Relleno Blanco Yucateco

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 10-quart stockpot
• •Cast iron comal for charring chiles and tomatoes
• •Cheesecloth and kitchen string for wrapping the meatball
• •Volcanic stone molcajete or spice grinder for the recado
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Ladle for the k'ool

Instructions

1. 1

   Build the recado blanco

   If you have a Yucatecan recado blanco from a Mérida mercado, use it. If not, you build it. Toast the peppercorns, cumin seed, cloves, and cinnamon on a dry comal until fragrant, about two minutes. Grind to a fine powder in a spice mill. Combine with the roasted garlic and toasted oregano in a molcajete or small blender. Add a splash of naranja agria juice and grind to a thick paste. Recado blanco is built on black pepper and cloves, not chile. The whiteness of this stew comes from the absence of color, not from cream.

   Recado is not 'spice paste.' It is the spice architecture of the entire Yucatecan kitchen. Recado rojo is achiote-driven, recado negro is built on burnt chiles, recado blanco is pepper and clove. Each one tells you what dish you are making before you take the first bite.
2. 2

   Simmer the turkey

   Place the turkey pieces in a heavy 10-quart stockpot. Cover with cold water by three inches. Add the halved onions, the halved head of garlic, epazote, hierbabuena sprigs, salt, and the tablespoon of peppercorns. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Skim the gray foam in the first twenty minutes. Reduce heat and cook at a lazy simmer for one and a half hours, until the turkey is tender but not falling apart. Cold start, slow simmer. A rolling boil clouds the broth and toughens the meat.

3. 3

   Char the chiles

   While the turkey simmers, heat a dry comal over medium-high. Char the xkatik chiles whole, turning, until the skin is blistered and dark in spots, about four minutes. Do the same with the habaneros but only briefly, just to blister. Set them aside. The xkatik gives the broth a yellow chile sweetness without heat. The habanero perfumes the pot without breaking. Do not pierce the habanero unless you want a fire.

4. 4

   Mix the picadillo for the relleno

   In a wide bowl, combine the ground pork, ground beef, chopped hard-boiled eggs, beaten raw eggs, toasted almonds, raisins, chopped olives, capers, diced onion, six minced garlic cloves, chopped hierbabuena, two tablespoons of the recado blanco, two tablespoons of naranja agria juice, and a generous teaspoon of salt. Mix with your hand until it just comes together. Do not overwork it or the meatball turns dense. Pork shoulder ground with its fat is what holds this together. Lean pork makes a dry, sad relleno.

   The almonds, raisins, olives, and capers are the colonial fingerprint on this dish, Mediterranean ingredients carried into Yucatán and woven into Maya technique. Do not skip any of them. Each one is doing a job: the almond gives bite, the raisin gives sweetness, the olive gives brine, the caper gives acid.
5. 5

   Form and poach the meatball

   Shape the meat mixture into one large oval loaf, about ten inches long, or into two smaller ovals if your pot is narrow. Wrap each loaf tightly in cheesecloth and tie the ends with kitchen string. Lower the wrapped meatball gently into the simmering turkey broth alongside the turkey. Add the charred xkatik and the whole habaneros. Simmer for one hour, undisturbed. The meatball cooks in the same broth that the turkey gave its flavor to. The exchange goes both ways.

6. 6

   Season with recado and naranja agria

   After the meatball has poached for one hour, stir the remaining recado blanco and the naranja agria juice into the broth. Taste. The broth should taste of black pepper, clove, and a sharp citrus that does not read as orange or lime but as something between the two. That is naranja agria. There is no substitute that tastes exactly like it, but the mix of orange juice, vinegar, and lime gets you close. Adjust salt now.

7. 7

   Make the k'ool

   Ladle two cups of the turkey broth into a small saucepan. Whisk in the masa harina slurry. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the k'ool thickens to the texture of heavy cream, about five minutes. This is the white sauce that gives relleno blanco its name. K'ool is Maya thickening, masa stirred into broth, the same technique used in atole. It binds the dish without flour and without dairy. Asi se hace y punto.

   If the k'ool turns lumpy, push it through a fine strainer and whisk it back smooth. Do not use cornstarch. The flavor of cooked masa is part of the dish.
8. 8

   Finish the broth

   Pour the k'ool back into the main pot, whisking it into the broth. Stir in the charred tomato puree. The broth should now be pale ivory with a faint pink cast from the tomato, glossy from the masa, fragrant with pepper and clove. Simmer five more minutes. Taste one last time. If it tastes flat, more salt. If it tastes sharp, a small pinch of sugar to balance the naranja agria. The senoras in Valladolid keep a sugar bowl next to the salt for exactly this reason.

9. 9

   Unwrap and slice the meatball

   Lift the meatball out of the broth with a slotted spoon. Cut the string, peel back the cheesecloth, and transfer the loaf to a cutting board. Let it rest five minutes before slicing into thick rounds, about three-quarters of an inch. The cross-section should show the white of the egg, the brown of the meat, the dark of the raisins and olives, the pale almonds. That mosaic is the dish.

10. 10

    Serve at the table

    Pull the turkey pieces from the pot, shred or leave on the bone, and arrange on a large platter. Lay the meatball rounds alongside. Ladle the hot ivory broth generously over everything. Set bowls of salpicon (sliced red onion, diced radish, chopped cilantro), sliced habanero, lima agria halves, and warm corn tortillas around the table. Each diner builds their own plate. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Naranja agria is the soul of Yucatecan cooking. If you live near a Mexican or Caribbean market, find it. The juice freezes well. If you cannot find it, the orange juice plus vinegar plus lime combination is a compromise, not an upgrade, but it will get you close enough to taste what the dish is supposed to be.
• •Recado blanco from a Mérida mercado, vacuum-sealed, will keep for months in the refrigerator and saves you an hour of work. If your local market does not carry it, building it from whole spices is no shame. That is how the senoras in the smaller villages still do it.
• •Do not pierce the habanero in the pot. A whole habanero perfumes the broth with the floral, fruity edge that is the signature of Yucatecan food. A pierced one turns it into something else entirely and most of your guests will not be able to eat it.
• •If turkey is hard to find or you are cooking for a smaller group, this works beautifully with a whole chicken, three to four pounds. Reduce the simmer time to one hour. The flavor profile is the same. The history is in the recado, not the bird.

Advance Preparation

• •The recado blanco can be made up to two weeks ahead and refrigerated in a sealed jar. The flavor deepens.
• •The turkey broth can be made one day ahead. Refrigerate overnight, lift off the fat the next morning, and reheat with the meatball cooked fresh.
• •The meatball mixture can be assembled the morning of and refrigerated, wrapped in cheesecloth, until you are ready to poach it. Do not poach it ahead. The texture suffers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 500g)