Crema de Flor de Calabaza Oaxaqueña

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 4-quart pot or Oaxacan clay cazuela
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Sharp knife for cutting corn off the cob

Instructions

1. 1

   Clean the squash blossoms

   Hold each blossom by its base and gently twist out the pistil from inside. It pulls away easily. Remove the small green sepals and any tough stem. Do not wash the blossoms under running water. They're thin as tissue paper and they bruise. If they're dusty from the market, wipe them gently with a damp cloth. Set aside about 4 or 5 of the smallest, brightest blossoms for garnish. Roughly chop the rest into wide ribbons.

   Buy more than you think you need. A bundle that looks generous shrinks to almost nothing once the pistils are out and the flowers are cooked. Thirty-five blossoms sounds like a lot until you see them wilt in the pan.
2. 2

   Sweat the aromatics

   Melt the butter in a heavy 4-quart pot or a clay cazuela over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and cook for three to four minutes, stirring occasionally, until it softens and turns translucent. Do not let it brown. This is not a caramelized onion soup. Add the garlic and the strips of chile de agua. Cook for one more minute until the garlic is fragrant and the chile strips have softened.

3. 3

   Wilt the blossoms

   Add the chopped squash blossoms to the pot all at once. They will seem like too much. Give them thirty seconds. Stir gently and watch them collapse. Within two minutes the entire pile will have wilted down to a soft, golden mass barely covering the bottom of the pot. That's correct. Add the corn kernels and stir everything together for one minute to let the corn warm through and the flavors start to combine.

   The blossom wilts fast and it keeps cooking in the broth. Do not saute it until it darkens or dries out. Two minutes, no more. La flor ya sabe lo que hace.
4. 4

   Simmer in broth

   Pour in the chicken broth and add the epazote leaves. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 12 to 15 minutes, uncovered. The corn should be tender and the blossoms should have given their flavor to the broth completely. The kitchen will smell green and sweet, like a milpa after rain. Remove and discard the epazote leaves before blending.

5. 5

   Blend until smooth

   Working in two batches if necessary, transfer the soup to a blender. Blend on high for a full minute until the texture is completely smooth and pale gold, almost the color of roasted corn. You want velvet, not chunks. Pour through a fine-mesh strainer back into the pot, pressing on the solids with the back of a ladle. Discard whatever the strainer catches. The straining is what gives you the silk finish.

   Do not skip the straining. Squash blossoms have fibrous bits that disappear in a quesadilla but ruin the texture of a cream soup. Two minutes of extra work makes the difference between a soup you serve to guests and a soup you eat alone.
6. 6

   Finish with crema

   Return the strained soup to low heat. Stir in the Mexican crema and the salt. Let it warm through for two to three minutes without boiling. Taste it now. The soup should taste like squash blossoms first, corn second, cream third. If the flower flavor has gotten lost, you added too much cream or cooked the blossoms too long. Adjust the salt. The broth should be assertive enough to carry the blossom's delicate flavor, not drown it.

7. 7

   Serve with quesillo

   Ladle the soup into warm bowls. Drop a loose tangle of quesillo threads into the center of each bowl. The cheese will soften in the heat and stretch when the spoon hits it. Tear the reserved raw blossoms into petals and scatter them over the top. Add a small epazote leaf. Serve immediately. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Squash blossoms are seasonal. In Mexico, they peak from June through September during the rains. Outside Mexico, look for them at farmers' markets in summer. If your market doesn't have them, this is not the week to make this soup. Cook what the market is selling today, not what you saw on a recipe page.
• •Chile de agua is a fresh green chile grown in Oaxaca's Valles Centrales. It has moderate heat and a grassy, almost sweet flavor. Outside Oaxaca, it is nearly impossible to find. A fresh poblano is the closest substitute, though the flavor is milder and rounder. The substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •Use real quesillo from Oaxaca if you can source it. It pulls apart into long, thin threads and melts into the hot soup without becoming rubbery. Mozzarella will melt but it won't taste right. The tang of quesillo is part of the contrast against the sweet blossom.
• •If you want to make this vegetarian, use a light vegetable broth made with corn cobs, onion skins, and a few epazote stems. The corn cob broth gives body that plain water cannot. Do not use a heavy mushroom or soy-based stock. It will bulldoze the flowers.

Advance Preparation

• •The soup base can be made through the blending and straining step up to one day ahead and refrigerated. Reheat gently over low heat and add the crema just before serving. Do not boil it after the crema goes in or it will separate.
• •The quesillo threads can be pulled apart and refrigerated in a covered container for up to two days. The raw blossom garnish must be prepared the moment you serve. They wilt within the hour.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 330g)