Atole de Espuma Zapoteco

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Hand-carved Oaxacan molinillo with loose rings
• •Wide ceramic or copper foam bowl, at least 12 inches across
• •Cast iron comal for toasting
• •Metate or small spice grinder for the pataxte
• •Heavy clay olla or stainless saucepan for the atole
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Small jicaras (gourd cups) or hand-thrown clay cups for serving

Instructions

1. 1

   Toast the wheat berries

   Heat a dry comal over medium-low. Add the wheat berries in a single layer. Toast them slowly, shaking the comal often, for about 12 minutes. They should turn the color of dark honey and crack open with a sound like small popcorn. The kitchen will smell like a panaderia at five in the morning. Pull them off the heat the moment the color is right. Burned wheat will turn the foam bitter and there is no fixing it later.

   Toasting is what gives this atole its color and the depth that distinguishes the wedding version from a daily atole. Skip it and the foam stays pale and tastes flat.
2. 2

   Toast and grind the pataxte

   On the same comal, toast the pataxte beans for about 6 minutes, turning them often. They should darken and release a deep, almost bread-like aroma, less sweet than chocolate, more like roasted nuts and dry earth. Let them cool. Peel off the papery skins with your fingers and discard. Grind the toasted pataxte to a coarse paste in a metate, or pulse in a small spice grinder until it forms a rough, oily meal.

3. 3

   Build the foam base

   Drain the soaked rice. Combine the toasted wheat, ground pataxte, drained rice, and the piece of cocoyul root in a blender with 2 cups of cold water. Blend on high for a full three minutes. The mixture should turn pale brown, thick, and slightly slick from the cocoyul. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a wide ceramic or copper bowl, pressing hard on the solids to extract every drop. This strained liquid is your foam base. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Cold liquid foams better than warm. Asi se hace y punto.

4. 4

   Cook the corn atole

   If using fresh nixtamal, blend the corn with 2 cups of water until completely smooth and strain through a fine sieve. If using masa harina, whisk it with 2 cups of cold water until lump-free. In a heavy clay olla or stainless saucepan, combine the strained corn liquid with the remaining 4 cups of water, the canela stick, the pinch of salt, and the grated panela. Bring to a slow simmer over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon in a figure-eight motion. Never stop stirring. Atole that scorches on the bottom carries that burned taste through the whole pot.

   The atole should coat the back of the spoon and leave a clean line when you draw your finger through it. Too thin and it will not hold the foam. Too thick and the foam slides off. About 25 minutes of patient stirring will get you there.
5. 5

   Whip the espuma

   Take the cold foam base out of the refrigerator. Set the wide bowl on a folded cloth on the counter so it does not slide. Take a wooden molinillo (a Oaxacan one if you have it, hand-carved with the loose rings) and roll it between your palms over and over. Roll fast. Faster. The molinillo should spin freely and the liquid should rise into a thick, pale-brown foam that mounds in the bowl like beaten egg whites. Sprinkle a few drops of cold water over the surface as you work. This is the trick the senoras of Tlacolula taught me. The cold water locks the air in. Keep going for at least eight minutes. Your shoulders will burn. That is the work. La cocina no es decoracion, es trabajo.

6. 6

   Serve in jicaras

   Pour the hot atole into small jicaras (gourd cups) or hand-thrown clay cups, filling each only two-thirds full. Spoon a generous mound of the cold espuma on top of each cup, letting it stand high above the rim. The contrast is the dish: hot beneath, cold above, the foam holding its shape for ten or fifteen minutes if you whipped it right. At a Zapotec wedding the espuma can stand for nearly an hour. That is the standard. Serve immediately. The drinker eats the foam first with a small wooden spoon, then sips the atole underneath. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Pataxte is the ingredient. If you cannot find it, look for it under the names pataxtle, balamte, or jaguar cacao at a Oaxacan or Chiapaneco specialty shop. Roasted criollo cacao nibs are a compromise, not an upgrade. They will make a darker, more chocolatey foam that lacks the dry, bread-like depth of true pataxte.
• •The molinillo is not optional. An immersion blender or electric whisk will not give you the same foam structure because the rings on a hand-carved Oaxacan molinillo introduce air at a slower, more controlled rate. If you do not have one, find one before you make this dish. They cost very little at any mercado in Oaxaca or from a Oaxacan importer.
• •Use Mexican canela, the soft, papery Ceylon cinnamon, never the hard cassia bark sold as cinnamon in most American supermarkets. Cassia is too aggressive and will overwhelm the pataxte. If your cinnamon stick is hard and dark red, it is the wrong kind.
• •Do not sweeten the espuma itself. The foam stays cleaner when the sugar lives only in the hot atole below. The contrast of unsweetened cold foam over sweetened hot atole is the architecture of the drink.

Advance Preparation

• •The toasted wheat and ground pataxte can be prepared up to three days ahead and stored in airtight jars at room temperature. The flavor actually deepens after a day of resting.
• •The strained foam base can be made up to four hours ahead and held cold in the refrigerator. It must be cold when you whip it.
• •The hot atole below can be made up to one hour ahead and held warm over very low heat with constant stirring. Do not refrigerate and reheat. The corn structure breaks and the texture turns grainy.
• •The espuma itself cannot be made ahead. It is whipped at the moment of serving and that is the whole point of hiring an espumera at a wedding. The foam is the live performance.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 260g)