Tortitas de Charal en Caldillo de Guajillo y Nopales

This dish belongs to the lake country of central Mexico. Xochimilco in the south of Ciudad de Mexico, where the canals still hold the memory of the old Lago de Texcoco, and Patzcuaro in Michoacan, where the charales come out of the lake in fine-meshed nets and dry on wooden racks in the sun. Two lakes, one dish, with small adjustments depending on whose abuela is teaching you.

Charales are tiny silver fish, no longer than your pinky, that have been eaten in this region since before the Spanish arrived. They were one of the proteins of the Mexica diet, alongside ajolotes and lake algae. You eat them whole. Eyes, bones, fins, everything. That is not a quirk. That is the point. They are sold dried in clear bags at every mercado in central Mexico, and they cost almost nothing. Saber cocinar es saber vivir, and knowing how to cook with charales is knowing how to feed a family well during Cuaresma without spending what you do not have.

The technique is the dish. You beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, fold in the yolks and the flour gently, then fold in the charales. The batter becomes a cloud. You fry it in spoonfuls until each tortita is a golden puff, then you drop them into a light caldillo of guajillo, ancho, charred tomato, and epazote, with nopales cooked separately and rinsed clean of their baba. The fritters drink the broth for one or two minutes, no longer. La cocina no es decoracion, es trabajo. This dish proves it.

My mother made this every Friday during Lent. She was from Jalisco and her version used charales from Chapala, the great lake at the edge of her childhood. The page in her notebook says only 'tortitas de charal' and underneath, in pencil: 'cuidado con las claras, batirlas firmes.' Be careful with the whites, beat them firm. That instruction is the whole recipe.