Mote pillo or Ecuadorian hominy with eggs
Recipe for Ecuadorian mote pillo, this traditional breakfast dish consists of hominy sautéed with onions, garlic, achiote, eggs, milk, chives and cilantro or parsley, and served with hot black coffee and slices of fresh cheese.
Mote pillo is a traditional Ecuadorian dish of hominy corn with scrambled eggs. It is the perfect breakfast or brunch dish, but can also be served as main meal for lunch or a side dish for grilled or roasted meat dishes. Mote pillo is very easy and quick to make: the mote or hominy is sautéed with onions, garlic, achiote, eggs, milk, chives and cilantro or parsley.
Mote pillo is almost always served with hot black coffee and slices of fresh cheese. Mote or hominy is dry corn that has been peeled and then boiled until soft. You can cook the mote or hominy ahead of time, I usually make a large batch and keep some frozen so that it’s easily ready to make this dish.It is very easy to find it already prepared and canned in most grocery stores, usually in the canned vegetable section or in the ethnic section.
This Ecuadorian hominy dish is a traditional dish from the highlands or Sierra region in Ecuador. The city of Cuenca (and the whole province of Azuay) claim this dish as their specialty. My hometown of Loja is a few hours away from Cuenca, so we also eat a lot of mote or hominy in Loja. To me this is really one of the best comfort foods, like many other dishes from the Sierra it warms me up inside when I eat it.
Mote pillo or hominy with eggs
Ingredients
- 1 lb cooked mote or hominy can also use canned hominy
- 2 tbs butter
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup of diced white onion can also use spring onions (white part only) or leeks (white part only)
- 2 garlic cloves crushed
- ¼ tsp ground achiote
- ¼ cup milk
- 2 tbs chopped chives or scallions
- 1 tbs finely chopped cilantro or parsley
- Salt to taste
Serve with:
- Queso fresco slices and black coffee
Instructions
- Heat the butter over medium heat in a large sauté pan, add the chopped onions, crushed garlic, achiote, and salt to make a refrito, cook until the onions/leeks are soft, about 5 minutes.
- Add the mote or hominy, stir in well and cook for another 2 minutes.
- Add the milk and cook until the milk is almost all absorbed by the hominy.
- Whisk the eggs and add them to the hominy, stir well and cook for about 3-5 minutes.
- Stir in the chives and cilantro and add additional salt if needed.
- Serve accompanied by queso fresco slices and hot black coffee.
I grew up in the “grits belt” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grits), eating scrambled eggs and hominy for breakfast, but I’d have never thought about mixing them together. This looks like an interesting variation that I’ll be cooking this weekend. I wonder where I can buy achiote?
Achiote is also called annato and can be found at most Latin/Hispanic supermarkets in the spice section, it comes either already ground or in whole seeds or sometimes in a paste mixed with other seasonings.
Does anyone know where to find dried hominy corn?
Hi Willis – I can find the dried hominy corn at some of the Latin/Hispanic supermarkets, it’s usually with in the same section as the pigeons peas, lentils or beans and the only one I’ve found is by Goya.
Muchas gracias por la receta he estado buscando una site con recetas Ecuatorianas hace mucho tiempo!! :)
Great pictures! Mote Pillo looks so good that my mouth is watering!
Thank you Laylita – I am so excited to have found this recipe, I was fortunate enough to have tried Mote Pillo during a recent visit to Cuenca Ecuador and have been craving it ever since. I can’t wait to make it here at home. (US) I must agree fully that this is most definitely a comfort food, at least for me. How something so simple can be so captivating I don’t know, perhaps I have simply associated it with a wonderful trip but either way, Mote Pillo (and hopefully another trip to Cuenca) are in my future. :-)
Thanks, Laylita — I already knew that.
You also made my point. You replaced:
“…dry corn that has been peeled…”
with:
“… [t]he dry corn is peeled by soaking and cooking the corn with Calcium oxide…”
I just thought that should have been in the original entry.
BTW: hominy was also traditional comfort food on the maternal side of my family, but called “lye corn”, or “blé d’inde lessivé”. Weird ol’ man Kellogg flattened it and called it Corn Flakes (to make a story short).
Pam Am – The dry corn is peeled by soaking and cooking the corn with Calcium oxide, also known as cal in Spanish or quicklime in English, it is very long process, my mom used to do it when I was very young, but now most people buy the hominy either already prepared and cooked, usually fresh in Ecuador and other South American countries, and canned in the US and Europe.
“…Mote or hominy is dry corn that has been peeled and then boiled until soft…”
Hmmm.
That hardly describes hominy, does it? Perhaps a short note on how one would “peel” a dry corn kernel would have been in order…
Wow. I just found your blog and must take a bit of time to poke around. This looks absolutely amazing. I love hominy and am always looking for new ways to prepare it. And great use of achiote. I am bookmarking this for later. great post.
Amy @ http://www.weareneverfull.com
Save me a space at the table! This looks delicious! Here in Peru, it is common to eat corn & cheese for breakfast, but I have never seen them combine it with eggs to anything like this. It is choclo con queso at a whole new level!!!