Toasted Corn and Mesquite Pinole
Toasted corn ground into a fine flour, mixed with sweet mesquite pod flour. Eaten dry by the handful or stirred into cold water for a nourishing drink. The ideal snack for a walker.
Toasted corn ground into a fine flour, mixed with sweet mesquite pod flour. Eaten dry by the handful or stirred into cold water for a nourishing drink. The ideal snack for a walker.
When we walked for months without village or fire, it was this flour that kept us alive. The desert peoples taught me to toast corn kernels on a hot stone, then grind them fine, and mix in the sweet powder of the pods they call mesquite. A handful in the hollow of your hand, a little water from the gourd, and that was enough to last until evening. Believe a man who has known desert hunger: no bread is worth this flour, which weighs nothing and never spoils.
- •Dried corn kernels — a walking sack (starch, energy base)
- •Ripe mesquite pods — a handful (natural sweetener, sweet flour)
- •Gourd water — as needed (liquid to mix)
Toasted Corn and Mesquite Pinole
Toasted corn ground into a fine flour, mixed with sweet mesquite pod flour. Eaten dry by the handful or stirred into cold water for a nourishing drink. The ideal snack for a walker.
Why this dish? During eight years of wandering on foot across the Southwest, Estevanico carried provisions of dried corn. The desert peoples reduced toasted corn to a light flour, mixed with the sweet flour of mesquite pods: a lightweight, durable food that could be stirred into water to sustain days of walking without fire or pot.
When we walked for months without village or fire, it was this flour that kept us alive. The desert peoples taught me to toast corn kernels on a hot stone, then grind them fine, and mix in the sweet powder of the pods they call mesquite. A handful in the hollow of your hand, a little water from the gourd, and that was enough to last until evening. Believe a man who has known desert hunger: no bread is worth this flour, which weighs nothing and never spoils.
Ingredients (period version)
- Dried corn kernels — a walking sack (starch, energy base)
- Ripe mesquite pods — a handful (natural sweetener, sweet flour)
- Gourd water — as needed (liquid to mix)
Ingredients
- Dried polenta corn (kernels or coarse grits) — 200 g (base, to be toasted)
- Mesquite flour (or carob flour as substitute) — 50 g (natural sweet note)
- Pinch of salt — 1 pinch (flavor balance)
- Cold water — as needed for desired texture (to mix into a drink)
Method
- Toast the dry corn in a pan over medium heat, stirring until it turns golden and fragrant (without burning).
- Let cool, then grind finely in a mill or blender to obtain a flour.
- Mix with the mesquite flour and a pinch of salt.
- To snack: take a handful as is. For a drink: stir 3 tablespoons into a large glass of cold water and drink immediately.
How it was made : Pinole (from Nahuatl *pinolli*) was the quintessential walking food throughout the Southwest and Mexico: lightweight, caloric, non-perishable. Corn was toasted on stone or clay comals then ground on the metate. Mesquite pod flour, harvested from the desert tree, added precious natural sugar in lands without abundant cane or honey.
The contemporary twist : Served as a walker's 'shot' in a small glass, mixed with cold plant milk and dusted with mesquite: a pre-hike snack as effective as in the old days.
Sources : Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Naufragios (1542) · Gary Paul Nabhan, Gathering the Desert (1985)
Estevanico · Charactorium
