Wednesday, September 11, 2013

DDOW - Cuke, Corn & Hominy Salad - Vegan MoFo 2013





Another Delivered Dish of the Week (DDOW). Again, from One Dish at a Time's Tracy Yue, I ordered and received a quart of this lovely chilled salad made up of hominy, corn, and cucumbers, in a perky cilantro lime vinaigrette. From her website:

"Cuke, Corn & Hominy Salad in Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette (V, GF, soy-free, no added sugar) As well as being the basis of Posole stew, chewy hominy (rehydrated treated white corn kernels) is surprisingly nice in salads. I’ll use raw sweet corn for added crunch and because it’s frankly easier than par-boiling. The local sweet corn has been great this season."

One of my co-workers asked me what hominy was and my reply was "corn? Is that right? Is it just corn...but not?" I realized I didn't really know, which typically ends with me scouring the internet or other sources for information. From Wikipedia:
"Hominy consists of dried maize kernels which have been treated with an alkali in a process called nixtamalization."

Umm...ok? Why?
"To make hominy, field corn (maize) grain is dried, then treated by soaking and cooking the mature (hard) grain in a dilute solution of slaked lime (calcium hydroxide) or wood ash, a process termed nixtamalization. The soaked maize is washed, and then ground into masa. When fresh masa is dried and powdered, it becomes masa seca or masa harina."

Huh. Information for the day.

Tomorrow I will highlight the second dish I received for this weeks DDOW, Spicy Chile Verde with Beans.

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