Relleno Negro Yucateco

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large outdoor comal or cast iron skillet with very good ventilation
• •Heavy 8-quart stockpot for the turkey
• •Heavy 6-quart cazuela or Dutch oven for the black sauce
• •Separate pot for poaching the bus
• •High-powered blender
• •Spice grinder
• •Kitchen twine

Instructions

1. 1

   Burn the chiles

   This is where relleno negro begins, and this is where most cooks outside Yucatán turn back. Take the chile ancho, chile guajillo, chile de arbol, and the reserved seeds out to a comal set over an open flame. Burn them. Not toast. Burn. Leave them on the fire until they are pitch black, smoking, and the kitchen is uninhabitable. The cooks in Yucatán traditionally do this outdoors over a wood fire because the smoke is punishing. Open every window. The black color of the dish comes from this step. Underburn and you have a brown stew. Burn properly and you have relleno negro.

   If you can buy real Yucatecan recado negro (also called chilmole) from a Mexican grocer or a Mérida-based importer, skip this step and use 6 to 8 tablespoons of paste instead. The señoras at the markets in Mérida buy theirs from the recado vendors. There is no shame in it. There is shame in pretending a brown stew is relleno negro.
2. 2

   Make the recado negro

   Soak the burned chiles in cold water for 15 minutes. The water will turn black. Drain them and squeeze out the bitter liquid. Toast the peppercorns, cumin, cloves, and cinnamon on a clean comal until fragrant, then grind them with the oregano in a spice grinder. Combine the drained chiles, the ground spices, the head of garlic (cloves peeled), and 2 tablespoons of the recado rojo in a blender with 1 cup of water. Blend to a thick black paste. This is recado negro. La pasta es el alma del plato.

3. 3

   Build the turkey broth

   Rub the turkey pieces with salt and the naranja agria juice. Let them sit for 20 minutes. Place the turkey in a large stockpot with the halved onion, 6 extra garlic cloves, half the epazote, and enough water to cover by two inches. Bring to a gentle simmer. Skim the foam. Cook partially covered for one hour. The turkey should be tender but not falling apart yet. Reserve 8 cups of the broth and set the turkey aside.

4. 4

   Make the but

   But is the meatball that goes inside the stew, a Yucatecan word, pronounced 'boot.' In a large bowl, combine the ground pork, ground beef, the finely chopped onion, the hierbabuena (chopped), 2 of the raw eggs, 1 tablespoon of the prepared recado negro paste, and 1 teaspoon of salt. Mix with your hands until uniform. Divide into 8 equal portions. Take one portion, flatten it in your palm, place a hard-boiled egg in the center, and close the meat around the egg like a tomb. The egg should be completely sealed inside. Repeat with the remaining portions. You will have 8 large meatballs, each hiding an egg at its heart. This is the relleno that gives the dish its name.

   Do not skip the egg inside. The slice through a but, revealing the yellow yolk against the black sauce, is the visual that tells a Yucateco the dish was made correctly. Sin huevo, no es relleno negro.
5. 5

   Wrap and poach the but

   Pass the banana leaves over an open flame for a few seconds on each side until they turn from matte to glossy green and become pliable. Cut into 8 squares large enough to wrap each meatball. Place a but in the center of each square, fold the leaf around it like a package, and tie with kitchen twine or a strip of banana leaf. Lower the wrapped bus into a separate pot of gently simmering salted water. Poach for 25 minutes. The banana leaf gives the meat an earthy, green flavor that no other wrapper can replicate. Corn husks are wrong here. This is Yucatán, not central Mexico.

6. 6

   Build the black sauce

   Melt the manteca in a large heavy pot or cazuela over medium heat. Add the recado negro paste. It will spit and hiss. Fry the paste for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring constantly, until it darkens further and the lard begins to separate at the edges. La manteca es el sabor. Pour in the 8 cups of reserved turkey broth slowly, whisking to dissolve the paste. Add the whole xkatik chiles, the whole habaneros (uncut, do not break them or the sauce becomes inedible), and the rest of the epazote. Bring to a gentle simmer.

7. 7

   Return the turkey and thicken

   Add the cooked turkey pieces and the poached bus (still in their banana leaves or unwrapped, however you serve it; the señoras in Valladolid leave them wrapped until the table). Simmer for 45 minutes on low heat. The sauce should be the color of wet obsidian. Stir in the masa harina slurry to thicken. Cook for 10 more minutes until the sauce coats the back of a spoon. Taste for salt. Add more recado negro if the color is not deep enough.

8. 8

   Finish the sauce

   Beat the remaining 2 raw eggs in a bowl. Just before serving, stir them slowly into the simmering sauce off the direct heat. The eggs will set in delicate strands through the black broth, the way Yucatecan cooks have done it for generations. This is called huevo cocido en hilos. It is not optional. It is part of the texture of the dish.

9. 9

   Serve at the table

   Ladle the black sauce into wide bowls. Place a piece of turkey and a but (sliced in half to show the egg) in each bowl. Spoon extra sauce on top. Set the radish, red onion, cilantro, sliced habanero, and naranja agria halves in small dishes around the table. Serve with warm corn tortillas. The diner builds their plate. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Buying ready-made recado negro from a Yucatecan vendor is not cheating. The señoras in the Lucas de Gálvez market in Mérida buy theirs from the recado specialists who do nothing else. If you can source a good chilmole paste from a Yucatecan importer, use it. The cooks who burn their own at home are usually doing it because they live in pueblos where the market is too far away.
• •Naranja agria is the sour orange of the Yucatán Peninsula. It is not a regular orange and it is not a lime. If you cannot find it, the mix of two parts orange juice to one part lime juice gets you close enough, but seek out the real thing if a Mexican grocery is within driving distance. The flavor is the backbone of every Yucatecan marinade.
• •Do not, under any circumstance, cut into the habaneros while they cook. They flavor the sauce whole. A broken habanero turns relleno negro into a dish only firefighters can eat. The same señoras in Valladolid will tell you: el habanero entero, siempre.
• •Chaya is not in this recipe but it appears in many Yucatecan stews. If you find fresh chaya, boil it for ten minutes before eating it. Raw chaya contains cyanogenic compounds and is mildly toxic. The Maya have known this for centuries. No me vengas con atajos.

Advance Preparation

• •The recado negro paste can be made up to one week ahead and refrigerated, or frozen for several months. The flavor only deepens.
• •The turkey can be poached and the broth made one day ahead. Refrigerate both separately.
• •The bus can be assembled and poached one day ahead. Keep them wrapped in their banana leaves in the refrigerator.
• •The final sauce should be built and combined on serving day. The egg strands in particular must be added just before serving.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 480g)