Heirloom Hominy Succotash

Ingredients

Yield:

1 recipe

• • Hominy (see below)
  • Beans cut to ½ inch
  • Butternut squash diced and roasted
  • Garlic butter
  • Scallions

• Hominy

  • 5 pints (10 cups) spring or filtered water
  • 1.6 ounces (1⁄3 cup) culinary lime
  • 9 ounces (1 ½ cups) Anson Mills Henry Moore Yellow Hominy Corn

Preparation

Difficulty:

easy

Time:

2 Days

1. • Pour the water into a medium enamel or porcelain coated pot. Add the culinary lime and stir with a wooden spoon until dissolved. Bring the lime water to a rolling boil on high heat. Kill the heat and let the pot stand until the lime water has cooled, and has cleared, 4 to 5 hours.
   • After 4 or 5 hours there will be a thin, crisp lime skin on the surface of the water. The liquid beneath will be clear, and a layer of cloudy lime solids will hover over the bottom of the pot. Set a fine mesh strainer over a 4- to 7-quart mixing bowl. Lift the pot with limewater, tilt it gently, and pour the liquid through the strainer, leaving the cloudy solids in the bowl (the lime skin will remain in the strainer). Allow the solids to settle again, then decant more limewater into the bowl. Repeat this process until only about a cup of cloudy solids and water remains at the bottom of the pot. Pour the lime skin and solids down the drain and rinse the pot and sink well. Return the decanted lime water to the enamel or porcelain coated pot. Add the corn. Let settle, then skim off and discard any floating kernels. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cover and turn off the heat. Let the corn stand in the lime water at room temperature, covered, overnight.
   • Turn the pot on high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a low simmer. Simmer, covered, over low heat until the kernels are soft and chewy and have relinquished their skins, about 3 hours. To check for doneness, use a wooden spoon, to lift 2 or 3 kernels out of the water, and rinse them under cold running water. Taste a kernel If done, it will be soft and ever so slightly chewy with a gel-like texture, but no hard, starchy center.
   • Remove the pot from the stove, and set it in the sink using potholders. Run hot water into the hominy to flush out any bits of pericarp (the cellophane-like skin that encases the kernels when they're raw), stirring with a wooden spoon, about 5 minutes. Turn the hominy into a footed colander and rinse under hot running water, rubbing the kernels between your palms (photo 1). Cool the hominy, then turn it into an airtight container or large zipper-lock bag, and refrigerate until ready to use, up to 1 week, or freeze for up to 3 months.