Recado Rojo Yucateco

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large volcanic stone molcajete or a small high-powered blender
• •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for toasting spices
• •Spice grinder or dedicated coffee grinder
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Clean glass jar with a tight lid for storage

Instructions

1. 1

   Soften the achiote

   Achiote seeds are stones when they come out of the bag. They will break a cheap blender and laugh at a mortar. Place the seeds in a small bowl and cover with hot tap water, not boiling. Let them sit for at least four hours, or overnight. The water will turn brick red and the seeds will swell and soften enough to grind. This is the step nobody wants to do and the step that decides whether your recado is a paste or a gritty paint.

   If you forget the soak, you can warm the seeds in water on the stove for 30 minutes, but it is not the same. The slow soak softens the seed all the way through. No me vengas con atajos.
2. 2

   Toast the spices

   Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium-low. Add the allspice, peppercorns, cumin, cloves, coriander, and the broken cinnamon. Toast, shaking the pan, for two to three minutes. You are not browning them. You are waking them up. The kitchen will smell like the spice stalls of the Mercado Lucas de Galvez in Merida. Pull the pan off the heat the moment the cumin and coriander turn fragrant. Burnt spice tastes like ash and a recado made with ash is finished before it starts.

   Toast the oregano separately for 20 seconds at the very end, off direct heat, just to release the oils. Yucatecan oregano is not Mediterranean oregano. It is more citric, more floral, and it bruises easily. Treat it gently.
3. 3

   Grind the spices fine

   Transfer the toasted spices and the oregano to a spice grinder or a clean coffee grinder. Grind to a fine powder. Sift through a fine-mesh strainer back into a bowl. The bits that refuse to pass through, grind them again. A recado with pieces of unground clove will bite a guest at the table. La cocina no es decoracion, es trabajo.

4. 4

   Drain the achiote

   Drain the soaked achiote seeds in a fine-mesh strainer. Discard the soaking water. The water has done its job. The seeds are still hard at the core but the outer layer has softened enough to break down.

5. 5

   Build the paste in the molcajete

   Place the peeled garlic and salt in a generous molcajete. Grind in slow circles until you have a smooth wet paste. The salt is the abrasive. Add the drained achiote in three batches, grinding each batch into the garlic paste before adding the next. Your molcajete will turn brick red and stay that way for weeks. That is the color of Yucatecan cooking and you should be proud of it. Add the ground spice mixture and grind everything together. The recado should now look like a dark red clay.

   If you do not have a molcajete with the patience for half an hour of grinding, a small high-powered blender works. Add the wet ingredients first so the blades have something to spin in. The recado is ground, not blended into a smoothie. You want paste, not puree.
6. 6

   Loosen with sour orange and lard

   Add the naranja agria, the white vinegar, and the melted lard. Grind or blend until the paste is smooth and spreadable, the color of fired clay. Taste it. It should be aggressive: sharp, earthy, citric, with the clove and cinnamon humming underneath the achiote. La manteca es el sabor. The lard carries the spice into the meat in a way that water never will.

7. 7

   Rest, then store

   Pack the recado into a clean glass jar and press it down to push out air pockets. Smooth the surface and pour a thin layer of melted lard over the top to seal it. Cover and refrigerate. The recado needs at least 24 hours before you use it. The spices marry, the achiote calms down, and the garlic loses its bite. Made on a Friday, it is ready for Sunday's cochinita. So senoras in Valladolid keep a jar in the icebox at all times. Asi se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Buy whole spices, never pre-ground. Pre-ground spice has been losing flavor since the day it was milled. The toasting and grinding steps are the recipe. Skip them and you have made nothing.
• •If you cannot find naranja agria, the substitute is two parts orange juice, two parts grapefruit juice, one part lime juice, plus a splash of white vinegar. It will get you close. What you are losing is the floral bitterness of the real fruit, which gives the recado its long finish. If a Yucatecan friend offers you frozen naranja agria pulp, take it. It freezes well and it is the right answer.
• •Achiote stains everything. Your molcajete, your wooden spoons, your counter, the inside of your blender. That is normal. A molcajete stained brick red is a molcajete that has earned its keep. Pregunale a las senoras del mercado, every one of them has a kitchen tool the color of fired clay.
• •The recado keeps in the refrigerator for a month, sealed under a thin layer of lard. It freezes for six months in small portions. So a single afternoon of grinding sets you up for cochinita pibil on a weeknight whenever you want it. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Advance Preparation

• •The recado must rest at least 24 hours before use. The flavor at day one is sharp and disjointed; by day three it is integrated and the spices have married into a single voice.
• •Refrigerated under a lard seal, the recado holds for one month. Frozen in small portions (an ice cube tray works), it holds for six months without losing its character.
• •The achiote soak (step one) can be done up to two days ahead. Drain the seeds and refrigerate them in a covered container until ready to grind.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 14g)