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Estado de México's coarse-ground red longaniza, fried in its own rendered fat with diced papa and white onion until the potatoes catch on the edges and the chorizo crackles. Breakfast the way they eat it in Toluca.
This is from Toluca, capital of the Estado de México, where the longaniza has its own protected reputation and the carniceros hang the long red coils in storefront after storefront along the Mercado Juarez and the Mercado 16 de Septiembre. Toluca's longaniza is not Spanish longaniza and it is not the same animal as chorizo. It is coarser, redder, soured with vinegar, deeply seasoned with chile guajillo and a little ancho, and it cooks differently. The fat that renders out of it is the cooking medium for whatever goes in the pan next. In this case, papa.
The combination of longaniza and papa is breakfast across the Valle de Toluca and into the surrounding villages, eaten at small fondas that open at six in the morning to feed people on their way to work. The technique is simple and the technique is also where most cooks go wrong. You render the longaniza first, alone, until its red fat pools in the pan. You lift the meat out and fry the parboiled papa in that fat. Then you return the meat. If you throw everything in at once, the papa never crisps and the longaniza overcooks. Two stages. No me vengas con atajos.
My mother did not make this dish. She was from Jalisco and her sausage was chorizo. But the first time I drove into Toluca with a notebook, the woman who sold me a kilo of longaniza at the Mercado Juarez took the trouble to tell me how to cook it, in detail, while she wrapped it in butcher paper. Render first. Lift the meat. Fry the papa in the fat. I have not improved on her instruction in fifteen years. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
Longaniza arrived in Mexico with the Spanish in the 16th century as a pork sausage seasoned with garlic and black pepper, and over centuries the Estado de México adapted it into a regionally distinct product: longer, coarser-ground, and colored deep red by guajillo and ancho rather than the paprika of its Iberian ancestor. The town of Toluca became synonymous with longaniza in the 19th century as the city's slaughterhouses and butchers refined a recipe heavy on vinegar, which both preserved the sausage in the days before refrigeration and gave it the tang that distinguishes it from chorizo verde de Toluca, its green herbal cousin. Mexican law and trade practice now recognize 'longaniza de Toluca' as a regional product, and the Mercado Juarez in central Toluca remains the reference point for sourcing.
Quantity
1 pound
casings removed and meat broken into rough pieces
Quantity
1 1/2 pounds
peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice
Quantity
1 medium
diced small
Quantity
2 tablespoons
Quantity
2
finely chopped
Quantity
1 teaspoon, plus more to taste
Quantity
for serving
warmed
Quantity
for serving
Quantity
for serving
Quantity
for serving
Quantity
for serving
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| longaniza de Tolucacasings removed and meat broken into rough pieces | 1 pound |
| yellow papa or papa alfapeeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice | 1 1/2 pounds |
| white oniondiced small | 1 medium |
| manteca de cerdo (pork lard) | 2 tablespoons |
| garlic clovesfinely chopped | 2 |
| kosher salt | 1 teaspoon, plus more to taste |
| hand-pressed corn tortillas (optional)warmed | for serving |
| frijoles refritos (optional) | for serving |
| salsa verde cruda or salsa de chile de arbol (optional) | for serving |
| chopped cilantro (optional) | for serving |
| diced white onion (for the table) (optional) | for serving |
| lime wedges (optional) | for serving |
Bring a pot of well-salted water to a boil. Add the diced papa and cook for five to six minutes, until a knife slides into a piece with a little resistance still at the center. Drain and spread the potatoes on a tray to dry off. They should look matte, not wet. Wet potatoes will steam in the pan and never crisp. Dry potatoes catch on the edges and that is what you want.
Heat a wide heavy skillet, cast iron or a clay cazuela, over medium heat. Add the longaniza, broken into rough pieces the size of a walnut. Do not add fat yet. Toluca's longaniza is heavy on its own lard and you want that fat to render out first. Cook for eight to ten minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon and breaking the meat further as it cooks. The vinegar and guajillo will perfume the kitchen. The meat will turn deep brick red and the rendered fat will pool around it. La manteca es el sabor.
With a slotted spoon, lift the longaniza onto a plate. Leave every drop of the red rendered fat in the pan. That fat is the cooking medium for the potatoes. It is also the color and the flavor. If you wash it down the drain you have wasted the dish.
Add the two tablespoons of manteca to the rendered fat in the pan. The papa needs enough fat to fry, not steam. Raise the heat to medium-high. Add the parboiled papa in a single layer. Leave it alone for four to five minutes before stirring. You want a dark golden crust on one side before you move anything. Then stir, spread back into a layer, and let the next side catch. Keep going for ten to twelve minutes total, until the potatoes are dark gold on most sides and tinted red from the chile fat.
Push the potatoes to one side. Add the diced white onion and the chopped garlic to the cleared spot. Cook for two minutes, stirring just the onion, until it softens and turns translucent at the edges. Then fold everything together. The onion should not brown hard. You want sweetness, not bitterness.
Return the longaniza to the pan along with any juice that collected on the plate. Fold it through the potatoes. Cook for two more minutes so the meat warms through and the flavors marry. Taste for salt. Toluca's longaniza is already seasoned with chile and vinegar, so you may need very little. Pull off the heat the moment the papa is crackling on the edges and the longaniza is glossy with its own fat. Así se hace y punto.
Slide everything onto a warm clay platter or leave it in the cazuela for the table. Set out warm corn tortillas, a clay bowl of frijoles refritos, a molcajete of salsa verde cruda, chopped cilantro, raw white onion, and lime. Each person builds their own taco. This is breakfast in Toluca, sometimes wrapped in a torta with refried beans, sometimes spooned next to scrambled eggs, always eaten while it is still crackling.
1 serving (about 240g)
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