Piedras Yucatecas

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy deep cazuela or 4-quart Dutch oven for frying
• •Slotted spoon or kitchen spider
• •Wire rack set over a sheet pan
• •Candy thermometer to monitor the lard temperature
• •Small ceramic dishes for the table garnishes

Instructions

1. 1

   Mix the masa

   In a wide bowl, combine the masa harina and salt. Add the softened tablespoon of lard and rub it into the dry masa with your fingers until it looks like wet sand. Pour in the warm water in stages, kneading with your knuckles after each addition. You want a masa that holds together when you press a ball in your fist and barely cracks at the edges. Too dry and the piedras split open in the oil. Too wet and they soak fat instead of frying clean. Cover with a damp cloth and rest for 10 minutes.

2. 2

   Build the filling

   Chop the chicharrón prensado fine. Not crushed, chopped. You want small pieces with edges, the kind that catch the fat when they hit the oil. In a small bowl, fold the chopped chicharrón together with the mashed black beans and the epazote. Taste it. The chicharrón is already salty and the beans are seasoned, so you should not need more salt. If it tastes flat, add a pinch.

   Chicharrón prensado is not the puffed chicharrón you snack on. It is the pressed slab, dense with meat and fat, sold in the carnicerías in Mérida by the kilo. If your butcher does not carry it, ask. Do not substitute puffed chicharrón. The water will collapse it and the piedra falls apart.
3. 3

   Form the piedras

   Wet your hands lightly. Pull off a piece of masa the size of a golf ball. Flatten it in your palm into a thick disc, about 3 inches across. Place a heaping teaspoon of the chicharrón and bean filling in the center. Close the masa around the filling, pinching the seam shut, then roll it firmly between your palms into a tight ball. Press it once between your hands to flatten it slightly into a thick puck, like a stone. That shape is why they are called piedras. Repeat with the remaining masa. You should get about 24 pieces.

4. 4

   Heat the lard

   In a deep heavy pot or cazuela, melt the 2 cups of lard over medium heat until it reaches 350°F. A small piece of masa dropped in should sizzle steadily on contact and rise to the surface within seconds. La manteca es el sabor. Do not use vegetable oil here. Lard gives the piedras the deep flavor and the hard, dry exterior they need. Vegetable oil leaves them greasy and pale.

5. 5

   Fry hard and dry

   Lower the piedras into the lard in batches of six or seven. Do not crowd the pot. Fry for 8 to 10 minutes total, turning them with a slotted spoon every couple of minutes. They are ready when the outside is deeply golden, almost mahogany at the edges, and feels rock-hard when you tap one with the back of a spoon. That hardness is the dish. A piedra that gives under your finger has not fried long enough. Lift them out and drain on a wire rack set over a sheet pan. Salt them lightly while they are still hot.

   The Mérida vendors fry these twice. Once at lower heat to cook the masa through, then a second pass at 375°F to harden the shell. If you have time, fry for 6 minutes at 325°F, rest 10 minutes on the rack, then fry again at 375°F for 3 minutes. The shell comes out harder and the interior stays tender.
6. 6

   Serve the Mérida way

   Pile the piedras in a basket lined with a cotton servilleta. Set out small dishes of cebolla morada encurtida, sliced habanero, naranja agria wedges, and salsa de chile habanero tatemado. Each person breaks a piedra in half, drops in a few rings of pickled onion and habanero, squeezes naranja agria over the open interior, and eats it standing up if they want to do it properly. This is stadium food in Mérida, eaten in the bleachers of the Estadio Kukulcán with a beer. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Chicharrón prensado is the non-negotiable ingredient. It is the pressed brick of cooked pork skin and meat, dense and salty, that you find by the kilo in Yucatecan carnicerías and good Mexican butcher shops. Puffed chicharrón collapses in the filling and ruins the texture. If you absolutely cannot find prensado, finely chopped carnitas with some of the rendered fat folded in is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •Naranja agria is the sour orange of the Yucatán and it is the citrus the Peninsula cooks with. If you cannot find it fresh, mix equal parts fresh orange juice, lime juice, and grapefruit juice. Bottled naranja agria from Yucateca brands is acceptable. White vinegar is not. The Peninsula does not pickle with white vinegar.
• •These do not keep. A piedra is a piedra for about two hours after it leaves the fryer. After that it goes soft and you have lost the dish. Make them just before you serve them, the way the vendors do.
• •If your masa cracks badly when you press it into discs, your masa is too dry. Wet your hands and knead in a tablespoon of warm water at a time until it holds. Yucatecan masa is slightly wetter than the masa used for tortillas in central Mexico because of the humidity.

Advance Preparation

• •The chicharrón and bean filling can be made up to one day ahead and refrigerated. Bring it back to room temperature before forming the piedras so it does not chill the masa.
• •The cebolla morada encurtida should be made the day before. It needs at least 4 hours in the naranja agria to turn pink and lose its raw bite, and it is better after 24 hours.
• •The masa is best mixed and used the same day. If you must rest it longer than 2 hours, refrigerate it tightly covered and let it come back to room temperature before forming.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 170g)