I dedicate this recipe to my Aunt Ramona as she is the closest family I think I could hope to see make this recipe. I did start with this recipe my wife found online, but my version is distinct enough and such a vast improvement on the original that I feel comfortable calling it my own.
Preamble
I have had major health struggles these last two years, but corn is a staple carb that works good for my digestion. I feel better eating corn. That said, I’ve poo-pooed corn as a health food in the past; it’s one of the most GMO’ed and pesticide ridden crops known today. But it hasn’t always been that way, corn is what gave rise to powerful and rich Latin American societies and while the plant was exported to the rest of the world, the proper preparation of the plant was not.
History shows and Pure Fermentation by Sandor Katz confirms that properly prepared corn actually contains a complete set of amino acids for human protein production along with sufficient B vitamins to stave off deficiencies. Properly prepared corn is cooked and soaked in an alkaline bath; a process that is referred to as nixtamalization. I won’t go into how to nixtamalize corn, Eat Like a Human by Bill Schindler, the aforementioned Pure Fermentation and the internet are all plenty able to guide you. I just want you to know that you need to start with organic corn and process it in this way and it becomes delicious and nutritious.
The recipe calls for masa or pozole, masa is nixtamalized corn that has been rinsed and processed into a dough, pozole is rinsed grains of corn.
Once a week I nixtamalize about one kilo of corn, which turns into 1.5kg of pozole. I set aside 400g for this recipe and process the rest into masa. I then set aside 300g of masa for grits and make the rest into tortillas.
We don’t meal plan in the strictest sense of the term, but I do meal prep in a strict sense. From this prep we get tortillas 2x in the week, grits once, quesadillas for breakfast and pancakes on Saturday morning. Along some cupcakes for a snack throughout the week. All of which are super easy meals once I’ve spent an hour doing my corn prep.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup coconut oil or unsalted butter, melted
- 1/4 cup yogurt
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 200g masa/pozole
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp organic cane sugar
- pinch of ground cinnamon
Directions
Grease a cast-iron skillet with some lard or butter and put it on medium heat.
Put all ingredients in a blender and blend on high for 1 minute. Scrape the blender contents into a bowl (I use the bowl I weighed out the pozole with)
Fill a ¼ measuring cup slightly less than full, pour batter onto skillet and let cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until bubbles appear and the bottom has browned. Flip and cook again until bottom has slightly browned.
Remove cooked pancakes and repeat with remaining batter.
Notes
If making cupcakes, bake at 180 Celsius for 12 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean (we make mini-cupcakes)
If you don’t have pozole you can soak 1½ cups corn flour in 3/4 cup lime water overnight. The result isn’t as nice. See nourishing traditions on how to prepare lime water (no limes).
If you are not soaking the corn flour in lime water replace the lime water with yogurt. This works but is the least delightful version.
Sincerely, Cabra. 