Hominy
I've never used hominy before, but recently came across a couple of interesting recipes that include it. I know it comes in cans and there's white and yellow, but that's about it. Are there any brands that I should look for? What's the difference between the white and yellow and is one preferable?
thanks
Bigface
Jan 07, 2004 06:07PM
It looks like large white corn, but it's not, right?
But I thought I saw somewhere that said masa harina is made from hominy, and isn't that a corn meal of sorts?
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Masa is a corn meal used for making tortillas and tamales. also as a thickener like cornstarch or flour.
It is interesting to bread pork in it for frying as well
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Homily is a specific type of corn that is soaked ina lye solution which dissolves the husks. Hominy looks like swollen corn kernels.
Personally, I prefer it heated in a pan with butter and some diced jalapeno to give it some zing. You need to add some flavor as hominy is rather tasteless.
It is used in a variety of stews including Mexican pozole and was a staple of the early settlers of the US.
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Yep it is a specific type of corn. Traditionally it was prepared by soaking it in lye. There are a number of Mexican grocery supplies and health food providers that have found other means to prep it. And masa and grits are made from it. its also the cotn used to make polenta. It is used primarily in hispanic cooking like pozole verde ( hominy with greens, a really great chicken soup dish, and Menudo. But it is becoming popular in vegetarian recipes. Ive seen lots popping up that use hominy. It really has no taste but once you "dress it up" its good filler.
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I'm currently addicted to the red pozole, so much so, that I can't bring myself to try the green. It must take a while to prepare, since it's only available on the weekend where I go for take-out or eat in, almost every weekend. The hominy looks as if it has bloomed, or popped, like popcorn. Each kernel has opened up. I love the stuff.
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Back in December there were a couple of long threads about hominy/pozole/polenta/dried corn in general. It might be interesting to have another look at them.
This is a post of mine:
http://www.chowhound.com/boards/general/messages/93726.html
And here's the link to the subsequent thread.
Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/...
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Indians both north and south of the border have been making hominy for centuries. You take dried field corn and soak it in lye or lime to remove the tough outer hull, or pericarp. This process has the health benefit of freeing up niacin in the corn, which an essential element for human survival. The treated corn kernels can then be ground up into wet masa for tamales or frying tortillas. Or, the kernels can be further soaked and cooked whole for dishes like pozole. Modern chefs are using hominy as a background for all kinds of meat and seafood dishes and in soups.
In the southern U.S., canned white corn hominy has been around since the turn of the 20th Century under labels such as Manning's, originally from Baltimore. That hominy, however, is steamed, so it doesn't have the flavor characteristics of Mexican or Southwest hominy.
You will see many brands of dried hominy, yellow and white, in the Latin sections of supermarkets. Goya's hominy is really chips of corn. There is also a Perusivan corn labeled "mote." Outside of Chicago or California, however, the big, authentic Mexican hominy is rare, although you can obtain in over the internet from Gourmetsleuth.com. Many other "Mexican-style" or "pozole-style" hominies are appearing on store shelves, such as Juanita's, Goya's and Busch's. These are typically made for a smaller corn grown in the Southwestern U.S. The original Mexican corn is a very large field corn. After it has soaked, Mexican home cooks usually snip off the tip with their finger nails so that the kernels pop open like crocus blossoms during the cooking.
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