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White Corn Grits - P.A.N.


CHILLIN

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Remember I asked for these before, and couldn't find them, and then low and behold a 2 lb bag shows up in our pantry. Turns out the brand is called P.A.N. are they are distributed in 25 countries, Mexico has its own subsidiary. This is where the Africans get their mealy meal for stews and foufou bread, and the Columbians and Venezuelans their daily arepa breads. They are very healthy , low calorie and filling - no gluten. I didn't have a recipe, so i measured one cup of grits, 1.5 cups of water, stirred them into a small. non stick frying pan. Thet became like a very thick paste, i added about 1/4 cup of sharp cheddar cheese, stirred it in, let in simmer on low for a while, then I made an indent for a poached egg and covered with a lide. It was so good, the crunchy cheese and grits crust, the rich poached eggs. I managed to eat it all, with two eggs this is enough for a meal for two. A little bit goes a long ways - one reason they are so popular in developing countries I guess. Found their website, lots of great recipes - but I wish I could buy tee shirts.

http://www.pancorn.com/english/index.php

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P.A.N. is not grits.  It's a pre-cooked corn product (like corn flour or meal) for making arepas, a staple food of Colombia and Venezuela.  NOT cornmeal for making anything like USA-style cornbread, though.

harina-PAN-arepas.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...
51 minutes ago, spacedebris said:

I have had some successful experiments making grits/Polenta using dried hominy (available almost anywhere here) and my blender. Process only small batches and you can control the coarseness  easily. The flavor is noticeably better than the pre ground and boxed cornmeal.

So do you cook them a regular or quick grits?

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Regular. What you want are those large dried hominy grains that have been slaked with lime. They have some at the supermarkets that are moist and wrapped in plastic but you want the dried kind. I get mine at a little vegetable market on Hidalgo on the south side of the street just before six corners. I have only seen white corn hominy there. I'm more used to yellow for polenta but the flavor is very good using the white. On to cornbread soon! I haven't tried this yet but it seems like the moist hominy could be turned into corn nuts with a little bit of work.  

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On 3/2/2019 at 8:56 AM, spacedebris said:

Regular. What you want are those large dried hominy grains that have been slaked with lime. They have some at the supermarkets that are moist and wrapped in plastic but you want the dried kind. I get mine at a little vegetable market on Hidalgo on the south side of the street just before six corners. I have only seen white corn hominy there. I'm more used to yellow for polenta but the flavor is very good using the white. On to cornbread soon! I haven't tried this yet but it seems like the moist hominy could be turned into corn nuts with a little bit of work.  

For a long time when I lived in Ajijic there was no corn meal available at all, except for boxed Jiffy cornbread mix.  I used to go to the feed store on the carretera to buy cracked corn meant for chicken feed.  I shook it through a wire strainer to get out the smallest pieces, then ground the larger pieces in my blender.  Bingo, corn meal.  Worked great.

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On 3/2/2019 at 8:56 AM, spacedebris said:

On to cornbread soon!

Haven't tried this recipe, will do soon. Looks popular. I only have full fat, homemade yogurt though. Most commercial yogurt here is sweet, even if the label says no sugar. They add a lactose based sugar, and the suspend the culture so it cannot "eat" the sugar.

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/yogurt-cornbread/

I used a similar technique as More Liana, "dent" corn, or sweet corn, to make sour mash corn whiskey. That was 15 years ago, I wish I had saved some bottles to bring down here, although there was a distillery near Puerto Vallarta making bourbon and moonshine. Do't know what happened them, maybe they blew themselves up! It was all legal, etc.

edit: turns out there lots of corn whiskey makers in Mexico. This one uses native Oaxaca corns. The video review is kind of long winded and hard to hear - review of the review, they liked it very much and said you could clearly taste the yellow corn accents. Expensive though.

http://tequilaaficionado.com/2017/03/24/sipping-off-cuff-sierra-norte-yellow-corn-whiskey/

http://www.banderasnews.com/1302/rr-los2compadreswhiskey.htm

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51 minutes ago, More Liana said:

For a long time when I lived in Ajijic there was no corn meal available at all, except for boxed Jiffy cornbread mix.  I used to go to the feed store on the carretera to buy cracked corn meant for chicken feed.  I shook it through a wire strainer to get out the smallest pieces, then ground the larger pieces in my blender.  Bingo, corn meal.  Worked great.

My first efforts were the same as yours. I may have been using chicken feed. But I haven't sprouted feathers and the flavor was much better than the old boxed cornmeal. 

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