Poc Chuc

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Charcoal grill with lump hardwood charcoal
• •Cast iron comal for charring garlic, tomatoes, and habanero
• •Volcanic stone molcajete for grinding the recado
• •Fine-mesh sieve or food mill for the frijol colado
• •Glass jar for the pickled red onions
• •Meat mallet or heavy rolling pin for pounding the pork

Instructions

1. 1

   Start the frijol colado

   Rinse the black beans and place them in a heavy pot with the halved white onion and the sprig of epazote. Cover with cold water by three inches. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook uncovered for about two hours, until the beans are completely soft and the broth has turned a deep purple-black. Salt only in the last twenty minutes. Frijol colado is what Yucatecans serve with everything. It is not refried. It is strained.

   Epazote is non-negotiable for Yucatecan beans. It is the herb, and it does the digestive work that makes a pot of beans a Yucatecan pot of beans.
2. 2

   Pickle the red onions

   While the beans cook, bring a small pot of water to a boil. Drop the sliced red onions in for exactly ten seconds, then drain immediately. This takes the raw bite off without cooking them. Transfer to a glass jar with the charred habanero, the crumbled Yucatecan oregano, and the salt. Pour the sour orange juice over the top, press the onions down so they are submerged, and let them sit at room temperature for at least an hour. They will turn that bright magenta pink that signals the dish is from the peninsula and nowhere else.

3. 3

   Build the marinade

   Heat a dry comal over medium and char the eight garlic cloves in their skins until the skins blacken and the cloves underneath turn soft and sweet, about eight minutes. Peel them. Toast the peppercorns and allspice in the same comal for thirty seconds until fragrant, then crush in a molcajete with the salt. Add the roasted garlic and grind to a paste. Stir in the sour orange juice. This is the Yucatecan recado for poc chuc. Simple, three ingredients, and the fight is in the proportions.

4. 4

   Marinate the pork

   Pound the pork loin steaks to a generous quarter-inch thickness. Thin is the whole point. Thick pork does not work for poc chuc and turns the dish into something else. Lay the steaks in a shallow dish and pour the marinade over them, turning to coat every piece. Marinate for thirty minutes at room temperature, no longer than an hour. The sour orange will start to cook the meat if you leave it too long, and you want the lime to flavor it, not cure it.

   If you cannot find naranja agria, the orange-and-lime blend is a real Yucatecan workaround used by cooks in Mérida who live far from a sour orange tree. It is a compromise, but a recognized one. No me vengas con jugo de naranja embotellado.
5. 5

   Finish the chiltomate

   On the same comal, char the Roma tomatoes, the halved white onion, the unpeeled garlic, and the whole habanero until the skins blacken in spots, turning often. About ten minutes. Peel the garlic. Transfer everything to a molcajete or blender and grind to a coarse, chunky sauce. Heat the lard in a small clay cazuela, pour in the sauce, and simmer for five minutes until it tightens and the color deepens to brick red. Salt to taste. Chiltomate is the table sauce of Yucatán, and the habanero gets ground in whole, not seeded. This is how it is done.

6. 6

   Finish the beans

   When the beans are tender, pass them through a fine-mesh sieve or a food mill, pressing the beans and broth through and discarding the skins. You want a smooth, thick pourable bean puree. Return to the pot, melt the manteca in, and simmer five more minutes. Taste for salt. Frijol colado is the strained one. La manteca es el sabor, even in the beans.

7. 7

   Build a hot charcoal fire

   Light a generous bed of natural lump charcoal and let it burn down to glowing embers covered with gray ash. The grill should be hot enough that you cannot hold your hand over the grate for more than two seconds. Poc chuc means burnt or seared meat in Maya. The name is the instruction. If your fire is weak, your poc chuc is not poc chuc, it is grilled pork.

8. 8

   Grill the pork hot and fast

   Lift the steaks from the marinade and let the excess drip off. Lay them on the hot grate. Cook for ninety seconds to two minutes per side, no more. The edges should char and the surface should pick up dark grill marks. Thin pork over high heat cooks fast. Pull it the second it is opaque through the center. Overcooked poc chuc is tough poc chuc and there is no recovering it.

9. 9

   Plate and serve immediately

   Pile the grilled pork on a white Mérida-style platter. Spoon the chiltomate alongside, mound the pickled red onions on top of the pork, and ladle the frijol colado into small bowls for each guest. Serve with warm corn tortillas, lime wedges, and sliced radishes. Each person builds their own taco at the table: tortilla, a slice of pork, a forkful of pickled onion, a spoon of chiltomate, a swipe of beans. This is lunch in Mérida. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Naranja agria is the soul of this dish. If you live in a city with a Latino market, ask for it by name. Bottled sour orange marinades from the supermarket are not the same and you can taste the preservatives. The orange-and-lime substitute is the only acceptable workaround.
• •Pound the pork yourself between two sheets of plastic wrap. A wine bottle works if you do not own a mallet. Ask the butcher to butterfly it for you and you save yourself the first cut. Thin is not optional. Thick poc chuc is wrong poc chuc.
• •Use real charcoal, not a gas grill, and not briquettes soaked in lighter fluid. The smoke is part of the flavor. If you absolutely cannot grill outside, a cast iron grill pan over the highest flame you can manage is the indoor compromise. It will not be the same, but it will be honest.
• •Yucatecan oregano is different from the Mexican oregano of the central states. It is more floral, slightly citrusy. If your market carries it, use it. If not, regular Mexican oregano is fine. Italian oregano is not.

Advance Preparation

• •The pickled red onions can be made up to one week ahead and refrigerated. They get better, not worse, with time.
• •The frijol colado can be made one day ahead and reheated with a splash of water. The flavor deepens overnight.
• •The chiltomate can be made several hours ahead and held at room temperature, or refrigerated overnight. Reheat gently before serving.
• •Do not marinate the pork longer than one hour. The sour orange will start to cure the meat past that point and the texture turns from grilled to ceviche-like, which is wrong for this dish.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 450g)