when the desert heat calms down).

Cheese and mushrooms--I don't think I've come across two better discoveries this summer. Here's how I concocted them into a meal:

mushroom and gouda humitas, served alongside Winchester Gouda, bread from Charlie's Best bakery, and a simple arugula and yellow tomato salad. (And yes, because I have a weakness for artisinal cheese, that's a small slice of non-local Humbolt Fog goat cheese you see on the cutting board.)

Mushroom and Gouda Humitas
Adapted from Chef Francis Mallman's recipe

Serves 3

Dough
4 ears corn, husks on
3 small carrots
1/2 onion
basil
salt
pepper
1/4 cup milk

Carefully make ring 1/4" from bottom of each corn cob to loosen husks. Carefully remove husks one layer at a time.
reserve removed husks, separating outer and inner layers into two piles
repeat for all 4 ears.

heat oil in skillet over medium heat, add diced carrot and onion. cook about 8 minutes until vegetables are translucent.
cut kernels from cobs, discard cobs.
grate kernels in food processor until fine, about 45-60 seconds
add cooked onion and carrot, milk, basil, salt and pepper and pulse for 15 seconds.
transfer mixture to bowl and chill until firm, about 30 minutes.
meanwhile, make filling (recipe below)

Filling
1/2 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp oil or butter (I used oil because it was local; otherwise I would have used butter)
8 shitake mushrooms, stems removed, sliced thin
1 small portabella mushroom, stem removed
1/4 cup red wine
1 tsp honey
1/4 cup finely grated sharp Gouda

heat oil in large skillet over medium heat
sautee onion until translucent
add garlic, cook for 30 seconds until fragrant
add mushrooms, wine and honey
cook 7 mintues, stirring frequently
remove from heat, stir in Gouda
set mixture aside

Assembly
Select 12 widest outer husks and 6 inner husks. wash carefully
tie a knot at the skinny end of each inner husk. starting at other end, slit husk vertically, up to knot. You should now have one long strand twice the length of the original husk. This will be used to tie the humitas.
Form the humitas: "Lay 2 of widest husks side by side (narrow ends at top and bottom), overlapping a few inches to form rectangle."
spoon 2 heaping spoonfuls of dough where the husks overlap. top with one spoonful of filling, and a third spoonful of dough.
"fold sides over to cover filling. Fold in top and bottom to make enclosed rectangular package. Tie crosswise with knotted husk. Repeat with remaining filling and husks."

Place completed humitas on baking sheet and bake in 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.



UPDATE: Ok, so I was so happy with this recipe that I made it again later in the week, although with not 100% local ingredients. If you've got local pork, I recommend the second version. Prepare dough as above, but substitute filling and top with apricot glaze and peach salsa.

Apricot-chipotle pork filling
1/2 red pepper
1 smaill red onion
2 pork chops, diced into 1" squares
6 small apricots, diced
2 chipotle chiles, diced
1/2 can beer
1 tbsp butter

saute onion, pepper, saute till transulcent. add pork, browning on all sides add diced apricots and chipotle. add beer. bring to boil, reduce heat to low, simmer about 10 minutes, or until pork is cooked through. Remove pork, turn heat to high and reduce remaining sauce to 1/2. Add butter and stir until thickened. Reserve sauce to spoon over cooked tamales (reheat before serving).

peach, green tomato and chipotle salsa
1 peach
1/2 green tomato
1 chopotle chile

dice all ingredients and combine. refrigerate for 1/2 hour to 2 hours.