Mazamorra antioqueña

As tradition built it

Mazamorra antioqueña

Serves 6. About 1 hour 30 minutes, plus soaking at least 10 hours.

Ingredients

The maize

• 500g white maize, hulled (trillado)
• 500g yellow maize
• 3 litres water, to soak the white maize
• 3 litres water, to soak the yellow maize
• as needed fresh water, for the pressure cooker
• 2 litres water, to cook the yellow maize
• 5g bicarbonate of soda

To serve

• to taste milk
• to taste panela or bocadillo

Method

1. Soak the white and yellow maize separately, each in 3 litres of water, for at least 10 hours.
2. Throw away the soaking water and cook the white maize in fresh water in a pressure cooker for an hour.
3. Meanwhile crack the yellow maize in a mill. Wash it at least three times and strain it, keeping the cloudy water for its starch.
4. Grind it again very fine, mix it with the starch water and strain again, repeating until all the bran is separated. Pass the bran through the mill once more, tightened, wash it and strain, keeping the starch.
5. Cook the yellow maize in the 2 litres of water for 45 minutes.
6. Pour the starch water into another pot, leaving the sediment at the bottom for later.
7. When the yellow maize is soft, mix it with the starch water and cook 15 minutes. Add the softened white maize.
8. After 15 minutes more add the bicarbonate and the reserved sediment and stir. Thin it with boiling water if it is too thick.
9. Let it boil a few minutes, rest it, and serve with a little milk and panela or bocadillo.

Notes

The method is Colombia.com's mazamorra paisa, which names no cook. Ángela Montoya, of Las mazamorras de Urabá, told El Colombiano the maize is pounded in a wooden pilón to take off the bran, boiled in unsalted water and served cold with milk and panela or bocadillo; the cooking water, the claro, is drunk on its own.

What a modern chef changes

Two Textures, One Bowl

Method

1. Blend a portion of the cooked, sweetened corn in a high-power blender to a smooth base.
2. Fold the blended base back through the remaining whole kernels for a two-texture result, smooth body and distinct bite in the same bowl.
3. Dehydrate a small quantity of extra corn kernels separately into a crisp garnish, scattered on top rather than left to soften in the milk.
4. Reduce the panela in a small pan to a proper syrup before it meets the corn, rather than adding grated panela directly.