Tostadas de Pavo en Escabeche Oriental

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 6-quart stockpot for the turkey
• •Cast iron comal for charring the xcatic
• •Wide cazuela or 12-inch heavy skillet for the escabeche
• •Slotted spider for frying the tostadas
• •Wire rack for draining the fried tortillas

Instructions

1. 1

   Poach the turkey

   Place the turkey pieces in a heavy pot and cover with cold water by two inches. Add the halved white onion, the halved head of garlic, the epazote sprigs, and the tablespoon of salt. Drop in the peppercorns, allspice, cloves, and the stick of canela. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Skim the gray foam that rises in the first ten minutes. Cold water draws the flavor out slowly. A rolling boil clouds the broth and toughens the bird.

   Mexican canela is the soft, papery cinnamon that crumbles in your fingers. The hard cassia stick from the supermarket spice rack is a different bark and it will give you a sharper, more aggressive flavor. For escabeche oriental, use the real one.
2. 2

   Char the xcatic

   While the turkey simmers, heat a dry comal over medium-high. Lay the two chiles xcatic directly on the surface and turn them every minute or so until the skin blisters and blackens in patches all around. You want char, not ash. The smell will turn sweet and grassy. Set the charred chiles aside on a plate. Do not peel them. The blistered skin is the flavor.

3. 3

   Simmer until tender

   Reduce the heat under the turkey to low. Cover partially and cook for about an hour and fifteen minutes, until the meat pulls easily from the bone. Lift the pieces out with tongs and let them rest on a board until cool enough to handle. Strain the broth and reserve two cups. The rest you save for soup tomorrow. No me vengas con atajos: do not use store-bought broth here. The poaching liquid carries the canela and clove that link this dish to the rest of the recipe.

4. 4

   Shred the meat

   Pull the turkey meat from the bones in long strands. Discard the skin, the bones, the cartilage. You should have about four cups of shredded meat. Cover it and set it aside. The strands need to be loose enough to soak up the escabeche later, not packed into clumps.

5. 5

   Build the escabeche

   In a wide cazuela or heavy skillet, melt the lard over medium heat. Add the sliced purple onions and the six whole garlic cloves. Cook for about six minutes, stirring often, until the onions soften and turn translucent but still hold their color. You are not browning them. The Yucatecan escabeche keeps the purple bright. La manteca es el sabor and it is what carries the spice into the onion.

   If your onions look like they are about to brown, lower the heat. Brown onions belong in a French stew. They do not belong in escabeche oriental.
6. 6

   Add the acid and the heat

   Pour in the naranja agria juice and the apple cider vinegar. Add the bay leaves, the dried oregano, and the two reserved cups of turkey broth. Tear the charred chiles xcatic in half and drop them into the pot, skin and all. Bring to a gentle simmer. The kitchen will smell like clove, canela, and citrus. That smell is the dish telling you it is Yucatán and nowhere else.

7. 7

   Marry the turkey to the escabeche

   Add the shredded turkey to the cazuela. Stir gently to coat every strand. Simmer uncovered for fifteen to twenty minutes, until the liquid reduces by about a third and the meat takes on the pale-gold color of the broth. Taste for salt. The escabeche should be assertive: sour from the naranja agria, warm from the canela and clove, with the slow heat of the xcatic in the background. Pull off the heat. Fish out the bay leaves.

8. 8

   Fry the tostadas

   Heat half an inch of oil or lard in a heavy skillet to 350F. Fry the corn tortillas one or two at a time, about thirty seconds per side, pressing down lightly with a spider to keep them flat. They are ready when they turn pale gold and rigid. Drain on a wire rack, never on paper towels, which trap steam underneath and soften them. Salt them lightly the moment they come out of the oil.

9. 9

   Build the tostadas

   Set a fried tostada on the plate. Pile on a generous spoonful of the turkey and escabeche, letting some of the juices soak into the tortilla. Lay a few slices of avocado on top. Finish with two or three thin slices of chile habanero for the people who want them. Serve a lime wedge on the side and the rest of the escabeche in a cazuela in the middle of the table. Eat them immediately, before the tostada softens. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •If you cannot find naranja agria, the substitute in the ingredients gives you the closest profile: orange juice, white vinegar, and lime. It is a compromise, not an upgrade. The Yucatecan markets sell naranja agria year-round and Mexican groceries in the United States often carry the bottled juice from Goya or El Yucateco. Look there before you give up.
• •Chile xcatic is the right chile. If your market has no xcatic, a fresh chile guero (the pale yellow Hungarian wax) is the closest substitute and what most Yucatecos in the diaspora use. Do not reach for jalapeño or serrano. The flavor is wrong and the color is wrong.
• •Pavo, real pavo, gives you a deeper, gamier broth than chicken. If you can find a small turkey or even turkey thighs at the butcher, use them. Pollo will work in a pinch but the dish loses its peninsular weight.

Advance Preparation

• •The turkey can be poached and shredded one day ahead. Refrigerate the meat and the strained broth separately.
• •The full escabeche, turkey and onions and all, can be made up to two days ahead and reheated gently. The flavor deepens overnight as the canela and clove settle into the meat.
• •Fry the tostadas the day you serve them. They lose their crack within hours and a soft tostada is not a tostada.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 190g)