Buñuelos de Yuca Yucatecos

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy deep pot or wide clay cazuela for frying
• •Potato ricer or wooden pestle for mashing the yuca
• •Slotted spoon or kitchen spider
• •Wire rack set over a sheet pan
• •Frying thermometer (recommended)
• •Small saucepan for the miel syrup

Instructions

1. 1

   Cook the yuca

   Cut the peeled yuca into 2-inch chunks and place them in a pot with cold water to cover by two inches. Add a generous pinch of salt. Bring to a boil and cook 20 to 25 minutes, until a knife slides through with no resistance. Drain and let the chunks steam off their excess water for five minutes. Pull out the woody central fiber from each piece. That cord will never soften and it will ruin the dough. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado in Mérida, they will tell you the same thing.

2. 2

   Mash the yuca smooth

   While the yuca is still hot, pass it through a potato ricer or mash it with a wooden pestle in a large bowl until completely smooth. No lumps. Lumps fry into dense bites and the buñuelo will not puff. The mash should look like a pale, slightly sticky dough.

   Do not put hot yuca in a blender or food processor. It turns gummy and you have lost the dough. The ricer or the pestle is the right tool.
3. 3

   Build the dough

   While the mashed yuca is still warm, mix in the melted manteca, the beaten egg, the sugar, the salt, and the crushed anise. Stir in the flour and baking powder a tablespoon at a time. The dough should be soft, smooth, and just barely tacky, the texture of fresh masa. If it sticks badly to your hand, add another spoon of flour. If it cracks, your yuca was too dry; add a teaspoon of warm water. La cocina no es decoración, es trabajo. Work the dough only until it comes together. Overworking it makes the buñuelo tough.

4. 4

   Shape the buñuelos

   Lightly flour a clean surface. Pinch off pieces of dough about the size of a small lime, roll each into a smooth ball, then press a deep dimple into the center with your thumb. The dimple is what makes the buñuelo hollow when it fries. Yucatecan buñuelos are not flat discs like the ones from the Bajio. These are little puffed orbs, almost like fritters, with a hollow heart waiting to be filled with miel. Set the shaped buñuelos on a floured tray.

5. 5

   Make the miel syrup

   In a small saucepan, combine the honey, canela stick, orange peel, cloves, and water. Warm over low heat, stirring, just until the honey loosens and the spices perfume the syrup. Five minutes is enough. Do not boil. Boiling honey turns the flavor bitter and dark. You want it warm and pourable, the color of amber held to sunlight. Pull the pan off the heat and let the spices steep while you fry.

6. 6

   Heat the frying fat

   In a deep, heavy pot or wide cazuela, heat the manteca over medium until it reaches 350F. If you do not have a thermometer, drop a pinch of dough into the fat. It should rise to the surface within a few seconds and bubble steadily, not violently. La manteca es el sabor. Lard gives the buñuelo its proper flavor and a crisper shell than oil. If you must use oil, use it, but you are making a compromise, not an upgrade.

7. 7

   Fry until hollow and golden

   Lower the buñuelos into the fat four or five at a time, dimple side down. Do not crowd the pot. They will sink, then rise within thirty seconds and begin to puff. Turn them gently with a slotted spoon so they color evenly, three to four minutes total, until they are deep gold and the shell sounds hollow when you tap it with the spoon. Lift onto a wire rack set over a sheet pan and let them drain. Do not stack them. The steam softens the crust and the crackle is lost.

   If the buñuelo collapses in the fat, your dough was too wet or the fat was too cold. Add a spoon of flour to the remaining dough and let the manteca recover before frying the next batch.
8. 8

   Split, bathe, and serve

   While the buñuelos are still warm, split each one halfway open with a paring knife along the equator, like you are opening a tiny book. Hold the buñuelo over a shallow clay platter and spoon the warm miel into the hollow until it begins to spill out. Then pour more miel over the top so the outside shines too. Inside and out, that is how they are served for the novenas of finados in the pueblos around Mérida and Valladolid. Eat them while the shell is still crackling and the miel is still warm. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Fresh yuca only. The frozen yuca chunks sold in the freezer aisle hold too much water and the dough will be slack. Buy the whole root, brown and waxy, and peel it yourself. The peel comes off in strips once you make a lengthwise score.
• •Miel de abeja melipona is the right honey for this dish. It is sold in small bottles at Yucatecan mercados and at specialty stores in Mérida and increasingly in Ciudad de México. If you cannot find it, use a dark wildflower or orange-blossom honey, never a clover or processed supermarket honey. No me vengas con atajos.
• •These do not keep. Buñuelos de yuca are a dish you fry and eat the same hour. The shell softens within a few hours and the magic is gone. Fry only what you will eat that night. If you must make ahead, shape the dough balls and refrigerate them on a floured tray, then fry to order.

Advance Preparation

• •The yuca can be boiled and mashed up to one day ahead. Cover tightly and refrigerate. Bring back to room temperature before mixing the dough so the manteca incorporates smoothly.
• •The miel syrup can be made several hours ahead and left at room temperature, covered, with the spices steeping. Warm gently before serving.
• •Do not fry ahead. The shell loses its crackle within a few hours and the buñuelo turns soft. Fry at the last minute, even if guests are watching.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 190g)