Recado Blanco Yucateco

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy cast iron comal or skillet for charring the garlic and toasting the spices
• •Volcanic stone molcajete (preferred) or spice grinder
• •Clean glass jar with tight-fitting lid for storage
• •Wooden spoon and a wide ceramic bowl if working without a molcajete

Instructions

1. 1

   Char the garlic

   Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium-high until you can feel the heat rising off the surface. Lay the unpeeled heads of garlic on their sides and char them, turning every few minutes, until the papery skin blackens in patches and the cloves inside soften. This takes about 15 minutes. The garlic should give when you press it. Charring on the skin is the recado blanco signature. It tames the bite of raw garlic and gives the paste a faint smoke. Skip it and you have a sharp, raw-tasting paste that bears no resemblance to what the senoras in Merida make.

   Do not peel the garlic before charring. The skin protects the flesh from burning while letting the smoke through. Peel after the heads have cooled enough to handle.
2. 2

   Toast the spices

   Wipe the comal clean and lower the heat to medium. Add the peppercorns, cumin seed, cloves, and pieces of cinnamon stick. Toast for 2 to 3 minutes, shaking the pan, until the spices darken a shade and the kitchen smells warm and slightly sweet from the clove and cinnamon. Pull them off the heat the moment they smell ready. Burned cumin is bitter cumin and there is no fixing it later. Let the spices cool for five minutes on a plate. They grind cleaner when they are not hot.

3. 3

   Toast the oregano

   Return the comal to low heat. Add the Yucatecan oregano and toast for about 30 seconds, just until you smell it open up. Yucatecan oregano is not Mediterranean oregano. It is more citrusy, slightly grassy, with a menthol edge. If you used Greek or Italian oregano the recado would taste wrong. Pregunta en el mercado por oregano yucateco. Si no lo encuentras, busca oregano mexicano. Es lo mas cercano. Mediterranean is the last resort and it changes the recado.

4. 4

   Grind the spices

   Transfer the cooled toasted spices and the oregano to a spice grinder or a molcajete. If you are using a molcajete, this is real work. Grind in batches until you have a fine, even powder. The cinnamon is the slowest to break down. Keep going until it surrenders. A coarse grind makes a coarse paste and the recado loses the velvet texture that makes it cling to a piece of pork.

5. 5

   Peel and crush the garlic

   Once the charred heads are cool enough to handle, squeeze the cloves out of their skins. They should slip out as a soft, sticky, slightly smoky paste. Discard the papery skins. Mash the garlic with the flat of a knife or in the molcajete until it is a smooth puree. Some blackened bits from the skin will sneak in. That is part of the flavor. Do not chase them out.

6. 6

   Build the paste

   Combine the ground spice powder, the mashed charred garlic, and the salt in the molcajete or a wide bowl. Pour in the naranja agria and the vinegar. Work it together with the pestle or the back of a wooden spoon until you have a thick, spreadable paste the color of damp sand with flecks of black. It should hold its shape on the spoon and smell pungent: garlic forward, then the warm sweetness of clove and cinnamon, then the citrus snap of the oregano and the sour orange. Taste a tiny amount on a fingertip. It should be intense. Recado is a seasoning, not a dipping sauce. It tastes correct when it is almost too much by itself.

   If the paste is too dry to spread, add naranja agria a teaspoon at a time. If it is too loose, work in a pinch more of the spice powder. The consistency should be like wet clay.
7. 7

   Store or use immediately

   Use the recado right away to marinate pork for poc chuc, season a puchero, or rub onto chicken before grilling. To store, pack into a clean glass jar and smooth the top. Pour the tablespoon of melted manteca over the surface to seal it from the air. Refrigerate for up to a month. The flavor deepens after a day of rest. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •If you cannot find naranja agria, mix 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice, 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice, 1 tablespoon fresh grapefruit juice, and a small splash of white vinegar to make 1/4 cup. This is a substitute, not an equivalent. You lose the floral bitterness that naranja agria carries and the recado will taste a little flatter. If you have a Caribbean or Mexican market near you, the sour oranges are usually there in winter.
• •Use Yucatecan oregano if you can get it. Mexican oregano is the next best thing. Mediterranean oregano (Greek, Italian, Turkish) is wrong for this paste. The leaf is a different plant, the flavor is pine-forward instead of citrus-forward, and the recado will not taste like Yucatan.
• •A molcajete makes a better recado than a spice grinder. The slow grinding bruises the oils out of the spices and gives the paste a rougher, more alive texture. If you only have a grinder, use it for the spices and finish the paste by hand with the garlic in a bowl with the back of a wooden spoon.
• •Recado blanco is the base. Use it to rub thinly sliced pork loin for poc chuc, season the broth of a Sunday puchero, marinate chicken for pollo asado, or rub onto a whole fish before wrapping it in banana leaf. Esto no es comida de un solo Mexico. The recado is the grammar of the Yucatecan kitchen and once you have it in a jar, half the cuisine opens up to you.

Advance Preparation

• •Recado blanco is made to be made ahead. Pack into a clean glass jar, seal the surface with a thin layer of melted manteca, and refrigerate for up to a month. The flavor deepens after the first day of rest.
• •For longer storage, freeze the paste in tablespoon portions on a parchment-lined tray, then transfer the frozen cubes to a freezer bag. It keeps for six months and thaws in minutes for weeknight cooking.
• •Charred garlic alone, mashed and refrigerated under a film of manteca, is a useful pantry staple even when you are not making recado. It will keep for two weeks and lifts a pot of beans, a simple rice, or a quick salsa.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 14g)