Laylita’s recipes

Humitas are hard to translate, if you’ve ever had an humita you know what it is, but to describe them to someone who’s never had them before is a little bit complicated, they are these delicious savory cakes, which I guess you could compare to a tamale (and explaining the difference between a tamale from Ecuador and tamale from Mexico is a completely different story), but humitas are made from fresh corn, which is ground with other ingredients and then stuffed in a fresh corn husk and steamed. In Ecuador humitas are very popular in the Sierra or Highland region, especially in cities like Loja, Cuenca or Quito, and they are typically eaten for breakfast or with the afternoon coffee.

When I was a kid, humitas weren’t just something yummy to eat, I loved the whole process of preparing them which actually started with going to pick the corn, either from the small field on our farm or from one of the neighbor’s farms if we were buying it; picking the corn was a lot of fun –of course we sometimes ended up choosing some that were not ready yet and I remember the corn plants to be so tall, which was why I was surprised when I moved to Texas and saw these tiny plants of corn everywhere. After we picked the corn we would take it home and remove the husks, this was also a lot of fun, we didn’t make humitas the way I do now - using less than 10 ears of corn – instead we had costales or big sacs of corn and made a ton of them. Some of the neighbor ladies would come help us, we would all sit outside of the house with corn all around and while we removed the husks there would always be someone telling a story or legend, most of which were pretty scary and involved the devil, supposedly the devil liked to hang out (during the night only) in the higueron trees, which were these big trees that were all around the valley, we had one on our farm and it was also the tree that our tree house was built on – no more spending the night in the tree house after those stories-, there was also a big higueron on the corner of the road down from the farm and this was where someone was supposed to have seen the devil; I could go on for a long time about all the stories and legends involving the devil –who sometimes he was described as this horrible creature other times he was in form of an extremely handsome man - , as well as other scary characters such as the widow, the witches, the headless priest, etc.

After removing the husks, the corn grains or kernels would be removed from the cob, if you didn’t have a steamer you would save the tusas or cobs to use them as a steamer; next the kernels are ground, my mom had one of those old manual grinders that we would use to grind the corn, today I just put the kernels and other ingredients in the food processor. Most humitas have cheese in them , either in the mix or stuffed in the middle or both, but there are some humitas that are made without any cheese, in our house that was unthinkable, my mom was very generous with the cheese and would mix in with the ground corn and also stuffed a little bit in the middle of each humita, the type of cheese used is called quesillo, which is a very fresh cheese that melts perfectly, the closest I found here in the US is the fresh farmers cheese, which is hard to find and expensive, so I usually use mozzarella for any recipe that requires quesillo. The type of corn in Ecuador is also very different from the types of corn found in the US, the Ecuadorian corn is less sweet and more dry, the first time I ever made humitas in the US I didn’t know this and I tried to make them just like I remembered, they ended being very sweet and gooey, so now I don’t add any sugar, I minimize the amount of liquids (cream, milk or butter) and also add some corn meal to help the humitas get some consistency; I’ve also noticed that if use corn that is older, which has less water, the consistency is thicker and I adjust the amount of corn meal based on the tenderness of the corn .

Just like many other typical Ecuadorian dishes the recipe for humitas will vary from one family to another, my mom’s recipe is one of the most simple and easy recipes to make: basically just grind the corn, mix in the other ingredients, stuff into the corn husks, place some cheese in the middle, wrap it up and steam them. The mothers of some of my friends had recipes for humitas that were a little bit more complicated and “sophisticated”, which involves separating the eggs and beating the egg whites until stiff - I used to think that anything made using an electric beater was super sophisticated, I finally convinced my mom to buy one when I was about 17 -, as well adding baking powder, to essentially make the humitas a lit bit more fluffy; I made the humitas both ways and I found that there was not really a difference taste wise and even the consistency was almost the same, my cuñado (brother in law) Matt was visiting and he also thought that they were exactly the same, Matt’s other comment was that he liked that the consistency of both batches of humitas was not too dry, sometimes in Ecuador the consistency of the humita can be a little bit dry, though I only experienced this when I had humitas at a restaurant or café but never at my house or at my friends’ homes . I’m including both methods for making the humitas, choose and adapt according to your preferences, even though these are great with cheese you can leave out the cheese – and other dairy products – if you are looking to try a dairy free option, same goes for the eggs.

The whole process of filling the humita mixture into the corn husks can be a little bit confusing until you get the hang of it, this is another part that people do differently depending on how they were taught, I’m wishing I had made a small video of this, but hopefully the pictures are helpful, it is one of those things that is easier to learn by watching someone do it than by reading about it, but I’ll try and if you still have any questions just send me an email. Use the corn husk to create a wrapper for the humitas, the larger ones will be used to make the wrapper and you can use pieces of the smaller husks to tie around the wrappers to keep them sealed. The bigger the husks the better, of course you’ll get to a point where the bigger ones are all gone or most of them will be small to start, so in that case I use 2 husks and place them on top of each other oppositely, i.e. top part of second husk should be placed on top the bottom part of the first husk, and not directly on top, on the side, the idea is to create a wrapper so you want to use both husk to overlap to increase the width. Now, you can place a spoonful of the mixture in the wider part of the husks (upper or lower) and some cheese in the middle, and then close it or you can finish or semi-finish the husk wrapper and then stuff it with the corn mixture. To close the wrapper, fold the left side over the mixture (or where the mixture will be placed), then fold the other half of the husk over - I like to stuff them at this point -, and then fold the right side, if you don’t have any mixture in it you will see that this creates a small pocket that you can then fill with a spoonful of corn mixture, some cheese and some more mixture.

Another way to fold the husks is to fold the top half over the bottom half and then fold each side – you can also fill it in the beginning, middle or end of this process.

The final step is to close it as well as you can and use the strips of the smaller husks to tie around the humita wrapper, one of the ends of the humita might be slightly open but that is fine. If you prefer to have all the ends closed you can do so by trying to wrap the humita with a first husk and then use the second husk to close any holes, it’s a little bit trickier since it’s hard to find enough large husks to wrap the humitas this way and it really doesn’t make a difference to the final product.

Try practicing how to wrap the humitas just using the husks to find the method that works best for you before filling them with the corn mixture.

As I mentioned before humitas are perfect for breakfast and go great with a hot cup of coffee, though according to my husband they also go well with wine, an essential side for the humitas is aji or hot sauce, preferably tree tomato hot sauce. Humitas can be re-heated in the microwave or also you can remove a cold humita from the wrapper and fry it over medium high heat with a little bit of oil or butter on each side for a couple of minutes until it is golden and crisp.

My mom’s humita recipe

Ingredients:

6-7 fresh ears of corn, with husks

3 cups grated or crumbled cheese, mozzarella or a fresh farmers cheese

1 cup diced white onions, about ½ large onion

1 tsp ground coriander

2 garlic cloves, crushed

About 1 cup corn meal

¼ cup of heavy cream

2 eggs

1 tsp salt

Sides – Aji de tomate de arbol or tree tomato hot sauce

Preparation:

1. Remove the husks from the corn; try to keep each husk intact, the large ones will be used as wrappers for the humitas and the smaller ones will be broken into long strips to tie around the humitas.
2. To help make the corn husks more pliable place them in a pot of boiling water for a couple of minutes, then drain the water and save the husks until ready to use.
3. Remove the silky hairs from the corn and use a knife to cut the corn kernels from the cob, if you don’t have a steamer save the cobs to use as a steamer.
4. Place the corn kernels, 1 cup of cheese, diced onions, crushed garlic, ground coriander, corn meal, cream, eggs, and salt in the food processor, mix until the corn is pureed.
5. In large deep pot place about 2 ½ cups of water and a steamer, the water should be just below the steamer, if you don’t have a steamer arrange the cobs on the bottom of the pan instead and cover them with some of the leftover husks.
6. To fill each humita (see detailed instructions on filling above as well as pictures), use 2 of the large corn husks per humita, place them on top of each other, fold the left side of the husks, then fold the top half over the bottom half, this creates a semi-pocket, fill it with a spoonful of the mixture (how much mixture will depend on the size of the husks, the larger the husks the more filling you can add) and stuff some of the remaining cheese in the middle, now fold over the right side of the husk and tighten it up a little bit, use the thin strips to tie around the wrapper and keep it closed.
7. Place the humitas in the pot on top of the steamer, I like to keep them slightly inclined with the open end on top. Place any leftover husks on top and cover well.
8. Place the pot on the stove over high heat until you hear the water boiling, reduce to a simmer and cook for about 35-40 minutes, the cooked humitas will be slightly firm to firm when they are done.
9. Serve warm with aji de tomate de arbol or tree tomato hot sauce.

A slightly more sophisticated humita recipe

Ingredients:

Same as above, with the following changes:

Add 4 tbs butter, melted

Approximately 1 ¼ cups corn meal (instead of 1 cup)

4 eggs, yolks and whites separated (instead of 2 eggs)

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbs sugar

½ tsp salt (instead of 1 tsp salt)

Preparation:

Same as above, except add only the egg yolks to the food processor mix, also add the melted butter, baking powder and sugar to the mix in the food processor.

Beat the egg whites until they are stiff and incorporate the whites into the corn mix.

Follow instructions above to assemble the humitas.

I love guacamole, it is one of my favorite snacks and I have some of the best memories of my mom, who grew up in New Mexico and makes great Mexican food, making these huge bowls (think salad bowl size) of guacamole that we would eat until we were completely full (and we would always finish every single bite). I’ve mentioned before that when I was a kid in the south of Ecuador we didn’t have any Mexican restaurants anywhere close and most of my friends had no idea what guacamole or an enchilada was and discovered these thanks to my mom – my friends loved to hang out at my house, in part because they knew my mom would cook some good food (of course I loved to hang out at my friends’ places to eat their moms’ food).

One thing that drives me crazy is that sometimes it seems impossible to find decent guacamole at restaurants, I use the quality of a restaurants guacamole to judge whether I’ll go back or not, seriously it’s just avocados, limes, onion, cilantro and other seasonings, how hard is it to mess that up? I have to mention though that my favorite fast food place, Chipotle, has some of the best guacamole you can get at any fast food restaurant, it’s fresh and simple: avocados, onions, hot peppers, cilantro, and lime; so if they can get right why can every other Mexican or Tex-Mex restaurant do the same? The other thing that annoys me is that the places that actually get it right are so freaking stingy with the guac, in my opinion it should be automatically included as a side on all dishes, but it usually isn’t and you have to pay an extra $5 to get some. Good thing I don’t eat out too frequently and just make my own guacamole at home and I let everyone eat as much as they want; I try to keep it simple and don’t usually add tomatoes unless I’m running low on avocados and need to maximize the amount of guacamole, my mom always added garlic to her guacamole and I like the taste it gives it, but feel free to leave it out if you’re a garlic lover, same thing for the serrano peppers.

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This is one of my favorite appetizers, occasionally we like to have appetizer dinners, which is just appetizers for dinner -it’s an adult version of ice cream for dinner - and this eggplant appetizer is one of those yummy appetizers that always gets included, it is especially good in the summer when you can get the best quality eggplants and tomatoes. I learned how to make this eggplant appetizer from my friend Anna, back in the days when we lived in Austin and hung out with a very fun group of Russians, we met Anna, who is Polish, and her Russian husband Victor thanks to our Russian neighbors Vadim and Geanna; we all lived in the same apartment complex and had some great dinner parties – Russians definitely known how to party-, Anna would usually bring this appetizer to these dinners. Another interesting thing about Anna is that she has an identical twin sister and Victor has an identical twin brother, and they met at the house of another friend who is also a twin, what are the chances of that?

Back to the food, the combination of eggplant and tomato gets a very spicy contrast from the garlic parmesan mayonnaise sauce, which I really think that sauce is the key to making this appetizer so delicious. Even though I’ve made this eggplant and tomato appetizer so many times I still remember Anna’s as being so much better than mine, she always used dill as the garnish, I use it sometimes but it just depends what I have in the garden or fridge, this time I used thyme and oregano as garnishes.

Thank you Anna for this great appetizer!

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Come y bebe, which literally translates as eat and drink, is an Ecuadorian fruit salad made with papaya, bananas, pineapple and orange juice, the fruit is cut in small pieces and usually has a good amount of orange juice so that you can actually drink it, this is a very refreshing drink or dessert for the summer. The most basic –and traditional – come y bebe that I’ve had consisted of just papaya, bananas and orange juice, I add the pineapple because that’s the way my mom made it and also because I love that combination of smooth papaya, sweet banana and crunchy tartness of the pineapple; you can also add other types of fruit if you like, mangos are a good option. I didn’t add any sugar or honey this time because the fruit was sweet enough and also I served it with honey whipped cream which gave it a little extra sweetness. To make the honey whipped cream I mixed 2 cups of heavy whipping cream with 4 tbs of honey, I love the flavor that the honey gives the whipped cream and it compliments fresh fruit just perfectly.

The papaya, pineapple and orange juice can be prepped a few hours in advance, but peel and dice the bananas right before serving to keep them browning. If you want a more drinkable version of this recipe you can increase the amount of orange juice, and I haven’t done this yet – I am very tempted to try it but I feel like I would be corrupting a childhood favorite recipe– you can make this an adult only fruit salad by adding some rum or cachaca (Brazilian sugar cane alcohol).

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