Chaquehue Recipe

It had probably been over 10 years since I’ve had or made Chaquehue. It’s eaten as a hot cereal, similar to cream of wheat, made with blue cornmeal. I always liked the color of it, a pastel purple. How could you not like eating something purple? I grew up on this stuff and always had a hard time finding blue corn meal locally and never really thought of getting it online. There’s a few Mexican stores near me and none of them seem to carry it. My Grandma came to my rescue this past Christmas and sent me some from Colorado where you can find it pretty easily at most grocery stores.

I had no idea how to spell it and still don’t really. When I Googled what I thought it might be there weren’t very many results and I saw a few other spellings for it too so who knows how it’s really spelled. I’ve also seen it spelled Chaquewe and Sakewe. It’s pronounced shaw que weh

I was later informed via Flickr and Facebook that Bob’s Red Mill has a blue cornmeal that you can probably find at Whole Foods and other grocery stores around town. I’ve only ever made it using the kind pictured below that’s usually found in Mexican stores. So after I run out, I may give Red Mill brand a try and see if it tastes the same. Several people were curious about the recipe so I decided to measure out the ingredients over the weekend so I can post a recipe. I’ve never measured the ingredients before, I usually just throw it all together.

Ingredients:
4 cups Cold Water
1 cup blue cornmeal
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
Salt to taste

Serving Size: 3-4 servings

Insructions:
1. Add cold water and blue cornmeal to a sauce pan.
2. Stir together with a wisk until boiling. (The mixture will thicken as it comes to a boil.)
3. Add milk, sugar, and a pinch of salt and wisk until combined and serve hot.

You can use less sugar and/or milk if you like but these are the measurements I used last weekend and I wouldn’t use much more sugar or milk than what I have above. You can add a little at a time until it’s the thickness and sweetness you like.