Ensalada de Ibes Yucateca

This is from Yucatan. Not from Mexico in general, from the peninsula. The Maya cooked ibes in the milpa system, alongside corn and squash, long before Spanish ships came up the coast and changed what the rest of the country ate. The ibe is the original white lima bean of the peninsula, thin-skinned, mineral, more delicate than the alubias and peruanos of the central highlands. If you can find ibes at a Yucatecan store or order them dried, do it. If not, the small dried lima bean is the closest substitute, and I will tell you it is a compromise, not an upgrade.

This salad is not a salad in the lettuce sense. Yucatecan salads are built on jicama, citrus, cabbage, radish, beet, and beans. They are dressed with naranja agria, not vinegar. Naranja agria is the sour orange that grows in the peninsula's house patios, the same fruit that gives cochinita pibil its tang. It does the work of vinegar here and it cannot be replaced with lime alone. If you have to substitute, mix two parts fresh lime juice with one part fresh sweet orange juice and a pinch of grapefruit zest. That is the closest you will get north of Tizimin.

The habanero is the chile of the peninsula. Not jalapeno, not serrano, habanero. It carries a floral heat that belongs to Yucatan the way ancho belongs to Puebla. The pink cebolla morada en escabeche is the visual signature of the Yucatecan table, and the color comes from the citrus reacting with the onion. Nobody dyes it. Cada estado, su propia cocina.