Tostadas de Erizo Estilo Ensenada

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for charring and toasting
• •Small heavy skillet for frying the tortillas
• •Wire rack set over a sheet pan for draining the tostadas
• •Blender for the salsa
• •Sharp paring knife for the avocado and cucumber

Instructions

1. 1

   Inspect the erizo

   Open the container of sea urchin lobes on a cold work surface and look at them. They should be firm, intact, and the color of a Baja sunset, deep gold to bright orange. They should smell like the open ocean and nothing else. If they smell of ammonia or sit slack and broken in their tray, they are gone. Send them back. Erizo waits for nobody. Cover the good ones with a damp paper towel and return them to the refrigerator while you work. Si no conoces el mercado, no conoces la cocina.

2. 2

   Char the salsa ingredients

   Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium-high. Lay the unpeeled garlic and the whole tomato directly on the hot surface. Turn the garlic every minute or so until the skin is blackened in patches and the clove inside is soft, about 8 minutes. The tomato wants charred, blistered skin on every side and a soft, slumped interior, about 10 minutes. Pull both off and let them cool enough to handle.

   Char on a comal, not in the oven. The dry, direct heat is what gives the salsa that smoke-edged depth that distinguishes a Baja salsa from a generic blender salsa.
3. 3

   Toast the chiles

   Lower the comal to medium. Toast the chile de arbol and chile guajillo separately, about 20 seconds per side for the arbol, 30 seconds for the guajillo. The arbol turns the fastest because it is thin and dry. Watch it. The skin should puff and the kitchen should smell of toasted chile, never of burning. Burned chile is bitter chile and there is no fixing it later. Asi se hace y punto.

4. 4

   Build the salsa

   Peel the charred garlic. Drop it into a blender with the toasted chiles, the charred tomato (skin and all), the lime juice, the soy sauce, the kosher salt, and 3 tablespoons of cold water. Blend in short pulses until you have a thick, dark salsa with visible flecks of chile. You want texture, not a smooth puree. Taste. It should be salty, smoky, hot, and bright with the lime. The soy is not a fusion gesture. The Chinese-Mexican community in Baja built it into the local salsas a hundred years ago and it belongs there. Set the salsa aside in a small clay bowl.

5. 5

   Fry the tortillas

   Heat the lard in a small heavy skillet over medium-high until it shimmers. The fat is ready when a corner of tortilla dropped in bubbles immediately. Slide one tortilla in at a time. Press it down with the back of a slotted spatula so it stays flat and crisps evenly, about 45 seconds per side. The tostada is done when it is pale gold and rigid. Drain on a wire rack, never on paper towels stacked flat, or the steam beneath them turns the bottom soggy. Salt them lightly the second they come out of the fat. La manteca es el sabor and a tostada fried in lard is a different animal from one fried in oil.

6. 6

   Dress the tostadas

   Work fast and serve immediately. Lay each tostada on a plate. Fan two or three thin slices of avocado across the surface. Add three or four cucumber half-moons and a few rings of red onion. Spoon the erizo on top in generous lobes, six or seven pieces per tostada, arranged so every bite gets some. Do not crush them. The lobes should sit whole and proud.

7. 7

   Finish at the table

   Drizzle a small spoonful of the chile de arbol salsa across the erizo, never enough to drown it. Scatter the cilantro leaves on top. Hit each tostada with a pinch of flaky salt and a squeeze of limon mexicano right before it goes to the mouth. The lime is not a garnish. It is the ingredient that wakes the erizo up and tells you it came from the Pacific that morning. Eat it standing up, the way they do at La Guerrerense. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Source the erizo from a fishmonger who deals directly with a diver or a Pacific cooperative. The lobes should arrive in seawater or on clean ice, never frozen and thawed. If your only option is a frozen tray from the supermarket, this is not the dish to make today. Cook something else and wait.
• •Limon mexicano is not interchangeable with Persian lime. The small green ones with the thin skin are sharper, more floral, more bracing. They are what cuts the richness of the erizo. If you cannot find them, use the juice of one Persian lime mixed with a little fresh grapefruit juice. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •The soy sauce in the salsa is not a fusion experiment. The Chinese-Mexican community has been part of Baja California for over a century and their influence is woven into the local salsas, the cocteles, and the seasoning of the seafood. Leave it in. It is the recipe.
• •Do not stack the tostadas, do not transport them, do not try to plate them ahead. The whole architecture collapses in five minutes. Build them at the counter and eat them at the counter. No me vengas con atajos.

Advance Preparation

• •The chile de arbol salsa can be made one day ahead and refrigerated in a sealed glass jar. The flavors deepen overnight.
• •The tostadas can be fried up to four hours ahead and held at room temperature on a wire rack, uncovered, so they stay crisp.
• •The erizo cannot be held. Buy it the morning you serve it, keep it on ice, and dress the tostadas only at the moment of eating. There is no advance preparation that respects this ingredient.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 165g)