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Cold PopsBack in 2007, My Table magazine took a group of hungry readers on a culinary tour of Puebla, Mexico. Puebla native Hugo Ortega, chef/owner of Hugos and, now, Caracol as well, was our group leader. He arranged many edible adventures for us, including drinking pulque (the fermented sap of the ma-guey plant) straight from the barrel, dis-covering the pleasure of pasita (a sweet raisin liqueur served with a cube of salty aged cheese on a toothpick, a specialty of Puebla) and an all-mushroom lunch at a small hotel in the Tlaxcala country-side.!e outing I best remember, howev-

er, was a day trip to Cholula to the big indoor/outdoor market followed by an ice cream break at a local shop. It was

the Cholula ice cream shop that explod-ed my idea of what a frozen confection could be.!is was not a fancy chef-driven

ice cream shop. It was just an ordinary place where families and workers and young couples stopped for a cup or a cone. But the "avors!!ere were dozens and dozens of ice

creams made from vegetables and herbs, "owers and spices, fruits and nuts. Among those I noted in my journal were spicy pineapple, roasted plantain, dulce de leche, coconut, horchata-straw-berry, pine nut, spicy chocolate, rose, avocado and corn.

Ah, corn. Fast forward to 2015 when my ears pricked up upon learning that Peska, the new Mexican seafood spot

next to the Whole Foods at San Felipe and Post Oak Blvd., serves a variety of paletas, little Mexican-style popsicles, as a refreshing dessert. Among the "avors that chef Omar Pereney makes fresh every day is corn.

We asked and he graciously agreed to show us how to make corn paletas at home. Pastry chef Kate Singleton assisted him.

CORN PALETASRecipe courtesy chef Omar Pereney, Peska Seafood Culture1 cup sweet corn kernels (1 to 2

ears)1 cup whole milk (not skim)1 cup heavy cream cup sugar

by Teresa Byrne-DodgePaleta photo by Debora Smail

Bold,

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METHOD: Arrange a cookie sheet with 24 little plastic cups. Snip the ends o! of 24 popsicle sticks so that they are about their original length. Set aside.

Cut the kernels from the fresh ears of corn. Place the kernels, milk, cream and sugar in a medium saucepan. Heat the mixture to re-pasteurize the custard, but dont let it boil. Strain the mixture. Reserve about one-third of the kernels and add the rest back to the custard. Use a stick blender (immers-ible blender) to blend well. Strain the custard again, this time mashing the corn pulp against the strainer to extract #avor. Discard pulp.

Return the one-third reserved kernels to the custard and portion the custard into the little plastic cups. Pereney uses a squeeze bottle with the nozzle snipped extra wide to do this quickly.

Carefully slide the cookie sheet and cups into a freezer for about 15 minutes or until it begins to set up. Remove from the freezer and insert one stick into each cup. Return to the freezer until hard.

Unfreeze by quickly dipping the cup into a bowl of warm water, taking care not to slosh any water onto the paletas. Serve at once. Makes 24 paletas.

PHOTOS BY BECCA WRIGHT

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