Weekend with Hominy

The goal of this post is a “how to” for making hominy (if you are at this post only for that… skip down until you see the “MAKING HOMINY” section)… but before I do this I want to wish everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR!  This marks my first year “blogging”.  I would have never guessed that I would  have met so many  wonderful people and read so many interesting posts.

While driving home from the “bunker”, I was pondering how fortunate we all are to be able to share our thoughts with and read thoughts from people all over the world.   I also stopped and took some early morning pictures from my drive home… and have decided to share them with you. (This has nothing to do with hominy… sorry  I often get side tracked)

These pictures are of Bridal Veil Falls located in Provo canyon.

There use to be an aerial tramway that would take you to the top of the falls.   As a kid we were told that it was the steepest in the world… not sure if this was true or not.  There was a building at the top and there were dances held there on the weekends.  I would often ride the tramway to those dances (not sure they were great dances… but you always had an awesome ride and a spectacular view from the top).   In the 90s an avalanche took out the bottom shop and tramway machinery and it has never  been rebuilt.

This picture is looking left of the falls (East).   I came from this direction (bunker… weekend home) and in the other direction is my weekday home.  The feature picture for this post is facing opposite of Bridal Veil Falls

I think I have bored you enough with my morning drive pictures so I will get to the “making hominy” part.  ( I am sure you were starting to feel like I would feel when my grandparents would get out their vacation slides)

MAKING HOMINY

If you are from my part of the world you are probably scratching your head with the idea of making something so easily found and inexpensive.  (I am sure many of you have scratched your heads with lots of my previous posts… ).  I had not realized that hominy was not a common food item every where until a wonderful blogger (Claire) asked me what is “hominy” in a comment to a recipe I posted that called for hominy…. Weekend with Locro

I dedicate this post to Claire  and I also want to include  a shameless plug for her blog:

 Claire’s “smallholding dreams” blog.   This is one of the many wonderful blogs I have found and I have taken from this blog some fantastic recipes.  I have enjoyed her odd behavior including winter ocean dips.  I have been inspired by her older dog..  (not the new one with the odd name… and the squirts… so distasteful).  Most of all I have pondered about the managerial tendencies of her chickens. Please check out her blog. (it is better than how I am making it sound)

I thought about sending Claire a large can of hominy… but you know that old saying give a man a can of hominy… feed him a day.  Teach him how to make hominy and as long as he can buy or grow all of the ingredients he will feed himself his whole life (that is until he gets sick of eating hominy…  umm… this might not be an exact quote)

I hope she will be able to make Locro (wonderful soup) now that she will be able to make “hominy”.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups of dry corn kernels
• 1/2 cup of Pickling Lime
• 20 cups of water
• Coffee filters and non reactive pots

Steps:

Step 1:   Make lime water by bringing 20 cups of water to a boil than add 1/2 cup of picking lime ( Food grade calcium hydroxide  ) remove from heat and let sit for 5 hours.  (as tempting as it may be… don’t drink this it is very caustic...)

Step 2:  After 5 hours you will have a film on the top and a layer of white at the bottom.  You do not want any of this… you want just the water.  I filter the water from the particles using a strainer and coffee filters.  I pass the “lime water” twice through the filters.

Step 3:  Pour the lime water onto the dry corn kernels and let sit overnight (at least 12 hours… you may also want to remove any broken kernels)

 

Here are the corn kernels after they have soaked all night

 

Step 4:  Simmer kernels at 191º F (89º C) until all the kernels are fully cooked.   This is usually around 2 – 3 hours.  You know they are done by rinsing several kernels and biting into them… if they are all soft your hominy is fully cooked.

Step 5:  Remove thoroughly all of the alkaline solution from the kernels.  I do this by first placing the pot into the sink and adding water until it overflows for several minutes.   I then pour the kernel into a colander and rinse kernels for several minutes.   I place the kernels back into fresh water and let them sit for 15 minutes.  I then pour them back into the colander and rinse again.

Step 6:  Place in refrigerator until used… I am not sure how long they will last so I would use them with in a day or two.

THAT IS ALL!

(If you are not familiar with hominy click here.   Hominy is suppose to be easier to digest and a good source of calcium and niacin.  There are many recipes that call for hominy… I am not going to give you any…. so…do a google search).