Ingredients
The hominy
- 400 gdried hominy
- mote, soaked overnight
- or 800 g cooked hominy
- water, to cook
The fruit
- 3babacos
- or papaya, chopped
- 2naranjillas
- or 200 ml passion fruit juice
- 1pineapple, chopped
- 2apples, chopped
- juice of 3 limes
The spice infusion
- 2 litreswater
- 3 stickscinnamon
- 8cloves
- a few allspice berries
- ishpingo, if you can find it
- sugar, to taste
To serve
- well chilled
- in glasses
- with a spoon
- at Corpus Christi
Directions
- Use cinnamon and know the difference. This contains fresh fruit and is drunk cold. Discard it if it starts to ferment. Keep it cold to prevent all that. Cover the dried hominy with water. Leave it overnight in order to soak. It needs overnight soaking at minimum.
- Use plenty of water to cover it. Soak it in the refrigerator if warm. Warm soaking water ferments readily. Change the water once if you can. Drain and rinse the soaked hominy. Cover it with fresh water in a pot. Use plenty of fresh water for it. Bring it up to a steady simmer. Do not salt the water at all here. Simmer it for about one full hour. It should be tender but still chewy.
- Drain the hominy and rinse it. Rinse it in cold water to cool it. That also stops it cooking further. Drain it thoroughly afterward. Set it aside to cool completely. Put the water and spices in a pot. Bring the whole pot up to a simmer.
- Simmer it for about twenty minutes. The water takes up the spice flavour. Stir sugar into the hot infusion. Taste it before adding much sugar. It should be pleasantly sweet.
- Strain out all of the whole spices. Strain it through a fine sieve. Check that nothing remains behind. Let the infusion cool completely. Hot liquid cooks the fresh fruit. Cool it right down completely first. Peel and chop all of the fruit.
- Chop it into small even pieces. It must fit on a spoon comfortably. Keep all the pieces roughly even. Toss it in lime juice at once. Squeeze lime over all the fruit. Lime stops the browning entirely. Put the cooled hominy in a large jug. Add all of the chopped fruit in. Pour the cooled infusion over them.
- Stir it gently to combine it all. Do not crush the fruit at all. Stir in the naranjilla or passion fruit juice. Add it gradually and taste as you go. Refrigerate the jug until genuinely cold.
- Make it well ahead if you can. Serving it is done in glasses. Stir it well before every pouring. Stir it thoroughly to redistribute. Each glass should get plenty of solids. Ladle from the bottom of the jug. It is drunk very cold with a spoon. Discard it if it starts to fizz.
Technique
- This contains fresh fruit and is drunk cold, so it must stay refrigerated throughout and keeps about two days. Fruit drinks ferment readily in warmth — bubbles and a yeasty smell are the sign, and that means discarding it.
- Cook the hominy until tender but still distinctly chewy, testing before you drain, since overcooked hominy goes to mush and would ruin the drink. Soak it overnight first in the refrigerator if the weather is warm, since warm soaking water ferments readily, and do not salt the cooking water.
- Let the spice infusion cool completely before it meets the fruit, since hot liquid cooks it, destroying the fresh flavour and softening the pieces. Strain every whole spice out first — a clove or a piece of cinnamon bark is unpleasant to bite.
Substitutions
- Papaya stands in for babaco, a mild slightly fizzy papaya relative with a faint strawberry note, and passion fruit juice for naranjilla, whose green flesh is intensely sour between lime and passion fruit. These are approximations only and the original fruits taste distinctly different — the atlas gives them plainly rather than pretending they are the same.
- Ordinary cinnamon stands in for ishpingo, an Amazonian cinnamon flower that is more floral and complex; use cinnamon and know the difference.
Variations
- This is a drink you eat with a spoon, thick with fruit and chewy hominy rather than smooth and blended, and that chunkiness is entirely the point — ladle from the bottom of the jug so each glass gets plenty of solids, since a glass of plain liquid is wrong.
- Toss the chopped apple and any pale fruit in lime juice immediately, which stops it browning, brightens the drink and balances the sweetness.
- Hominy is maize nixtamalised with lime, an ancient Mesoamerican technique that releases the niacin and prevents pellagra in maize-eating diets; mote is the Andean name and it is used right across Ecuadorian cooking.
History
A Quito tradition of Corpus Christi and Holy Week, once prepared in convent kitchens.
Frequently asked questions
What is Rosero quiteño?
Rosero quiteño is a drink from Ecuador: cold drink of hominy, fruit and spices, spooned from a glass. A Quito tradition of Corpus Christi and Holy Week, once prepared in convent kitchens.
How long does Rosero quiteño take to make?
Rosero quiteño takes 40 minutes plus soaking of preparation and 1 hour of cooking. The recipe makes about 3 litres. It is rated medium to make.
What can I substitute in Rosero quiteño?
Yes, within limits. Papaya stands in for babaco, a mild slightly fizzy papaya relative with a faint strawberry note, and passion fruit juice for naranjilla, whose green flesh is intensely sour between lime and passion fruit. These are approximations only and the original fruits taste distinctly different — the atlas gives them plainly rather than pretending they are the same. Ordinary cinnamon stands in for ishpingo, an Amazonian cinnamon flower that is more floral and complex; use cinnamon and know the difference.
What is the most important thing to get right in Rosero quiteño?
Use cinnamon and know the difference. This contains fresh fruit and is drunk cold. Discard it if it starts to ferment. Keep it cold to prevent all that. Cover the dried hominy with water. Leave it overnight in order to soak. It needs overnight soaking at minimum.
