Nuégados Chiapanecos de Chiapa de Corzo

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide mixing bowl
• •Wooden spoon
• •Heavy saucepan or small clay cazuela for piloncillo syrup
• •Deep heavy pot for frying
• •Candy thermometer, helpful but not required
• •Kitchen spider or slotted spoon
• •Wire rack or paper towels
• •Banana leaves or lightly oiled tray for setting the glaze

Instructions

1. 1

   Mix the dough

   In a wide bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and crushed anise seed. Rub the anise between your fingers first so it perfumes the flour instead of sitting there like dry seed. Make a well in the center and add the eggs, melted lard, and 1/4 cup warm water. Stir with your hand or a wooden spoon until the dough gathers into a rough ball.

2. 2

   Knead until smooth

   Turn the dough onto a lightly floured board and knead for 6 to 8 minutes. It should become smooth, elastic, and just tacky enough to cling to your palm before releasing. If it cracks, add warm water one teaspoon at a time. If it smears, dust with a little flour. Do not make the dough stiff. Stiff dough fries hard all the way through, and that is not a nuégado.

3. 3

   Rest the dough

   Cover the dough with a clean towel or an inverted bowl and let it rest for 30 minutes. Wheat flour needs that pause. The dough relaxes, the anise settles in, and the dumplings will puff instead of fighting you in the hot lard.

4. 4

   Cook the syrup

   Combine the chopped piloncillo, water, canela, cloves, and syrup salt in a heavy saucepan or small clay cazuela. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and stir until the piloncillo dissolves. Strain out any grit if your piloncillo is sandy, then return the syrup to the pan. Add the grana cochinilla or red vegetable coloring and the lime juice. Simmer until the syrup reaches 226F to 230F, or until a spoon lifted from the pan leaves a thin thread before the syrup falls back. That thread is what will coat the dumplings. Too loose and they stay wet. Too far and they turn into hard candy.

   Keep the syrup warm over very low heat while you fry. If it thickens too much, loosen it with one teaspoon of hot water at a time. Do not drown it. You are making glaze, not agua fresca.
5. 5

   Shape the dumplings

   Divide the rested dough into 4 pieces. Roll each piece into a rope about 1/2 inch thick, then cut into 3/4-inch pieces. Roll each piece lightly between your palms, then pinch it once so it has a small crease. Do not polish them smooth. The little rough edges catch the piloncillo glaze. A señora at the market knows this without saying it.

6. 6

   Fry in lard

   Heat the 4 cups of clean manteca de cerdo in a deep heavy pot to 350F. Fry the dumplings in small batches, 4 to 5 minutes, moving them gently so they brown evenly. They should puff slightly, turn deep golden, and sound light when they tap against the spoon. Keep the fat between 340F and 355F. If it is too cool, they drink the fat. If it is too hot, the outside darkens before the center cooks.

   Use clean white lard for sweets. If your lard smells strongly of pork cracklings, save it for beans or carnitas. Nuégados need fat with body, not a porky perfume.
7. 7

   Glaze the nuégados

   Lift the fried dumplings onto a rack or paper towels for 2 minutes, just long enough to drain. While they are still warm, add them to the warm red piloncillo syrup in batches. Turn them gently with a wooden spoon until every surface is lacquered and the glaze clings in a thin shell. No me vengas con atajos. If you pour cold syrup over cold dumplings, it slides off and you have wasted both.

8. 8

   Set and serve

   Transfer the glazed nuégados to banana leaf, a lightly oiled tray, or a shallow clay dish. Separate them while the glaze is still warm so they do not become one red brick. Let them sit 20 minutes, until the outside is glossy and set but still a little tacky. Serve piled in a cazuela or wrapped in small paper cones the way they sell them at Fiesta Grande. Cada estado, su propia cocina.

Chef Tips

• •Buy dark piloncillo at a Mexican market if you can. It should smell like cooked cane and molasses, not dust. If the cone is pale and dry, the syrup will taste thin.
• •There are no chiles in this recipe. Do not sprinkle chile powder on top because someone told you Mexican sweets need heat. They don't. This is a 32-state cuisine, and Chiapa de Corzo is giving you cane sugar, wheat, lard, and festival work.
• •The red color is the fair-stall face. Grana cochinilla gives a deeper, older red, and red vegetable color gives the color most mercado stalls use now. Piloncillo alone will taste right but look brown. That is a compromise, not the Chiapa de Corzo look.
• •Do not crowd the frying pot. Crowded dough lowers the temperature and turns greasy. Fry in batches and keep your rhythm. Recetas probadas y garantizadas, but only if you do the work.

Advance Preparation

• •The piloncillo syrup can be made up to 3 days ahead. Refrigerate it, then rewarm gently and loosen with hot water one teaspoon at a time until it returns to thread stage.
• •The dough can rest overnight in the refrigerator, wrapped tightly. Bring it to room temperature before shaping or it will crack.
• •Finished nuégados keep 2 days in an airtight container at room temperature, layered with parchment or banana leaf. Do not refrigerate them. The glaze turns sticky and the fried shell softens.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 115g)