Atole de Maís

This cold January weather makes me think of the creamy atole de maís my mother used to make. The last time she made it for me was a few years ago when she visited me in the fall and we shared a bowl one cold afternoon for merienda. Atole means porridge; we usually had atole de avena (oatmeal porridge with raisins) on winter mornings. But every so often, like when she had just made the winter tamales, she would have masa (corn dough) left over and she would make us this atole. It works just fine with different types of corn flour or corn meal, like Maseca which I have used here.

Some people put vanilla in theirs; in my family it's just the corn masa, sugar, cinnamon, and milk.

There is a man from the Totonaca tribe who travels to San Miguel de Allende (Mexico) just to sell his vanilla pods from the Veracruz area. Every time he sees me, his face lights up...he knows...From across the Jardín, he makes a beeline for me, certain I'll buy up his entire quantity of pods. Next time, I'll experiment with a vanilla pod, I need to use up my supply before I go back to San Miguel.

Here's my recipe for about 4 persons:

Ingredients:

3/4 cup of Maseca corn meal in a small bowl where about 1 cup milk has been gradually whipped in with a small whisk.

3 tablespoons sugar

2 cups milk warmed in a 1 quart pot

2 large cinnamon sticks broken up

Procedure:

When the corn meal and milk mixture in the cup is smooth, begin to add it to the milk on the stove slowly. Continue to heat the atole in the pot and add sugar and the broken up cinnamon sticks. Cook until the mixture begins to thicken.

Some like it watery, others like it thicker. Stop cooking it when it's got the consistency you like.

Pour it into your bowls and eat it while it's still warm.

Note: Maseca is a commercial cornmeal that is used to make corn tortillas.