Spending several vacations in New Mexico has given me real appreciation for the traditional flavors of the region. I'll spare you a complete recap, as I've previously drooled and blogged at length about my love affair with tamales, green chiles and posole. But it's time I introduced another (new) favorite, an ingredient I wasn't terribly familiar with, or at least cooking with; blue corn.
OK, first, because I'm a bit of a food-history geek, I thought I'd share with you a few tidbits. Blue corn is native to the Southwest, planted, cultivated, and harvested completely by hand, (because of a tendency for the fully loaded stalks to fall over in the fields). Consequently, it's more scarce and more expensive than white and yellow corn.
Blue corn, until recently, rarely appeared outside the Southwest. It's a staple of the Pueblo tribes, who grow it for themselves and use it to make a hot cereal called atole, various boiled breads and dumplings, tortillas and a very thin, many layered rolled bread (similar to phyllo dough) called paper bread.
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Blue corn is higher in both protein and lysine than regular white or yellow corn. Besides being a major staple of the Native peoples it is also an important element in some religious rituals. It was believed that blue corn helped strengthen especially ill or pregnant women and was traditionally served before strenuous activities or preparing for journeys.
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Blue corn meal or flour has a coarser, sweeter and nuttier taste than other types of flour corns. It is the basis for many traditional Native American foods and recipes, though most common in blue corn tortillas. Now, of course, you can find blue corn products in most every tourist shop in New Mexico.
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As with the color of red onions or red cabbage, the color of blue corn is quite sensitive to the effects of akaline substances such as baking soda (or the lime or ash water used by Southwest Indians), dough made with blue cornmeal turns darker blue to greenish. In contact with an acid, like as vinegar, it develops a deep violet to purple cast. Science fun in the kitchen! Yay!
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Out of curiosity, I brought some beautiful purple-ish blue corn meal back last time I visited, and have been experimenting with it ever since. (The above pic is from the Farmer's Market, I didn't bring back whole ears of corn, I'm not THAT adventurous!).