Making Humitas; a Recipe and a Family Tradition

Over the past few months, we've joined Jose's parents, Victor and Josefina, a few times to help them with their corn harvest.  Well, to be more precise, they mostly pick and we mostly eat.  Corn grows year round here and in late October the first ears were ready to harvest again.  So, we headed out in the field and got a lesson from 

Victor on how to pick only the ripest ears of his yellow corn. 

Margarita and I helping with the harvest.

Then we headed back to their farm with bags full of corn.

After picking about 75 ears, we shucked and boiled them in a big pot.  Now, I'm from corn-country, and I like corn-on-the-cob as much as anyone, but when Ecuadorians boil a pot of "choclo" as they call it, they expect to eat!  Little Pablo ate 11 ears!  Choclo is smaller and has a little bit different texture than US sweet-corn, but served with salt, 

a block of Queso Freso cheese or a spicy ahí sauce, the ears do seem to go down quickly.  

After several weeks of harvesting small batches of his corn to eat and gift to family, 

Victor announced that the corn still in the field was at a perfect state for making humitas.  

So, we headed over to their house again for an Humita Party! 

Humitas, or corn cakes, are a favorite staple of the Ecuadorian diet.  They are eaten for breakfast sautéed in a little oil, or steamed in the late afternoon/ early evening to nosh with a café.  Small little restaurants abound- often assembled in people's front walkway 

or garage- ready to serve humitas to anyone passing by.  

People swear by specific recipes and their deliciousness!

After a lot of discussion and tasting on the part of Margarita and Faby, 

we ended up (more or less) with the following procedure and recipe:

Recipe:  Homemade Humitas

Step 1:  Pick bags of choclo by hand fresh from the field

Step 2:  One person shucks and saves the clean inner-leaves for the wrap

Step 3:  Four other people de-kernel by hand for almost two hours

Margarita, Faby and Jose's sister Veronica help Victor and Josefina with the corn.

Step 4:  Two adults and two children wash and grind the kernels in a traditional molino, or mill.

Alex and Pablo are helping with the molino.

I expected the ground corn kernels to make more of a dry corn meal,
but what came out was a very wet mush. 

Step 5:  To this mush, add:
24 eggs
1/3 of a small can of baking powder
2 cups melted butter
1 cup sugar
*1 super giant wooden spoonful of salt

*Before adding the salt, you can reserve some of the mush to make sweet humitas.  Simply add more sugar and a bag of anis seeds.

Step 6:  Stir all ingredients together with your hands.

Faby is demonstrating how to mix it all together with your hand.

Step 7:  If you don't have a big enough stove, or you are making a lot of humitas, start a fire
in the kitchen for a second pot to steam.

Wilo is starting the fire.

Step 8:  Gather a lot of volunteers around the pot of mush.  Drop two spoonfuls of corn mush into a clean corn husk and wrap up like a packet. 

Margarita, Josefina, Faby and Alex are showing me how it's done.

Step 9:  After you have many packets made and the fire is ready, layer the husk packets in a giant pot to steam.  Use a pot with metal shelves to space out the layers, or use more husks to create layers between the humitas.

Step 10:  Cover the pot with a tight fitting lid and steam for 30-35 minutes on a stove or over an open fire.

Step 11:  The humitas are finished when the mush has formed a cake inside the husk.

Step 12:  Enjoy your humitas with coffee and Queso Freso Cheese.


This recipe makes more than 100 humitas...
                                                           which is just right for a family to eat and share!

Artisans of Imbabura

Throughout this Blog, I've often highlighted different types of artistry found in Ecuador.  In today's post, I'd like to dig a little deeper into the talented artists who make their living in my Province of Imbabura.  Their traditions and artistry are nationally recognized and interwoven into every part of Ecuadorian culture.

When tourists think of Ecuadorian and Andean art, it's usually the colorful ponchos, tapestries and needlework that come to mind.  Up and down the spine of the Andes, people have been using alpaca and sheep wool for centuries to weave beautiful blankets and sweaters, while embroidering delicate
linens and blouses.

The Otavalo Market is Ecuador's showcase for these beautiful textiles, and luckily it's only about 30 minutes from Ibarra.
I take all my visitors there and always find something new
I just have to have for myself. 

On Saturdays, the Otavalo Market also features other local artists such as 

jewelry makers, woodworkers, metalsmiths, and painters.  Painting is
a time honored and revered tradition here in Ecuador. 

Many small pueblos around Imbabura are known for the exquisite needlework 

of the Indigenous women.  I see them sewing in their lap wherever I go... 

on the bus, and on street corners while waiting for the bus.  

The embroidery, or bordados, in the village of Zuleta are the most famous of all.  The ladies sell their wares in a weekend farmers / craft market in their Casa de Cultura.  

I've definitely bought a few items here.  The detailing is incredible. 

When my sister Julie, and her husband Doug, came to visit, we took a private art tour 

visiting workshops and artisan studios around Imbabura. 

On our tour, we met a family of instrument makers who carved wind and string instruments.  They also gave lessons in their home.  Music fills every corner of Ecuador and is always floating on the air from somewhere.  It was interesting to learn about the history of the

 instruments that make up the heart of the traditional Andean sound.  

Next, we visited a Tora Weaver.  Tora is a tall grass that grows naturally and quickly 

on the edge of the lakes.  The people who live in the villages around Lago San Pablo 

make money by cutting it, collecting it, drying it and weaving it into mats of all sizes.  

This is Tora grass growing at the edge of our local lake.

They also dye the reeds and weave them into baskets.  It was so hard to decide which to buy!

Then, we visited a jewelry designer who showed off her wares in her home.

Later, we visited a weaver who carded and spun alpaca wool into a fine yarn.

Afterwards, he demonstrated a traditional weaving method called back-strap weaving.  To finish his work, he rubbed a thistle across the rug he wove to make the alpaca soft and smooth. 

Some weaving is still done in a traditional way, but behind a small door in his workshop 
was also a more modern method - a large loom.  

The last stop on our tour took us to the workshop of a well-known local weaver named Jose Cotacachi in the pueblo of Peguche.  He started our tour by teaching us about how natural plants, animals and vegetables are used to naturally dye the wool. 

To create the colors, he starts with the shells or eggs of a small insect found around the Andes (Dactylopius coccus).  These mashed insects, a relative of the aphid, make rich purple-reds and pinks.

He added the juice of a lemon and it turned into orange.

Next, he added copper or iron oxide to get a purple.  He continued his demonstration creating a variety of colors.  Boiling nuts and seeds with the wool will turn it brown.  Specific leaves and flowers from the mountains and rainforest can make a variety of greens, blues, grays and yellows.  Black and whites are already the natural colors of the fleece from sheep and alpacas.

The colors of his wool were rich, vibrant and ready to weave!

Jose used his floor loom to demonstrate a traditional method for weaving his beautiful tapestries.

In the end, we were able to walk through all the rooms of his studio and
dream about owning one for our own home. 

This was my had-to have!  Jose said that it took him three days to weave and it features the sometimes snow-capped Imbabura mountain, which looms behind my house.  It also features the Condor, which is a powerful national symbol of Ecuador, and three Indigenous women working and chatting together.  This tapestry is now hanging gracefully in my room.

Elsewhere in Imbabura, wood carving (often religiously inspired) plays centerstage in the village of San Antonio de Ibarra.  I love to walk the streets to smell the fresh-cut wood and peer into the tiny shops of all the woodworkers.  Wood carvers create these beautifully detailed statues 
as well as all kinds of solid-wood furniture and pieces for your mantle.

And as I said before, music infiltrates every fiber of life here in Ecuador... traditional Ecuadorian music, modern Rigatone, or Classic Rock and Roll from the US.  It doesn't matter.  Music steams from cars, pounds your ears in buses, and blares from houses and church loudspeakers.  Every festival brings amateur musicians into the streets and weekly, there are free music concerts in the park.  Here is a video of me and my Ecuadorian family enjoying a concert of Paulina Tamayo,
a famous well-known and well-loved Ecuadorian singer
who gets everyone in the crowd singing traditional favorites.

If you can't see the videos, go to onthewingadventures.blogspot.com 

And I'll close with an excerpt from an Indigenous band who, for me, exemplifies how
the beloved Ecuadorian traditional music is being transformed and reimagined
 in modern ways.  Ecuadorians applaud all artists who celebrate the old,
recreate new, or combine the two in interesting ways. 

All of it is art, and all of it is important in Ecuador.