Huitlacoche Tacos

Huitlacoche is the fungus that turns ears of corn into silvery grey-black swellings. American farmers call it corn smut and spend money getting rid of it, while Mexican cooks have eaten it since before the conquest. It tastes smoky and earthy, somewhere between mushroom and sweet corn. Here it is cooked with roasted poblano, onion, garlic, tomato and epazote and folded into corn tortillas. It is sold canned or frozen in Latin groceries.

Untested: I have not cooked this one yet. It is here because the Mushrooms dive needed it, and it is adapted from the source named in the Notes.

Ingredients

• 2 poblano chiles, roasted, peeled and cut in strips
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 white onion, sliced
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 cups huitlacoche (fresh, frozen or jarred)
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 2 to 3 tablespoons chopped epazote (or cilantro)

Salt

• 12 corn tortillas, warmed
• 3/4 cup salsa
• Queso fresco, crumbled

Directions

1. Onion and garlic. Cook the onion in the oil until golden, then add the garlic.
2. Huitlacoche. Add the huitlacoche, tomato and poblano strips and cook until thick and fragrant. Stir in the epazote and season.
3. Tacos. Spoon into warm tortillas and top with salsa and queso fresco.

Notes

Where this recipe came from Adapted from Rick Bayless’s “Huitlacoche Corn Mushroom Tacos” (rickbayless.com). The quantities are his.

The fungus Now classified as Mycosarcoma maydis (formerly Ustilago maydis). The sixteenth-century Florentine Codex describes it in Nahuatl as an ear of corn “born deformed… black, dark, like a tamal”. Its US reputation dates from a single evening, 12 September 1989, when Josefina Howard of Rosa Mexicano cooked an all-huitlacoche dinner at the James Beard House. See the Mushrooms dive’s around-the-world page.