Humitas cusqueñas

As tradition built it

Humitas cusqueñas

Makes 8.

Ingredients

• 32 corn husks (pancas)
• 8 fresh corn cobs (choclos)
• 360ml milk
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 tbsp white sugar
• 120ml raisins
• 4 tbsp manjar blanco
• to cover water

Method

1. Cover the husks with water, bring them to the boil over a medium heat and boil about 5 minutes, until soft. Lift them out.
2. Strip the kernels off the cobs and keep the bare cobs. Blend the kernels with the milk.
3. Melt the butter in a pot over a low heat. Add the corn and the sugar and cook 15 minutes, stirring all the time.
4. Add the raisins just before it comes off the heat. Let it cool.
5. Lay two husks overlapping, put an eighth of the mixture on them and half a tablespoon of manjar blanco in the middle. Wrap it in two more husks and tie it with string. Make the rest.
6. Lay the bare cobs in a large pot as a rack and add water three quarters of the way up them. Set the humitas on top and cook 20 minutes over a medium heat.
7. Let them cool before serving.

Notes

The recipe is El Comercio's, first published on Menú Perú in 2015. The cobs are the rack; no steamer basket is needed.

What a modern chef changes

Sous vide set, smoked husks

Method

1. Cook the corn and sugar mixture sous vide in a sealed bag at a low, precise temperature rather than over a direct flame, for an even set with none of the risk of catching.
2. Dehydrate a small portion of the raisins' own soaking liquid to a concentrated syrup, brushed over the humita once unwrapped.
3. Char the corn husks briefly over the Big Green Egg's direct heat before wrapping, for a faint smoke note the traditional steaming never introduces.