Panuchos de Relleno Negro

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for toasting chiles and cooking tortillas
• •Tortilla press (10-inch cast iron preferred)
• •Heavy 6-quart pot with lid for braising the turkey
• •High-powered blender
• •Sharp paring knife for opening the panucho pockets
• •Wire rack for draining fried panuchos

Instructions

1. 1

   Pickle the red onions

   Place the sliced red onion in a heatproof bowl. Cover with boiling water for 30 seconds, then drain. This is the yucateco method. It takes the raw bite off without cooking the onion. Return the onion to the bowl. Add the naranja agria juice, salt, oregano, and crushed allspice. Toss with your hands and let sit at room temperature for at least one hour. The color will shift from pale violet to bright pink as the acid works. These keep for a week in the refrigerator and they only improve.

   Naranja agria is the heart of yucateco cooking. If you cannot find it, mix orange, white vinegar, and lime. Do not use plain orange juice. It is sweet, and that breaks the dish.
2. 2

   Toast and build the recado negro

   Heat a dry comal over medium-low. Toast the chile chilmole and guajillo separately. The chilmole is already dark from the traditional burning that gives it its name. Be careful with it. Forty-five seconds per side, until the kitchen smells smoky and faintly bitter. The guajillo needs full toasting until it puffs. Soak both in hot water (not boiling) for 20 minutes, then drain. In the blender, combine the soaked chiles, the prepared recado negro tablet broken into pieces, peppercorns, allspice, cloves, toasted oregano, cumin, 6 garlic cloves, and the naranja agria juice. Blend with 1/2 cup of fresh water until you have a smooth, near-black paste. This is the sauce that gives the dish its name. Black, not spicy in the way people expect. The flavor is deep, smoky, and unlike anything else in Mexican cooking.

   The traditional recado negro is made by burning the chiles to black ash in a clay pot until the kitchen has to be evacuated. The prepared tablet sold by yucateco brands like La Anita gives you that burned flavor without setting your house on fire. No me vengas con atajos, but this one is real.
3. 3

   Make the but (egg-stuffed meatball)

   In a skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of lard over medium heat. Add the finely chopped onion and cook until translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the minced garlic and tomato. Cook until the tomato breaks down, another 4 minutes. Stir in the ground pork, cinnamon, and oregano. Brown the pork, breaking it up into fine crumbles, about 8 minutes. Season with salt. Cool to room temperature. Divide the cooled picadillo into 4 portions. Take one hard-boiled egg and wrap it completely in one portion of picadillo, pressing firmly so the meat adheres to the egg in a smooth shell. You should have 4 meat-wrapped eggs the size of a small orange. These are buts. They will go into the pot with the turkey to cook through and absorb the recado negro.

4. 4

   Cook the turkey in recado negro

   Pass the banana leaves over an open flame, one section at a time, until they turn glossy and pliable and smell faintly green. This is essential. Raw banana leaves are stiff and bitter. Toasted ones are perfumed and supple. In a heavy pot, melt 2 tablespoons of lard over medium-high heat. Sear the turkey pieces, skin side down first, until the skin is browned, about 5 minutes per side. Remove the turkey. Pour the blender contents into the same pot. It will sputter. Fry the recado negro paste for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. The paste will darken further and the fat will rise to the edges. La manteca es el sabor. Return the turkey to the pot. Add the halved onion, halved garlic head, bay if you like, salt, and enough water to come three-quarters up the turkey, about 4 cups. Tuck the buts into the liquid. Lay the toasted banana leaves over the top, tucking the edges down into the pot. Cover and simmer over low heat for 1 1/2 hours, until the turkey pulls apart easily and the buts are firm and stained black.

5. 5

   Shred the turkey and rest the relleno

   Lift the turkey from the pot and let it cool just enough to handle. Discard the skin and bones. Shred the meat into rough strands and return it to the pot of recado negro. Lift the buts out carefully and set them aside, whole, to slice at serving time. Taste the broth. It should be deeply black, smoky, salty, with a faint sweetness from the allspice. Adjust salt now. The relleno can sit on low heat while you make the panuchos. It is better after 30 minutes of resting in its own sauce.

6. 6

   Refry the black beans

   In a separate skillet, melt 2 tablespoons of lard over medium heat. Add the cooked black beans and mash them with a wooden spoon or potato masher into a thick, smooth paste. The beans need to be thick enough to hold their shape inside a tortilla without leaking. If they are too loose, cook longer over low heat until they tighten. Season with salt. Cover and keep warm. These are the beans that go inside the panucho. Without them, you have a tostada, not a panucho.

7. 7

   Make the masa and press the tortillas

   In a bowl, combine the masa harina and salt. Add the warm water gradually, mixing with your hand until the masa comes together. It should feel like soft modeling clay: smooth, pliable, slightly tacky but not sticky. If it cracks when you press a ball flat, add water by the teaspoon. If it sticks to your palm, add a little more masa. Cover with a damp cloth and rest for 15 minutes. Divide the masa into 12 balls slightly larger than a golf ball. Press each one in a tortilla press lined with plastic. The tortillas should be about 4 1/2 inches across and slightly thicker than a regular tortilla. The thickness matters. A panucho needs body to hold the bean filling without tearing.

8. 8

   Cook and pocket the tortillas

   Heat a dry comal over medium-high. Cook each tortilla for about 45 seconds on the first side, until the edges look dry. Flip and cook another 60 seconds. The tortilla should puff into a balloon on the second side. That puff is what makes a panucho possible. While the tortilla is still hot and puffed, use a paring knife to cut a small slit along one edge, opening the pocket between the two layers. Work quickly. Once the tortilla cools, the pocket seals shut and cannot be reopened.

   If a tortilla refuses to puff, your masa is too dry or your comal is not hot enough. Adjust and try again. A flat tortilla cannot become a panucho. This is why panucheras in Mérida cook a dozen extra. Some never puff.
9. 9

   Stuff the panuchos with beans

   Open each puffed pocket and spoon in 1 to 2 tablespoons of the refried black beans, spreading them evenly inside with the back of the spoon. Press the tortilla gently closed. The bean layer should be visible as a dark stripe between the two layers when you look at the edge. This is the panucho. The word comes from 'pan' and 'ucho,' and it is the structural innovation that makes this Yucatán's, and nobody else's. Cada estado, su propia cocina.

10. 10

    Fry the panuchos in lard

    Melt enough manteca de cerdo in a heavy skillet to come 1/4 inch up the sides, over medium-high heat. The lard is ready when a small piece of masa sizzles immediately on contact. Fry the panuchos two or three at a time, bean side down first, for about 90 seconds, until the bottom turns deep golden and crisp. Flip and fry the other side for another minute. Drain briefly on a wire rack. Do not drain on paper towels. The crisp underside will steam itself soft. La manteca no se traiciona.

    Frying in lard is non-negotiable. Vegetable oil will give you something flat and greasy. Manteca gives you a panucho that is crisp on the outside, soft in the bean center, and tastes like Mérida.
11. 11

    Top and serve

    Arrange the warm panuchos on a platter. Top each one with a generous mound of the shredded turkey in recado negro. Slice the buts into rounds, revealing the yellow egg yolk against the black-stained meat, and place one slice on top of each panucho. Crown with pickled red onions. Set sliced habanero and lime wedges on the side for guests to add at the table. Serve immediately, while the panucho underneath is still crisp. This is panuchos de relleno negro. Recetas probadas y garantizadas. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Recado negro is sold in tablet form by La Anita and other yucateco brands. If you find it, buy three or four. They keep for a year in a sealed bag and they are the difference between a real relleno negro and an imitation. Do not substitute regular chile paste. The burned-chile character cannot be replicated with anything else.
• •Pan francés (the Yucatán's small French roll) is not used in panuchos, but you will see it in panes de cazon and tortas across the Peninsula. Panuchos are strictly corn tortilla territory. Anyone substituting flour tortillas or hard taco shells is making a different dish, and a worse one.
• •If your tortillas refuse to puff, your masa needs more water or your comal needs more heat. Practice on extras. A panuchera in Mérida pumps out a hundred a day. You will not get it right the first time, and that is fine. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado.
• •The pickled red onions are not a garnish. They are structural. The acid cuts the richness of the recado negro and the lard-fried panucho. Without them, the dish is heavy and one-note. Make them first, make them ahead, never skip them.

Advance Preparation

• •The pickled red onions should be made at least one hour ahead and keep for a week refrigerated. They improve overnight.
• •The turkey in recado negro can be cooked one to two days ahead and refrigerated. The flavor deepens significantly. Reheat gently on the stovetop with a splash of water.
• •The buts can be cooked with the turkey one day ahead. Refrigerate whole and slice at serving time.
• •The masa should be mixed within an hour of pressing. Tortillas must be fried in lard the day they are made. A day-old tortilla will not puff and cannot be pocketed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 350g)