blue corn meal

Bluecorn Biscotti with Seasonal Saguaro Juñ

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Cheers for New Years now in the Sonoran Desert as we celebrate harvest time for Saguaro fruit! This important harvest around the Solstice and San Juan’s Day marks the beginning of the Indigenous Tohono O’odham desert year.

Fruit timing this year seems off kilter: plants are marching to new, unprecedented “climatic drummers.” Saguaros bloomed and fruited early, then a spring rain spurred a second bloom. Now, in mid June we are seeing a second wave of maturing fruit. With luscious saguaro bahidaj ripening in the desert around us as I write, the sun beating down, and Father’s Day on the horizon, it’s Tia Marta here to share a fun idea for a healthy, locally-sourced Southwest confection for seasonal festivities. A recipe for a saguaro treat awaits….

Saguaro fruit, ha:ṣañ bahidaj, is ripe when the outer husk gets a “blush” of red. Peel back the thick rind and inside is a sweet and crunchy treasure. When the moist pulp-seed mass dries it makes a natural fruit-leather called JUÑ pronounced JOONya or just JOON. Dried, it keeps a long time. With juñ you can dress up any salad or sweet–or just eat it joyfully plain, as a gift from Nature and Elder Brother.

We’re going to bake a precious bit of juñ into neat energy bars or biscotti….May this biscotto (literally a twice cooked confection) help you celebrate on many levels!

A few days ahead.. separate moist pulp/seed-mass from husk. Dry the pulp mass in hot sun either in screenbox or spread out on cookie sheets covered with cloth to protect from insects, or in a food drier–until crisp. This may take couple of days! When totally dry, work with hands, or with mortar and pestle, to loosen seeds and pulp.  You’ll use both seed and pulp in these biscotti.

RECIPE: Bluecorn Biscotti with Saguaro Juñ

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 c. yogurt (non-fat plain yogurt, or butter) 1/2 c. sugar (or agave nectar) 1 egg (or egg substitute). 1 tsp vanilla. 1 c. whole grain flour   1 c. blue cornmeal (available online from NS/S). ¼ c. dried saguaro juñ, pulp and seeds loosened 1 tsp. baking powder. ½ tsp sea salt. (optional additions: 1/8c-1/4 c piñones or chia seed)

Cooking-day Directions: 

Beat yogurt and sugar until creamy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Sprinkle and mix the loosened Juñ into yogurt mixture.  In another bowl, sift together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt. Gradually add to yogurt mixture, stirring until completely blended. Dough should be shape-able.

On waxed paper, shape dough into two separate “logs” about 2 inches in diameter. Wrap and chill until firm, at least 3 hours (or up to 3 days).

With my dough for the second “log” I added piñones (in place of usual almond biscotti).

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. (To keep heat out of the kitchen, I love using a solar oven. Heat will be variable so monitoring for sun or clouds is needed.)

Unwrap dough. Using a sharp knife, cut into 1/4-inch slices. Place slices on greased baking sheets. (Or use parchment paper to avoid greasing.)

Bake at 325 degrees for 12-15 minutes until slightly brown. Add more time to make biscotti crisper.

Solar oven option:  Bake at about 300-325 degrees for 15-20 minutes watching for faint browning.  Depending on sun with monitoring it may take more time for desired crispness. Cool on wire racks. Makes about 2 dozen biscotti bars.

Bluecorn biscotti with Saguaro Juñ–ready to eat! Great for dippers into summertime ice coffee, or served with home-made vanilla sorbet!

The pine nuts added a great new flavor and texture to these healthful Southwest biscotti. Next batch, I would like to try adding bellotas….

Another easier idea: Add ¼ cup saguaro juñ to NS/S Mesquite Cookie Mix or NS/S Mesquite Poppyseed Scone Mix, or to your favorite sugar cookie recipe

For more ideas with saguaro fruit visit SavortheSouthwest June 2020 blog post on Sonoran Power-Treats.

This saguaro juñ biscotti idea was inspired in part by Betsy Armstrong, infamous NativeSeedsSEARCH staff member and cooks-extraordinaires at NSS. Acknowledgement also to Pueblo Seed and Food Co in Cortez, Colorado (introduced to me by southwest foodie pal Robbie) where you can get fabulous Southwest Blue Corn Anise Cookies.  Their ideas sparked me to introduce nutritious low-desert seeds from the generous giant saguaro into this blue cornmeal treat. Here’s to your good health and desert enjoyment, with homage to the saguaros and maize plants as well, from Tia Marta!

Flavorful Crispy Crackers with Barrel Cactus, Blue Corn and Herbs

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Homemade crackers with lots of flavor are good for a snack plate or alongside soup or a salad.

I’ve spent the fall working on publicizing my new book, A Desert Feast: Celebrating Tucson’s Culinary Heritage, so I when I tied my apron on this morning, I was looking forward to once again working up a new recipe. It’s something I’ve done many times previously for my five cookbooks, but I always feel the thrill of anticipation as I get out the bowls and measuring spoons. My experiments don’t always turn out great the first time, but this morning everything went smoothly.

Barrel cactus fruits are ready for harvest in the winter. With no spines, they are easy to gather.

I wanted to make crackers with barrel cactus seeds because that is one of the only wild foods available in the desert winter. Crackers are always a good accompaniment to the soups we eat in the winter and they also go great with the salads that I make for lunch from greens harvested from my garden.

Halve barrel cactus fruit and set in sun to dry. Seeds will then be easy to remove.

The most delicious homemade crackers I’ve had were made by caterer Kristine Jensen of Gallery of Food here in Tucson, so I called and asked her for some tips. Kristine talked about the importance of adding lots of flavor to the crackers and that certainly is a reason for making your own. To get that flavor, she uses a variety of flours and adds lots of herbs and spices. Her new curry-flavored crackers are very popular. She also said it is important to roll the dough very thin, spray the top of the rolled dough with olive oil, and sprinkle with coarse-ground salt.

With Kristine’s tips in mind and after looking over a few published recipes, I decided to use blue corn and low-gluten Sonoran White Wheat for a good base flavor, barrel cactus seeds for crunch, and coriander and dried rosemary (of which I had lots in my garden) for an extra punch of flavor. I rolled the cracker dough out on parchment baking paper because the dough is very fragile and not having to transfer the unbaked crackers separately to the baking pan meant fewer disasters.

Rolling the cracker dough very thin with ensure a crisp cracker. Here the dough is 1/16 inch thick.

Cut rolled out dough with a sharp knife and carefully separate pieces on paper before transferring on the parchment paper to a baking sheet.

Blue Corn Crackers with Barrel Cactus Seeds

1/2 cup Sonoran white wheat or all-purpose flour

1/2 cup blue corn meal

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon fine salt

2 tablespoons melted butter

2tablespoons olive oil

5 tablespoons water

Coarse salt

2-3 tablespoons barrel cactus seeds

2-3 tablespoons crushed dried herbs

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix the dough until well combined, then knead a little to even out the texture. Divide in half. Roll out on parchment baking paper. Brush or spray lightly with olive oil. Sprinkle salt, seeds and dried herbs on top and roll again to press into the dough. Cut into squares and gently separate. Transfer paper to a baking sheet. Bake in heated oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Check at 15 minutes, you don’t want them to burn. They should be lightly brown on the bottom. They may be a little soft but will crisp up as they cool.

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A Desert Feast: Celebrating Tucson’s Culinary Heritage tells the history of how residents of the Santa Cruz Valley have fed themselves over thousands of years, why they are still eating some of the same foods over that time, and how that led to Tucson’s designation of the first American city to earn the coveted UNESCO City of Gastronomy. You can order the book from your favorite bookstore, on-line, or from the Native Seeds/SEARCH bookstore.