Canjica Branca

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •6-liter pressure cooker
• •Heavy 4-liter pot if finishing outside the pressure cooker
• •Wooden spoon
• •Ladle
• •Fork or potato masher

Instructions

1. 1

   Soak the corn

   Put the dried white hominy in a bowl, cover it with plenty of water, and leave it overnight, 8 to 12 hours. The kernels should swell and look a little more alive, not hard and dusty. Soaking is not ceremony. It hydrates the corn so the middle softens before the outside splits, and the pot cooks evenly instead of giving you half-tender, half-stubborn kernels.

   For a same-day start, cover the hominy with water, boil for 5 minutes, turn off the heat, cover, and let it sit for 1 hour. It works. Overnight soaking gives a slightly better texture, because time did the work instead of panic.
2. 2

   Cook until tender

   Drain the soaked hominy and put it in a pressure cooker with 5 cups water and the salt. Lock the lid, bring to pressure, then lower the heat and cook for 35 minutes. Let the pressure come down naturally for 10 minutes, then open carefully. Bite a kernel. It should be tender all the way through, with a little chew, not chalky in the center. If it fights back, cook it 10 more minutes under pressure. Tender first, sweetness later.

3. 3

   Start the milk

   Drain off any excess cooking water, leaving about 1 cup in the pot with the hominy. Add the whole milk, coconut milk, sugar, cinnamon sticks, and cloves. Bring it to a gentle simmer over medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon until the sugar dissolves and the milk smells like cinnamon and cloves. Keep it gentle. A hard boil makes milk climb the pot and scorch on the bottom, and then the whole dessert tastes like your attention went for a walk.

4. 4

   Simmer creamy

   Lower the heat and simmer uncovered, stirring every few minutes, for 25 to 35 minutes. Watch the milk thicken around the kernels and turn glossy, not dry. Stir across the bottom each time, because milk catches where you can't see it. This is where the canjica pega ponto, not by magic, by steady low heat and a spoon that remembers the bottom of the pot.

5. 5

   Mash a ladle

   Scoop out about 1 cup of cooked hominy with some of the milk and mash it with a fork or potato masher until broken and starchy. Stir it back into the pot. This is the canjica version of making caldo creamy: the crushed corn thickens the milk from inside the recipe, so you don't need cornstarch, pudding mix, or any little packet whispering nonsense from the shelf.

6. 6

   Finish and rest

   Stir in the grated coconut, if using, and simmer 5 more minutes. Taste and adjust the sugar. Turn off the heat, fish out the cinnamon sticks and cloves, and let the canjica rest for 10 minutes. It should be creamy enough that a spoon leaves a slow trail, but loose enough to settle back into the bowl. If it gets too thick, add a splash of milk and stir. Serve warm, or chill it and serve cold, with ground cinnamon and chopped peanuts if you like.

Chef Tips

• •Buy dried white hominy that looks pearly and whole, not broken and dusty at the bottom of the bag. Old corn takes forever to soften, and you'll blame yourself instead of the shelf.
• •Cook the hominy in water before milk. Milk and sugar are for tenderness already achieved, not for forcing hard corn to behave. Put them in too early and the kernels stay stubborn while the milk threatens to scorch.
• •Canned white hominy is the honest Tuesday shortcut. Use about 4 cups drained canned hominy, skip the soaking and pressure cooking, and simmer it with the milk for 25 minutes. The cost is less corn flavor and a softer edge, but dinner, or dessert, gets resolved.
• •If you grew up with condensed milk in canjica, I won't stand between you and your childhood. Replace the sugar with one 14-ounce can and reduce the whole milk by 1 cup. It will be sweeter and heavier. Good, just not the same pot.
• •What I won't use is powdered canjica mix. That's not a shortcut, that's someone selling you the idea that milk, corn, and a spoon are beyond you. They are not.

Advance Preparation

• •Soak the dried hominy overnight, 8 to 12 hours, in plenty of water. For same-day cooking, boil it for 5 minutes, cover, and soak for 1 hour before pressure cooking.
• •The hominy can be cooked in water up to 2 days ahead. Refrigerate it in its cooking liquid, then drain partly and continue with the milk simmer when you're ready.
• •Finished canjica keeps 4 days in the fridge. It thickens as it sits, because the corn keeps drinking the milk, so loosen it with a splash of milk when reheating.
• •You can freeze finished canjica for up to 2 months, but the dairy texture softens a little after thawing. Stir it gently over low heat with extra milk to bring it back.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 300g)