In January 1998 I went to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the first time, visiting my friends Jordan and Sean. I had lots of really terrific Southwestern food, like sopapillas stuffed with carne adobado, topped with red chile sauce ... oh my God.Jordan and Sean are linguists who work with Native American languages, and have worked with several nearby nations including the Navajo and Jicarilla Apache. I was curious about some of the culinary practices of some of the Native American Nations, and we found a terrific book entitled Hopi Cuisine (you can buy it by clicking on the previous link). We agreed that we'd probably skip the recipes like roasted prairie dog, and looked for ones that were easily adaptable to non-Hopi kitchens.
This omeletteis really terrific. The blue cornmeal, exotic enough it itself, adds body to the omelette, while the heavier particles of cornmeal settle to the bottom while it's baking and form a sort of a crust. The Hopi original is sparingly seasoned, but we found the omelette to be yummy with the addition of green onions, mild chiles, a little garlic and cilantro. Try it! Experiment!
Preheat the oven to 325F.
- 8 eggs, preferably at room temperature
- 1/2 cup finely ground blue cornmeal
- about 2 tablespoons oil (preferably canola oil)
- 3 green onions, chopped fine
- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1 small fresh poblano chile, roasted, peeled and minced
- seasonings as desired, to taste (e.g., salt, pepper, paprika)
- Tabasco sauce, or Tapatio sauce
- Chopped cilantro
Beat 6 eggs until light and frothy.
Gradually add the blue cornmeal to eggs, while continuing to beat. (Observe what color results when you mix blue and orange.) Add seasonings now to the egg mixture -- OR add them later to the oil after you've fried the green onions.
Heat oil in heavy skillet or pan with deep sides (preferably an 8-inch cast iron skillet -- if you don't have such a pan, you should go get one), coating it thoroughly.
Fry the green onions, garlic and chiles for a few minutes until well done and beginning to crisp in places. Now throw any seasonings you want into the oil, if you didn't add them to the egg mixture earlier.
Beat the egg mixture a bit more to mix it up again (some of the corn meal will have settled.) Slightly stir the 2 remaining eggs together and fold into egg mixture.
Pour the egg mixture into the hot pan. (Don't mix it up once you pour it into the pan -- this will mix the oil in with the egg, which you don't want -- you want the oil to stay as separate from the eggs as possible; you're making an omelette here, not baked mayonnaise.)
Bake until eggs are firm but still fluffy, 15-20 mins. (Times may vary by altitude.)
It will come out looking like an experiment in extruding polymers into a vacuum, and will be a color unknown to nature. Equals yummy!
Slice the omlette into wedges, sprinkle with cilantro, and eat bits of it in warmed flour tortillas with dashes of Tabasco or Tapatio sauce.
Serves three hungry and fearless people generously.
Based on Mrs. Josephine James's recipe for "Hopi Omelette" in Hopi Cookery by Juanita Tiger Kavena. Experimentation, augmentation and flavor-futzing by Chuck Taggart and Sean Burke (who wrote the recipe).
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