It all started when my dear friend’s mother sent me some blue cornmeal from Arizona. The cornmeal was from Native Seeds, a non-profit in Tucson that safeguards ancient seeds, and promotes the use of these heritage seeds in the American Southwest. The small sack that I received was Tamaya Blue Cornmeal– and it’s pretty amazing.

Sure, I had cooked with regular cornmeal before. I am even planning on having an entire mini-chapter on American cornbread for the bread book. But I had never done any cooking with blue cornmeal before. Well, over the weekend, this changed, and I fell hard for blue cornmeal.

I have found that sometimes, when cooking with regular cornmeal, it is more of a desired texture that I get than a, actual flavor or taste. This was not the case with my blue cornmeal. Yes, it has the pleasant grit of cornmeal, but it also has a wonderfully sweet, corny flavor.

I cooked with the Tamaya Blue Cornmeal twice this past weekend. On Saturday night I made blue corn blinis with it. The thin, tiny pancakes were the perfect foil for some peppered smoked salmon, a slathering of creme fraiche, and sprinkling of diced red onion. They were such a hit with my dinner guests I only managed to steal away two, before they were quickly consumed! So Sunday’s breakfast was blue corn silver dollar pancakes. (I needed to get my fill!)

Crisp around the edges yet fluffy in the center, the perfect thickness (or thinness, as they they were), and drizzled with pure maple syrup, these pancakes proved to be just right for a Sunday morning meal. I still have a bit of the cornmeal left, maybe next weekend I’ll branch from pancake territory. We’ll see…

Blue Corn Pancakes

This makes about 16 3-inch pancakes, but the recipe is easily doubled

1/2 cup blue cornmeal
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg
3 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup whole milk

In a medium-size bowl, mix the cornmeal and the boiling water. The cornmeal will thicken substantially, and the mixture will have a paste-like consistency. Add the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder, and stir to combine.

In another small bowl, mix the egg, butter, and milk together until blended. Add the wet ingredients, all at once, into the dry ingredients. Blend until thoroughly mixed. (You should blend this mixture more than you ordinarily would other pancake batter.)

Heat a griddle over medium-high heat. Lightly grease the griddle, and then pour spoonfuls of the batter onto the griddle. The mixture will spread slightly as it is cooking. Cook until bubbles break at the surface, then flip. Continue cooking a few moments, until pancakes are golden, brown, and cooked through.

Pancakes will hold in a warm oven until all are completed cooking.

Note: If you want to make blinis, simply omit the sugar, and make small, teaspoonful-sized pancakes.