I want to write about smut. In Mexico, smut has been elevated to an art form. Everyone loves it. Everyone lusts after it. Mind you, there is a distinct smut season, which means that for several months of the year, Mexican aficionados are denied satisfaction. But when the smut season starts - well, look out world. Huitlacoche is corn. Not just ordinary corn, but infected corn. An airborne fungus attacks the kernels, swelling them to many times their normal size. The yellow flesh turns to a very dark grey or black. The flavour is unique - imagine a cross between truffle, corn and portobello mushrooms. When we returned from our 2 years in Mexico, I contacted various state Departments of Agriculture to see if corn smut existed in in Australia. It does. The trouble is that it is regarded as evil and corn framers will do whatever it takes to eradicate it. If only they knew how extraordinary huitlacoche tastes. It is ironic that in Mexico, infected corn sells for many times the price of healthy corn. In Australia, it is destroyed. Now, about green rice. It gets its colour from a mix of green leaves. In this case, I used rocket, epazote (a Mexican herb we grow at home), baby spinach and peas. You could also use coriander leaves and mild green chillies to get the colour. I cooked the rice using the absorption technique, adding the puree of green herbs at the very end - to preserve the vibrant colour. The chicken is a breast. With skin and with the first wing joint intact. It is sometimes called a Frenched breast. Or a supreme. Or a Frenched Kiev - which is really muddling nationalities.
CHICKEN WITH HUITLACOCHE AND GREEN RICE
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