Uchepos

As tradition built it

Uchepos

Steaming time varies by household, from roughly 30 minutes up to 1.5 to 2 hours, commonly 50 to 60 minutes

Ingredients

• 12 whole ears fresh corn, husks reserved for wrapping
• 2 tbsp baking powder
• 1 cup sugar, to taste
• to taste ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup butter

Method

1. Grind the fresh corn kernels raw, without nixtamalising, reserving the husks, hoja de elote, the fresh husk of the ear itself, not the corn-plant leaf corundas use.
2. Mix the ground corn with baking powder, sugar and cinnamon to taste, and butter.
3. Wrap in the fresh husk.
4. Steam; timings genuinely vary by household, from roughly 30 minutes at the shortest to 1.5 to 2 hours at the longest, a commonly cited middle figure of 50 to 60 minutes, judged done when the husk peels cleanly away and the uchepo is firm but tender.

What a modern chef changes

UK Sweetcorn, Blended and Browned Butter

Rung 03

Method

1. Use UK sweetcorn bought from a farm shop in August or September, within a day of picking, as the honest substitute for Michoacán's own milky-stage field corn; supermarket corn, bred for sugar retention rather than field-corn character, will not give the same result.
2. Blend the fresh corn kernels in a high-power blender, then pass through a chinois for a genuinely smoother masa than a domestic blender leaves, without the fibrous skin some home versions carry through.
3. Cook the butter to a light brown, nutty stage before folding it through the masa, a small variable change against the plain butter most home versions use.