Recado Conventual para Pavo Relleno

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Volcanic stone metate with tejolote
• •Dry comal for chiles, vegetables, nuts, and spices
• •Wide barro rojo cazuela or heavy Dutch oven
• •Wooden spoon with a flat edge
• •Glass jar or glazed clay container for resting the recado

Instructions

1. 1

   Dry the bread

   The night before, tear the tortillas and slice the bolillo. Leave them uncovered on a tray so they dry. This matters. Fresh bread drinks fat and turns heavy. Dry bread toasts cleanly and gives the recado body without making it pasty in the wrong way.

2. 2

   Toast the chiles

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the ancho chiles one at a time, about 20 to 30 seconds per side, just until the skin puffs and smells sweet. Toast the mulatos even more carefully because they burn faster. If a chile blackens, throw it out. Burned chile will make the whole recado bitter and no amount of jerez will save it.

   The ancho gives sweetness and red-brown color. The mulato gives a darker, almost chocolate note. Do not replace them with chile de arbol. This recado is not supposed to be sharp with heat.
3. 3

   Soak the chiles

   Put the toasted chiles in a bowl and cover them with hot water, not boiling water. Let them soften for 25 minutes, then drain. Taste a spoonful of the soaking water. If it is bitter, discard it. If it tastes clean and fruity, save half a cup in case the paste needs help moving on the metate or in the blender.

4. 4

   Char the vegetables

   On the same comal, roast the tomatoes, onion, and unpeeled garlic until the tomato skins blister, the onion edges char, and the garlic softens in its skin. Peel the garlic. This is where the recado begins to taste cooked before it reaches the cazuela.

5. 5

   Toast the nuts

   Lower the heat slightly. Toast the almonds until golden in spots, then remove them. Toast the sesame seeds until they turn pale gold and smell nutty. Toast the raisins only until they puff. Do each one separately. The nuns did not put everything on the comal at once and hope for the best. They knew better.

6. 6

   Fry the bread

   Melt 2 tablespoons of the lard in a small skillet. Fry the dried tortilla pieces, bolillo slices, and plantain slices in batches until golden. Drain them on brown paper or a rack. The bread and tortilla thicken the paste. The plantain rounds the chile and spice without making the recado taste like dessert.

7. 7

   Toast the spices

   Return the dry comal to low heat. Toast the canela, cloves, allspice, peppercorns, oregano, thyme, and anise seed for 30 to 45 seconds, moving them constantly. Stop when the spices smell alive. Grind them first in a spice mill or on the metate until fine. Whole clove hiding in a recado is bad work.

8. 8

   Grind the paste

   On a metate, grind the chiles with the tomatoes, onion, garlic, almonds, sesame, raisins, fried bread, tortilla, plantain, and ground spices. Work in small additions and scrape often. You want a thick, smooth paste that holds its shape on a spoon. If using a blender, blend in batches with just enough warm stock to move the blades. Do not drown it. This is a recado, not a soup.

9. 9

   Fry the recado

   Heat the remaining lard in a wide barro rojo cazuela or heavy Dutch oven over medium. Add the ground paste carefully. It will sputter. Stir with a wooden spoon for 20 to 25 minutes, scraping the bottom, until the paste darkens, thickens, and the fat begins to show at the edges. La manteca es el sabor. This frying step locks the chile, nuts, bread, and spices into one flavor.

10. 10

    Season with jerez

    Add the jerez and stir until its sharp alcohol smell softens. Add 1 1/2 cups warm stock, the piloncillo, salt, and vinegar. Simmer gently for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring often, until the recado is glossy, thick, and spreadable. It should coat the spoon heavily. Taste for salt. The flavor should be sweet-spiced, dark with chile, and balanced by vinegar, not sugary.

11. 11

    Rest overnight

    Scrape the recado into a glass or glazed clay container. Press parchment directly against the surface and refrigerate overnight. The chile, jerez, canela, clove, and almonds need time to settle into each other. Use it the next day to rub under and over the skin of a stuffed turkey, loosened with a little stock for basting as the bird roasts. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Buy chiles that are flexible, glossy, and smell like dried fruit. If the ancho breaks like old paper, leave it with the vendor. You can have perfect technique and dead chiles and the recado will still taste tired.
• •Jerez is part of the conventual register here. It brings the Spanish pantry into the same paste as chile and turkey. If you must replace it, use a dry oloroso-style sherry from Spain. A sweet cooking wine from the supermarket is not the same thing.
• •The metate gives the paste a different body because it crushes instead of cutting. A blender works when it must, but blend thick and strain only if the chile skins are coarse. If you make it watery, you will spend an hour cooking it back down.
• •This recado is for a stuffed turkey in the Puebla convent style. It is not a salsa for tacos and it is not a mole to pour over rice. The turkey, stuffing, and roasting method live in the main dish. This preparation is the architecture underneath.
• •If almonds are expensive, reduce them slightly, but do not remove them. Almendra, pasas, canela, clavo, ajonjoli, and jerez are what mark the convent table. Without them, you are making a different paste.

Advance Preparation

• •Make the recado one to three days ahead. The flavor deepens in the refrigerator, especially the ancho, jerez, clove, and almond.
• •The finished paste keeps refrigerated for 5 days with parchment pressed against the surface. It can be frozen for 2 months, though the nut and bread body is better before freezing.
• •To use on a turkey, loosen 2 cups of recado with 1/2 to 3/4 cup warm turkey stock until spreadable. Rub it under the skin, over the skin, and lightly through the stuffing. Reserve more recado for basting.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 105g)