Tlacoyos Azules de Haba

Tlacoyos belong to the Valle de México. To Ciudad de México, to the State of México, to Tlaxcala, to the towns spread across the central altiplano where blue corn has been ground on metates for as long as anyone can remember. This is pre-Hispanic food. The word itself comes from the Nahuatl 'tlaoyo,' and the shape, that pointed oval pressed between two palms, was already being cooked on comales when the Spanish arrived.

The color of the masa is not decoration. Blue corn, maíz azul, is a distinct variety grown in the central highlands, with more protein and a deeper, earthier flavor than white or yellow corn. When you buy masa harina azul, you are buying a piece of agricultural heritage that almost disappeared in the 20th century when industrial white corn pushed the native varieties to the margins. The cooperatives in Milpa Alta and the small farmers in Tlaxcala kept it alive. Honor them by using the real thing.

The filling here is haba, dried peeled fava bean, cooked down with epazote and lard until it can be mashed into a paste that holds together inside the masa. Fava is the working-class filling. Tlacoyos can also be stuffed with requesón, with frijol, with chicharrón prensado, but the haba version is the one you find at the puestos outside Mercado de Coyoacán and along the streets of the historic center, sold by women who arrive before dawn with comales already hot. Each tlacoyo costs less than a bus fare. That is part of what they are.

My mother did not make tlacoyos. They were not Jalisciense and she was loyal to her own region. But there was a tlacoyera on the corner of our street in Colonia Roma who set up every morning, and after my mother died I learned to make them by standing at that woman's elbow for a month of mornings, watching how she folded the masa and listening to her talk about her village in Tlaxcala. She told me the shape has to be oval because that is what a tlacoyo is, and if I made it round I was making a sope and should call it one. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.