Recado Sinaloense for Mariscos a la Diabla

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for toasting chiles
• •High-powered blender
• •Medium-mesh sieve and wooden spoon
• •Heavy stainless or carbon steel skillet for frying the recado
• •Glass jar with a tight lid for storage

Instructions

1. 1

   Toast the chiles de arbol and guajillo

   Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium. Toast the chiles de arbol first, shaking the pan, about 20 to 30 seconds total. They are thin and they burn fast. The moment they turn fragrant and the color deepens by a shade, pull them off. Toast the guajillos next, 30 seconds per side, pressing them flat with a spatula. The skin will puff and the kitchen will smell like the chile section of a Culiacan mercado. That smell is the oils releasing.

   Open a window. The chile de arbol smoke will catch in your throat and that is the chile telling you it is doing its job. No me vengas con atajos. If you skip the toasting, the recado will taste flat and raw.
2. 2

   Handle the chiltepin

   If you are working with dried chiltepin, do not toast it. Chiltepin is small, round, and concentrated, and it scorches the second it touches a hot comal. The flavor turns acrid and there is no fixing it. Set it aside whole. If you are using chiltepin en vinagre from a jar, drain it and reserve a teaspoon of the vinegar for later if you want extra acid in the recado.

3. 3

   Soak the toasted chiles

   Transfer the toasted chiles de arbol and guajillos to a heatproof bowl. Pour over enough hot tap water to cover, about 2 cups. Hot, not boiling. Boiling water cooks the skins and pushes a bitter edge into the salsa. Place a small plate on top to keep them submerged. Soak for 15 minutes until the guajillos are pliable and the arbols have softened.

4. 4

   Blend the recado

   Drain the soaked chiles and transfer to a blender. Add the chiltepin (do not skip it, this chile is what makes the recado Sinaloense and not generic), the peeled garlic, naranja agria juice, lime juice, tomato paste, Worcestershire, Maggi, oregano, salt, pepper, and the 1/4 cup of water. Blend on high for two full minutes until completely smooth. Add a splash more water only if the blender is straining. You want a thick, pourable paste, not a thin sauce.

   The chiltepin is the soul of this recado. It is a wild chile that grows in the sierras of Sonora and northern Sinaloa, picked by hand, and it is what separates a Noroeste diabla from the generic 'spicy red sauce' you find everywhere else. Do not substitute jalapeno. Do not substitute habanero. If you cannot find chiltepin, you do not have a Sinaloense recado, you have something else. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
5. 5

   Strain for body, not for thinness

   Pass the blended recado through a medium-mesh sieve into a bowl, pressing on the solids with a wooden spoon. You want to catch the chile skins and seeds that did not break down, but leave enough texture that the recado clings to the shrimp later. Discard what is left in the sieve. If the strained recado looks too thin, you over-blended with water; cook it down in the next step longer. If it looks too thick, hold a tablespoon of water to add at the end.

6. 6

   Fry the recado in butter and olive oil

   In a heavy skillet, melt the butter with the olive oil over medium heat. The mantequilla is non-negotiable for la diabla; it is what gives the recado its glossy, restaurant-style sheen and the rounded richness that cuts the chile heat. When the butter foams and stops sputtering, pour in the strained recado. It will hiss. Cook for six to eight minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. The color will darken from bright red to a deep brick red and the fat will separate around the edges of the pan. That is when you stop. La mantequilla es el sabor en este caso, manteca queda para otras cocinas.

7. 7

   Taste and adjust

   Pull the recado off the heat. Taste it. It should hit you in this order: butter, garlic, citrus, then the slow burn of chiltepin and arbol building at the back of the throat. If it tastes flat, add salt by the quarter teaspoon. If it tastes one-note hot, add another tablespoon of lime juice. If it tastes too sharp, add a teaspoon of tomato paste and warm it through. Asi se hace y punto.

8. 8

   Marinate or coat your mariscos

   For shrimp a la diabla, peel and devein 2 pounds of large shrimp, leaving the tails on. Toss with 1 cup of the warm recado and let sit 15 minutes at room temperature, no longer. Lime cures the shrimp, so a long marinade will turn them mushy before they hit the heat. For the parrilla or a hot skillet, cook the shrimp three to four minutes total, brushing with more recado as they cook. For pulpo, mussels, or whole fish, use the recado as a glaze in the last few minutes of cooking. The same recado works on octopus, callo de hacha, or filete de pescado from the Mazatlan boats.

9. 9

   Finish at the table

   Plate the cooked mariscos and spoon any extra recado over the top while everything is still hot. Serve with halved limones, slices of cucumber, a cold cerveza, and a stack of warm corn tortillas or saltines. In Mazatlan they put a small dish of chiltepines en vinagre on the table for the diners who think this is not hot enough yet. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Chiltepin is the recado. If you cannot find it, do not pretend with crushed red pepper or arbol-only. Look for chiltepin en vinagre in jars at any market serving a Sonoran or Sinaloense community in the U.S. or Mexico. The pickled version works almost as well as dried, and the vinegar adds a useful sharpness.
• •Naranja agria, sour orange, is the citrus this recado was built on. If you are in a city without a Caribbean or Mexican market, mix half regular orange juice with half lime juice. It is a compromise, not an upgrade, but it gets you close.
• •Do not skip the strain. The skins of the chiles de arbol are tough and they will give you a gritty mouthfeel on the shrimp. Press hard on the solids in the sieve to get every drop of the chile oil through.
• •The recado keeps in a glass jar in the refrigerator for two weeks. The flavor only gets better after the second day. Make a double batch and you have the base for shrimp a la diabla, pulpo a la diabla, and a quick weeknight pescado in fifteen minutes.

Advance Preparation

• •The recado can be made up to two weeks ahead and refrigerated in a sealed glass jar. The chiltepin and garlic continue to develop over the first 48 hours and the recado is arguably better on day three than day one.
• •Bring the recado back to room temperature or warm it gently in a saucepan before tossing with shrimp. Cold recado out of the refrigerator will tighten the butter and coat the mariscos unevenly.
• •The recado freezes well for up to three months. Portion into half-cup containers and thaw in the refrigerator overnight.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 60g)