Pastes Dulces de Hidalgo (Arroz con Leche y Pina)

Hidalgo, especially Real del Monte and Pachuca, owns the paste in Mexico. This is mining food from the cold sierra, wheat dough folded over a filling that could travel in a lunch pail and survive a long workday underground. The sweet versions, arroz con leche and pina, came later, after the paste had already become hidalguense, no longer only Cornish and not a generic empanada either.

The dough is the first lesson. It needs wheat flour and manteca de cerdo for a firm, short crust that holds its braided edge. Butter alone makes it too delicate. Oil makes it wrong. La manteca es el sabor, even in pastry. The edge, the repulgue, is not decoration. It seals the filling and tells you the cook knows her hands.

For arroz con leche, use Mexican canela and cook the rice until it is thick enough to mound, not run. For pina, cook the fruit down with piloncillo until it is glossy and sticky, because watery pineapple will burst the paste open in the oven. I learned that from a woman in Real del Monte who sold them before noon and had none left by two. She looked at my first batch and said, 'muy bonito, pero esta llorando.' Pretty, but leaking. She was right. La cocina no es decoración, es trabajo.

Cada estado, su propia cocina. Hidalgo took a miner's hand pie, gave it Mexican fillings, and made it part of its own table. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.