Escamoles a la Mantequilla con Epazote

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Fine-mesh strainer for rinsing escamoles
• •Clay cazuela or heavy skillet
• •Wooden spoon
• •Cast iron comal for warming tortillas
• •Cotton servilleta for holding warm tortillas

Instructions

1. 1

   Clean the escamoles

   Pick through the escamoles carefully and remove bits of root, soil, or dry membrane. Rinse them in a fine-mesh strainer with a gentle stream of cold water, then spread them on a clean towel to drain. Do not crush them. They should look like pale grains of rice, soft but intact.

2. 2

   Warm the fat

   Set a clay cazuela or heavy skillet over medium-low heat. Add the butter and manteca de cerdo. Let them melt slowly until the butter foams lightly and smells sweet. The manteca gives body to the butter and keeps it from tasting thin. La manteca es el sabor, even when butter is the name of the dish.

3. 3

   Cook the onion

   Add the white onion and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon, until it turns translucent but does not brown. This dish is delicate. Browned onion will take over, and then you will taste onion instead of escamoles. No me vengas con atajos.

4. 4

   Add chile and escamoles

   Stir in the chile serrano for 30 seconds, just enough to wake it up. Add the drained escamoles and salt. Cook gently for 4 to 5 minutes, folding instead of stirring hard. They will turn opaque and creamy, with a nutty aroma from the butter and maguey. Do not fry them crisp. Escamoles are tender. Respect that.

   If the pan looks dry, add another tablespoon of butter. Do not add water. Water makes them taste boiled, and boiled escamoles are a waste of a spring harvest.
5. 5

   Finish with epazote

   Fold in the chopped epazote during the final minute of cooking. The herb should stay green and sharp. Epazote is not decoration here. It cuts the richness of the butter and belongs to the central Mexican kitchen as surely as the maguey does.

6. 6

   Serve with tortillas

   Taste for salt. Spoon the escamoles into a warm cazuela and bring them to the table with corn tortillas straight from the comal and lime halves on the side. Eat them as small tacos. No flour tortillas. This is Hidalgo and the Sierra Gorda, not the northern border. Cada estado, su propia cocina.

Chef Tips

• •Buy escamoles only from a trusted mercado vendor during spring. Good escamoles smell clean and faintly nutty, never sour or fishy. If the vendor cannot tell you when they were harvested, keep walking.
• •Fresh escamoles are expensive because harvesting them is skilled work. Cheap escamoles usually mean old product, frozen product, or careless handling. A substitution here is not a compromise. It is a different dish.
• •Do not bury them under garlic, crema, cheese, or salsa. Escamoles are delicate. The butter, epazote, onion, and serrano are enough. Asi se hace y punto.
• •Serve them immediately. They tighten as they sit and lose the creamy texture that makes people in Hidalgo wait all year for them.

Advance Preparation

• •Clean the escamoles up to 4 hours ahead and keep them covered in the refrigerator on a towel-lined plate.
• •Chop the onion, chile serrano, and epazote before guests arrive, but cook the escamoles only at the last moment.
• •Warm the tortillas just before serving. Cold tortillas make a sad taco, and this ingredient deserves better.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 215g)