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Yucatan 1 (Mayaland Cuisine part 2) |
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Saturday, 22 December 2007 |
Second part of my Maya cookbook.Chapter 1. Yucatan
Yucatan was named through a misunderstanding. When Columbus' men saw land, they stopped a canoeful of Maya and asked someone the name of the land over there. The man looked blank, and some helpful soul answered "He didn't understand you" (ma' u yu'u' ka t'aan i or something very close; see Restall 1998:122). The Spanish assumed the accented part of this was the name of the place.
Yucatan is the heartland of the "Yucatec" Maya—the people who actually call themselves Maya. (The name has spread to all speakers of related languages. "Yucatec" as a linguistic term is something of a misnomer; "Yucateco" in Spanish refers not to the Maya in particular, but to anybody from Yucatan state.) There are perhaps a million Yucatec speakers, the vast majority in Yucatan, Quintana Roo and Campeche. The few others are in Belize, northern Guatemala, and Chiapas, and more recently in Mexico City, California, Texas, and elsewhere.
The cuisine of the Yucatan Peninsula is different from that of the rest of Mexico. They share tortillas and boiled beans, and the general plan of tamales and the like, and the Spanish heritage is more or less the same, but all these took different local forms quite early. Yucatecans refer to the rest of the country simply as "Mexico," as if it were a foreign nation.
Until Porfirio Diaz forced the railroad lines through to Merida, Yucatan's principal trade ties were not with "Mexico" but with Cuba. Contact was through Campeche and (later) Progreso, by sea. Mexico had to be reached by sea also--sailing to Veracruz. It is not surprising that Yucatan is a museum of Cuban influences, especially in the cuisine. Afro-Cuban influences are shared. So are achiote, and a preference for black beans. Noteworthy is the use of bitter orange juice where other parts of continental Latin America would use lime juice and where Peninsular Spain would usually use vinegar. Bitter orange is a different species from sweet orange (Citrus aurantium instead of C. sinensis), and has to be grown specially. It came with the Spanish to Cuba, very early, and became important there. Use spread to Haiti, where it is used in vodun ("voodoo") as well as ordinary cooking (Paul and Cox 1995). Its use, especially as a thinner for achiote, is a distinctly Cuban trait.
Through too much of Yucatan's history, getting any food at all was hard enough. Spanish colonial practice involved heavy taxes and fees, and Mexican independence did not improve the situation. In 1846, many Maya (and not a few Spanish speakers) rebelled, and the "Caste War" raged for two years in the western Yucatan and many more years in the east (Dumond 1998; Fariss 1984). Independent Maya established Quintana Roo as their own realm, de facto independent of Mexico until the 20th century. Meanwhile, in central and western Yucatan, henequen took off as a major crop. Conditions on the henequen plantations were horrific, involving virtual slavery and constant beatings; John Turner's Barbarous Mexico provided a harrowing eyewitness account (Turner 1911). Malnutrition was universal, and pockets of it persist to this day, as I have personally observed all too often. Economic development, especially the growth of tourism, has brought better times in some areas, but it brings its own problems, including environmental damage. Among other things, Maya have been dispossessed from their land; overfishing and overhunting have cut the protein supply of the poor. Subsistence cultivation still pays well in much of the peninsula. (For superb accounts of Yucatec Maya agriculture, emphasizing its skills and its wonderful adaptation to a harsh environment, see Terán and Rasmussen 1993; Terán, Rasmussen and Cauich 1998; Tuxill 2005. Alas, all these three are hard to find.) However, land is getting scarce, especially in Yucatan state, where farmers have reached or passed the limits of sustainable agriculture.
Throughout Yucatan and Quintana Roo, cooking is more or less the same. Flavors are subtle. Especially in the rural areas, spices sharpen the flavors of the main ingredients but are barely perceptible on their own. Spices--except for the native oregano and achiote--were a rare luxury until recently, and still are in many areas. Formerly local dishes have spread over the region; eggs a la Motul (huevos motuleños) and pork a la Valladolid are menu staples throughout. Quintana Roo cooking is a variant of Yucatan's, with one major exception: the coastal ports are more "Caribbean."
Old-time cuisine was based on maize, beans, and squash, with game and a few vegetables. From ancient times, the Maya made full use of tomatoes and chiles; surely k'utbi p'ak and k'utbi ik are not new. Given the conservatism of rural ways in Yucatan, we can safely assume that the simpler recipes below, such as ts'anchak and ts'ik, date back to ancient Maya days. For one thing, they have Maya names. Recipes with Spanish names are likely to be newer.
Most recipes have undergone "mestizoization" (yes, that is a real word) in Yucatan. In the peninsula, the Maya became a so-called "caste," rather than an isolated minority. Poor rural workers, and even poor urban workers, spoke Maya. Rich people spoke Spanish. Many Maya had appreciable Spanish ancestry; conversely, many "mestizos" have no discernible Spanish ancestry. The Maya assimilated many foreigners; I know Maya who have backgrounds ranging from African and Korean to Chinese, Lebanese, and Scandinavian. The "middle class" and ordinary townsfolk possessed a fusion culture of Spanish/Mexican and Maya. They are usually bilingual. In the old days, even the Spanish-speaking elite had Maya cooks and maids--the children often spoke Maya before they spoke Spanish. Linguistic diversity persists because of need. If you talk about rural life in the Yucatan, you wind up using Maya. There simply are no Spanish words for the foods, birds, plants, technological items, rocks, soil types or anything else you need to talk about. Conversely, if you want to get along in the urban world, you have to speak Spanish. Maya words for urban and bureaucratic phenomena exist, but if you are Maya you still have to talk to too many non-Maya-speaking people for that to do you much good—so you learn Spanish.
Today, modernization has eliminated the tight caste structure and opened up the social system, allowing the development of a substantial Maya elite.
The mestizo culture blended Maya and Spanish ingredients and techniques. Mestizos also created the wonderful dances and costumes that now appear, nostalgically, at "folclorico" performances. (Incidentally, people with the same mixed culture call themselves "Maya" in some places, "Mestizo" in others, for complex historic reasons; see Hervik 1999.) Yucatan is attached to its past, which it shamelessly romanticizes. Mérida, in particular, works at preserving a true romantic spirit. The food is one link with the past, as well as the best diet for the present.
Yucatecan food is quite different from the other Maya cuisines: highland Chiapan, highland Guatemalan, and Salvadorean. Yucatan developed its own mix of pre-Columbian and European. The names reveal it. Many of the dishes have hybrid "mestiza-Maya" names, such as chocolomo, codzitos and salbutes (see below).
Even more specialized is a subtradition localized in central Chetumal, the capital and southernmost city of Quintana Roo. Migrants from Belize brought Anglo-Caribbean cooking to this urban center. "Rice and beans," "pigtails," "pudding," and "boil-up" have become Spanish words in that favored city (see Renee Petrich, ms. and 1995; on Caribbean cooking in general, Wilk 2006).
The dishes now considered quintessentially Yucatecan are Maya dishes with Spanish additions or Spanish dishes with Maya influences. Arab-Andalusian dishes, once common in Mérida (see e.g. Aguirre 1980), have become rare.
Tortillas, the Maya staple, are probably a recent borrowing from central Mexico—possibly even a post-Spanish introduction. In Yucatan, tortillas are not patted out hand-to-hand in the usual Mexican style delightfully termed "applauding." They are pressed out on a banana leaf (or, today, a cellophane sheet.) They are then toasted on a flat pottery griddle or functional equivalent.
Most Maya still raise their own corn and make their own nixtamal (maize boiled with lime), but they don't grind it now; they take it to the mill. However, most households still make their own tortillas. Since an adult doing farm work eats 30 or more tortillas a day, this means plenty of time invested.
A thicker tortilla is a xkakatak' ("little double-size").
The most ancient foods in Mayaland—now confined largely to the Yucatan Peninsula--are maize breads cooked in the pib (see Taube 1989a). These now are almost exclusively ceremonial in use. Maya ceremonies survive, especially those connected with rain and agriculture. Their traditional foods, including mukbipollo, sikil waj and others, still appear on the offering altar, an improvised table set up in the open and shaded with leaves.
The most important traditional ceremony today is probably the ch'a'chaak—a ceremony to ask the storm gods for rain. Other ceremonies of many sorts are generally called loj (pronounced "loh"; for excellent accounts of all these ceremonies, including the foods, see Love 2004). These are rituals to ask for good fortune or thank the deities for fortune granted. A loj may be a hanlikool, "food for the garden," in which food is offered to the forest and field spirits. There are loj for the hives and the domestic animals. There is even a loj ts'on ("ceremony of the gun"), to re-consecrate a shotgun after it has killed several game animals. The Maya are careful hunters; they try to avoid killing too much game, and they feel that the spirits will punish them if they do not treat animals and hunting seriously. A gun that has killed several animals has depleted its luck, and must have its blessing renewed by a ceremony. The loj is a significant outlay of effort and wealth, and reminds the gun owner that hunting is serious business, supervised by strong powers such as the yumilk'aax, "Lords of the Forest," and Siip, the Spirit of the Deer.
Today, as modern beliefs spread and old gods die, a loj is apt to be known by its Spanish name acta de gracia ("act of grace" or "thanks") and to be seen as a general festival to give thanks to God and to the human community for good harvests. But the tradition goes on, corn bread and all, even among staunch Protestants who have no patience with cha'chaak. Sometimes a whole steer is butchered, cut up, and cooked in a giant pib.
For a ceremony, the jmeen or "hmen" (pronounced "men"—the j or h is silent)—the ritual officiant—lays out offerings on a table. These offerings make a formal pattern representing the cosmos. Among them are ritual breads, and calabashes of turkey stew (now more usually chicken stew). Another common ritual maize food is saka', lime-processed maize dough mixed up in water (see Glossary). This is a necessary part of most ceremonies. It is served in calabashes—small bowls made from the fruit of the calabash tree (Crescentia cujete). The huge round hollow fruit is cut in half and the halves cleaned and dried to make these bowls (known as luuch).
The main ritual drink is baalche': Honey fermented in water, flavored and preserved from spoiling with the bark of the baalche' tree (Lonchocarpus spp.). Often, the ceremony also requires traditional cigarettes—native hand-processed tobacco rolled in corn husks. Ceremonies can involve a very informal table with small offerings, for minor curing or good-luck rites. On the other hand, a ch'a'chaak may go on for days. A minor curing rite can involve only two or three people; a major thanksgiving loj for a community, or a major ch'a'chaak, may involve hundreds.
Ritual breads often represent the cosmos. Common is a bread layered with seven layers of maize dough alternating with six of sikil, representing the thirteen layers of the universe. Or a bread may have a sikil cross, or five spots in a pentagram, or some other sacred pattern. One jmeen told Betty Faust that the maize dough represents the flesh and the sikil the blood (Betty Faust 1998 and personal communication). Presumably the reference is to the creation of humans from maize dough by the gods of pre-Columbian Maya religion; the gods shed their blood on the dough to animate it.
Various special corncakes, moulded into the shapes of animals, sacred trees, sacred mountains, and other important forms, have been made for thousands of years for ceremonies, and they are made today. Dr. Taube has shown that certain pictures of lords offering up plates of food show these fancy waj, and I have seen some very similar ones at rural ceremonies. They are scarcely more edible than the salt-dough bread sculptures of the European world, but the Maya--who wasted nothing in the old days--break them up into stew. They are worth making if you like food sculpture, just to add a touch of color.
With the ritual breads are served turkey stews—or, today, chicken—in which the birds are cut up and cooked with achiote and other native flavorings, the broth being thickened with corn meal. These stews, bright yellow or red from the achiote, are ancient ritual dishes.
Many other corn preparations, used in rituals as well as home life, are now being forgotten. This is especially true of preparations that use honey. Honey was formerly a major staple of the Maya, but commercial sale now preempts much of the domesticated-bee supply, and wild hives have become rare because of forest degradation.
Anyone wandering through the food stalls of the Mérida market cannot help but be struck by the colors of the stews: brilliant yellow, rich glossy red, opalescent white and intense jet black. This is partly due to use of such dishes in the many rituals involving the winds or gods of the four directions. In traditional Maya thought, east is yellow; west is red; north is white; south is black. The center, our world of plants, is green. To this day, the ch'a-chaak rite is oriented toward the east, and foods offered in it are intensely yellow. (I am reminded of the Chinese equivalents: North black, west white, south red, east green, and center yellow. Originally, these referred to dominant colors in the soil and vegetation in the respective areas of China.) Each Maya direction had its ritual stew, presumably once offered to the god of that compass point. The stews survive, traditionally made with turkey, now usually with chicken. White color comes from whitish corn meal; yellow and red from progressively stronger admixtures of achiote, which is intensely red but dilutes to a brilliant yellow in small quantities. The black is the most interesting: Chiles are burned—the cooks taking great care not to stand downwind—and the resulting glossy-black material crushed into the stew. The result is more interesting to see than to eat.
Another ceremony of importance is the haanal pixaan, "food of souls," the Day of the Dead, November 1 (see Rodríguez Lazcano 1991). This is a Catholic ceremony, celebrated all over Mexico. It had pre-Columbian equivalents that show themselves in modern celebrations. This is a day when the souls of the dead return to visit their homes. Food for them is laid out on an altar decorated with flowers, and with photographs and memorabilia of the deceased. Their favorite foods and drinks appear, as well as pib-baked chicken pies (mukbipollos; see below), chocolate drinks, stews, ritual corn breads and drinks, and fruit. Traditionally, people placed foods on leaves of mak'olam.
Many religious ceremonies, some with indigenous Maya flavors, punctuate the year. The Dance of the Pig's Head involves a complex group dance that weaves through the town and marketplace; the head dancer carries a pig's head on a tray. Gremios—religious organizations—help out at major festivals such as Easter and the saints' days, holding parades and feasts. Every town has its protective saint or holy image, and the day of this patron is always honored with some activity. These ceremonial cycles break the monotony of small-town life, and provide an excuse to eat well.
Not infrequently people drink well, too. Overconsumption of rum is a chronic problem at religious festivals (as it is in much of Latin America). Bishop Landa already noted this: "The Indians are very dissolute in drinking and becoming intoxicated..." (Landa 1937:35). They were drinking baalche', the honey mead flavored and preserved by infusing bark or roots of baalche' (Lonchocarpus spp.). Today's rum is very much stronger. The communities where I work are proudly independent and are strongly influenced by Calvinist Protestantism. Both these factors militate against alcohol abuse. At the other extreme are some of the old henequen towns in Yucatan state, where economic decline and social breakdown are associated with heavy drinking. A common drink is cheap "white lightning" rum, known as chak pool—"red head"—from the red wax used to seal the bottles.
Yucatan has a "national" liqueur, Xtabentun. This is theoretically flavored with the xtabentun flower, which is said to keep witches away. (I must say, I haven't been bothered by witches since trying it.) Actually, if it has xtabentun flowers in it, I can't detect the taste; it appears indistinguishable from its ancestor, standard Spanish anisette liqueur. Sometimes it is flavored with Yucatan honey, but usually it's just cane alcohol, sugar, and anise. (See recipe for Aniseta in the Chiapas section.) It comes in sweet or dry forms. Most, including the best, comes from Valladolid and the area around same.
Yucatan also produces excellent beer; Leon Negra is a particularly good dark beer.
Recently, "sisal," a local counterpart of tequila and mescal, has been produced from henequen or sisal agaves. Yucatan made its fortune on henequen and sisal fibre, until rayon replaced them for most uses and cheaper competition also came from henequen produced in Africa and Brazil. Old plantations, gone to seed, supply the "sisal" drink, made from the sap of flowering henequen and sisal plants. The drink is not up to the finest tequila, but it is better than the general run of mescal.
Culinary Specifics
An important characteristic of Yucatecan cuisine is that onions and garlic often roasted. The distinctive taste of thoroughly roasted and mashed onion or garlic is one of the real "signature flavors" of Yucatan. Traditionally, they are roasted over an open flame till the skins blacken. In the kitchen, the broiler does the best job. You can bake them, or roast them in a covered frying pan.
The other recipe chapters of this book are arranged in a traditional cookbook fashion, but I have taken the liberty of arranging this chapter according to local thinking, since it makes the task of explaining everything a good deal easier. I begin with basic maize staple foods. Then follows a section for recados. Then come relishes and salsas. Then tamales and related foods. Only then do I move on to the traditional soups, fish, flesh, fowl, desserts, and drinks.
Classic Yucatan dishes included game and corn breads cooked in the pib and stews and soups cooked on the k'oben hearth. The Maya word for "stew" or "sauce for meats," equivalent to Aztec "mole," is k'ool (pronounced something like "cole").
A characteristic of Yucatan is the profusion of spice pastes, mostly based on chiles and achiote, known as recados. This is one of those Caribbean features; similar pastes occur in Cuba and other islands. This is a local pronunciation of the Spanish word recaudo, "collection." The Maya word for these and any spice mix is just xak', "mix." Recados can be bought readymade in Yucatan, but elsewhere they must be made at home. They are usually sold in bulk in the markets by special stands. They are also available in little rectangular blocks ("cubes") that contain a cubic inch or so of recado. These cubes are sometimes found in North American markets that have a Caribbean clientele, but should be avoided unless you know your spices well. In the United States, cubes of recado and of achiote paste are often very adulterated and very stale. Thus, in the following recipes, when the recipe calls for a cube, use a cubic inch of homemade recado.
A special section of the following is devoted to recados.
One recipe needs to be here, as it is basic to tamales and much else that follows:
Maya Lard
Take fat cuts of pork. Chop fine and fry over low heat, adding some water. Stir to avoid sticking. Or: cut into larger chunks and bake (adding water) in moderate oven till the drippings are rendered out and the meat is quite dry. In either case, enough water must be added so that the meat juices do not cook out or dry up. The goal is a mix of fat and meat juices, not just fat.
BASIC MAIZE FOODS
Bread of the Milpa
This is a ritual dish for the Food of the Milpa (janlikool) and Praying for Rain (ch'a chaak) ceremonies. The number 13, the masa, and the sikil were all sacred to the ancient Maya. The thirteen layers represent the thirteen layers of the cosmos. These breads are sometimes marked with sacred designs in achiote-colored oil or stock, as well as with sikil.
The dish is included here for ethnographic interest. The culinary interest is slight.
2 lb. masa
2 cups cooked beans (black-eyed peas or black beans) (optional)
6 oz. sikil
Salt
Banana leaves
Make thick tortillas of the masa. Stack them with layers of sikil and beans in between, till they are seven tortillas high (13 layers in all). Wrap in banana leaves and cook in pib.
Variant: Piim waj
Maya for "thick corncake." Sometimes reduplicated (pimpim) or translated into Spanish as gordita.
Make a giant tortilla: 1 foot across and 1/4" thick. Wrap in leaves and bake in pib. Or it can be cooked, unwrapped, on a griddle.
This is much better if the masa is mixed with lard, as for tamales, especially if you are cooking it on the stovetop.
It is even better if mixed with cooked beans (black-eyed peas are the traditional ones), including their liquid. In this case it has to be wrapped and baked (in oven, about 350o, if no pib is at hand). It is then eaten with Tomato or Chile Sauce.
Is Waj ("Corncake of New Maize")
Market version:
Grind up new maize (cut from ears of sweet corn) and leave standing for a few days until very slightly sour. Add salt and make into very thin tortillas. Cook till crisp.
More sophisticated version:
1 cup white flour
1/2 cup lard
Kernels from 3 roasting ears, cut off close
1/4 tsp. baking soda
Salt
Grind kernels. Mix with other ingredients. Make into very thin tortillas and cook on griddle.
Kernels from really young, tender sweet corn are really too soft for this; one needs kernels with some substance. The Maya eat young corn at the stage that in my youth was called "roasting ears"—the kernels still tender, but somewhat more starchy than the sweet-corn stage. One can use tender sweet corn kernels, however, by reducing the quantity somewhat, so the resulting dough is firm enough to make good tortillas.
Variant: common is a sweet version, using sugar instead of salt.
Saka' (Sak ja', "white water": Corn gruel)
The other staple food--along with waj.
The ancient saka' is just corn meal or mashed new corn in water. Today, the word usually means pozole: Wash nixtamal kernels (available in Mexican markets). Boil till they break open. Drain. Grind and form into a ball the size of a tennis ball.
Variant: Fry or toast the nixtamalized kernels before grinding.
For consumption, the ball is dissolved in water, stock, or soup. The simple rural method is to dissolve in water with salt and chile.
To approximate saka': Cook a small amount of "Maseca" or other prepared Mexican corn meal in good stock, stirring constantly.
Similar preparations are made by processing the maize in slightly different ways. Sikil can be mixed in and the resulting atole cooked.
Fancy pozole or atole: Grind fresh green corn. Mix with sugar. Coconut cream can be mixed in if desired.
Ground toasted corn kernels, made into a drink, are pinole. (Pozole, pinole and atole are Nahuatl words; saka' is the basic Maya word.)
RECADOS
These are the soul of Yucatecan cooking. It is essential to make your own recados, unless you can get to a major public market in Yucatan.
To make a recado, grind all the ingredients very fine, and moisten with enough vinegar or bitter orange juice to make a solid paste, adding salt to taste. Failing bitter orange juice, use lime juice or a mix of orange and grapefruit juice (do not use bottled bitter orange juice preparations).
In Yucatan, you can get a spice mix called xak'. (This just means "mix" in Maya, and is also used for the recados themselves.) The pre-made spice mix typically made of a cinnamon stick, 1 tsp. cloves, 1 tsp. pepper, 2 tsp. oregano, 1/4 tsp. cumin, and 1 tsp. allspice. (Naturally, these ingredients are variable.) All these are ground fine. Then all you have to do is add achiote paste and you have your recado.
Achiote Paste
Bring achiote seeds to boil, in water. Drain and soak overnight in vinegar, bitter orange juice or lime juice. Blend. It takes a tough blender to make these hard seeds into a paste. A stone mortar and pestle is preferable, but then the preparation takes a strong arm and a lot of pounding.
Black Recado
2 ancho chiles or other dark dried chiles
1 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. cumin
1 tbsp. black pepper
1 tbsp. achiote paste
2 garlic cloves
2 tsp. oregano
Citrus juice or vinegar
Roast the garlic cloves. Seed and toast the chiles. They should darken enough to make the recado quite dark. Grind all. In Yucatan the chiles are actually burned to a glossy black, but this kills the taste of the chiles. It also has to be done outdoors, standing upwind, since the vapors of burning chile peppers are seriously dangerous to eyes.
Variant: the garlic is not always roasted.
Hot Recado
2 tbsp. dry chile
4 allspice berries
8 epazote leaves
1/2 tsp. black pepper
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp. achiote
Vinegar or bitter orange or lime juice to make thick paste
Mole Recado
2 ancho chiles
3 pasilla chiles
1 tbsp. black pepper
1 small piece of cinnamon stick
3 cloves
Half tbsp. sesame seeds
3 garlic cloves
Bitter orange or lime juice to make thick paste
Recado for cold meat
3 allspice berries
1/2 tsp. black pepper
3 cloves
1 small piece of cinnamon stick
1 roasted head of garlic
Pinch of saffron (optional)
Ground dry chile to taste
Vinegar, bitter orange juice, or lime juice to make paste
Spread on the meat or mix in with it.
Red Recado
This is the standard--the Universal Seasoning of Yucatan.
1 tbsp. achiote paste (more in Quintana Roo, often 3 tbsp.)
1 tsp. (or more, to taste) black pepper
1 tsp. dry oregano leaves, crushed
1/4 - 1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
2-4 cloves
1 small piece of cinnamon stick
3 garlic cloves, slowly roasted till soft
Bitter orange juice (or substitute) to make thick paste
Prepare as with above. Variants: Allspice is often added--about 4 berries. Garlic can be unroasted. Coriander seeds (very few) can be added, but are rare in Yucatan. Naturally, everyone varies the amounts slightly. A village recado would be heavier on the achiote, garlic, and oregano, which everyone grows in the yard, and much lighter on the expensive store-bought spices (cloves, cinnamon, cumin, pepper).
Roast Garlic Recado
20 large garlic cloves
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. cloves
2 tsp. oregano
Bitter orange or lime juice
Roast the garlic (broiling in oven, or over open flame). Peel and mash. Grind the spices. Mix with enough bitter orange juice or equivalent to make a paste.
Variant: use some unroasted garlic, and/or a roasted onion.
Steak Recado
1 tbsp. black pepper
3 garlic cloves
2 tsp. oregano
Vinegar (recommended for this one) or bitter orange juice or lime juice, to make thick paste
Some steak recados add allspice, cinnamon and cumin--very little of each, say about 1/4 tsp.
Spicy Recado
1 tbsp. pepper
1 small stick cinnamon
4 cloves
3 garlic cloves
1 tsp. oregano
1 pinch saffron
Bitter orange juice or lime juice, to make thick paste
Tamale Recado
1 tbsp. black pepper
3 allspice berries
5 epazote leaves
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp. achiote
ground dry chile
Vinegar or bitter orange juice or lime juice to make thick paste
White Recado
Not called for in any of the following recipes, but great in soup or stew, especially with turkey.
1 tbsp. black pepper
3 garlic cloves
1 tsp. oregano
2 cloves
1 pinch cumin seeds
1 pinch saffron
1/4 tbsp. cilantro seeds
Coriander seeds (optional)
Vinegar (white vinegar is ideal here; citrus juice is not recommended for this one)
APPETIZERS AND SALSAS
Basic relish to eat with Maya food:
1 bunch radishes
Few leaves cilantro
Chopped onion and/or garlic, to taste (optional)
1 fresh green chile or one habanero chile (if you can stand it--the taste is much better, but habaneros are almost unbearable to the uninitiated)
Salt and pepper to taste
Chop the radishes and other ingredients and marinate in bitter orange juice or lime juice.
Chopped tomatoes can be added.
Botanas (snacks to eat with drinks)
A typical selection might include:
onion, garlic and tomato stir-fried and then mixed with cilantro and sikil
Cucumbers, onions, cilantro, radishes, cut up, in vinegar
Boiled potato cubes with onion, cilantro, vinaigrette
Ceviche (fish and shellfish bits in lime juice with cut-up chiles and tomatoes and onions, with salt and black pepper)
Ha' Sikil P'ak ("Water, sikil and tomatoes"—nice descriptive name)
2 tomatoes
1 red onion
Few sprigs cilantro
Juice of 1 bitter orange
1/2 cup sikil
Chile habanero to taste
Salt to taste
Roast and peel tomatoes. Chop these with cilantro and onion. Add the bitter orange juice. Stir in the sikil, then the habanero. This should be a thick paste. Serve for dipping up with tortilla wedges.
Habanero Salsa
1 onion
5 garlic cloves
2 lb. tomatoes
1 habanero
1 tbsp. oil
1 pinch oregano
1 pinch salt
Chop all. Fry the garlic and onions first, then the chile and finally the tomato, stirring constantly. Add the oregano late in the process.
K'utbi Ik (Chile Sauce)
Seed and toast fresh chiles. Wrap in cloth for a few minutes so skins steam loose, and then peel. Blend or mash with similarly roasted tomato, and garlic or onion. Herbs may be added.
K'utbi Ik, dry chile version
Toast and grind dry red chiles. Roast garlic, green chiles, and onion. Mash all with lime juice.
K'utbi p'ak (Tomato Sauce)
Same as above, but with little or no chile.
Or: Chop and fry onion or garlic. When colored, add chopped tomato, salt, and herbs (epazote, cilantro, oregano) if desired. Bitter orange juice or lime juice can be mixed in. Mash somewhat—it should be chunky, not a paste (see below).
Or: Roast and peel tomatoes. Blend with some cilantro, salt, bitter orange juice and habanero chile.
It can also be yach'bij (mashed more thoroughly—to a paste—with a pestle in a molcajete—a small mortar), or suut'bij (the same, but with a revolving motion, not smashed down), or just licuado—blended in a blender!
Little Dogs'nose (Xni'-pek')
This is the standard Maya salsa. It gets its name because it makes your nose run and become cold and wet like a dog's.
Seed and chop a habanero chile. Add chopped onion, garlic, tomato, and any herbs, to taste. Marinate in bitter orange juice or lime juice, with salt.
It is important that all the ingredients be absolutely fresh for this. Xni'-pek' can marinate for a day or so, once made, but no more than that.
Marinated Onions
This is the universal accompaniment for many cooked meat dishes, including pok-chuk and turkey.
1 large red onion
10 peppercorns
3 allspice berries
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. oregano
1/4 cup bitter orange juice
As much habanero chile as you can stand
Salt to taste
Cut onion into slices. Add the peppercorns and allspice. Let stand very briefly in boiling water. Drain.
Add garlic, oregano, orange juice and chile. Let marinate briefly.
Variant: use vinegar and some water instead of bitter orange juice. In this case, everything is combined, brought to a boil, and left to marinate for a day or more.
P'uybi Ik (Ground Chile)
Toast dried chiles till slightly colored. Then (not before) seed them and grind fairly fine.
Rooster Beak (pico de gallo)
5 jicamas
5 sweet oranges
3 bitter oranges
Ground chile, to taste
Cilantro, to taste
Salt, to taste
Peel and cut up the jicamas and sweet oranges. Mix with the juice of the bitter oranges and add the seasonings.
"Rooster beak" is a name generally given to salsas that have a bite like the peck of an angry rooster. This is a mild one, somewhere between a salsa and a salad. It need not be; you can use chopped fresh habanero chiles.
Wasp Larvae
Toast wasp larvae and eat with relishes.
Or just smoke a wasp nest to drive away the adults and more or less cook the larvae, then open the nest and eat the smoked larvae from it. They taste like smoked bacon (at best). (I have tried this one.)
Wolis
A mixture of masa, cooked black-eyed peas, sikil, ground dried chile, chopped cilantro and chopped onion. These are not mashed up—just mixed, so the peas and onions remain chunky. The mixture is wrapped in hojasanta leaves, then in a second wrapping of banana leaves, and cooked in the pib or steamed to make tamales.
Without the masa, it is a standard quickly-improvised relish to put on tortillas or other corn cakes. For this, take cooked black-eyed peas; drain; mix in the other ingredients, to taste.
Xek'
The term just means "mixed," but one standard "mix" is a salad of orange sections and chopped jicama with salt, chile, chopped cilantro, and lime juice. This is traditionall served on the Day of the Dead, November 1.
Xub Ik (Superhot Chile Sauce)
30 dried chiles
2 lb. tomatoes
6 allspice berries
A few peppercorns
4 cloves garlic
8 or more oregano leaves
Branch of epazote
Seed the peppers. Toast them (optional, but typical). Boil. When soft, add other ingredients. Blend all.
Meat can be cooked in this, or it can used simply as a sauce.
Prepare with all windows open. Use rubber gloves if your hands are sensitive. Avoid touching eyes or other sensitive parts of the body.
Some other typical garnishes and relishes:
Tomato, sikil, coriander, garlic, onion, salt--chopped fine, fried and blended to a smooth paste
Cucumbers vinagreta (thin sliced with onion, cilantro, habanero chiles, garlic, vinegar, oil)
Potato slices vinagreta
Cabbage, chile and cilantro, chopped, vinagreta
White beans cooked with tomato, onion, spices, bits of ham and bacon
Chicharrones stewed with onion, tomato, chile
TAMALES AND RELATIVES (including antojitos—substantial snacks—and tortilla-based items)
Black-eyed Pea Tamales
A standard market snack.
1 lb. pork
6 tomatoes
1 branch epazote
1 oz. masa
Juice of 1 bitter orange
1 cup fresh (or dried and precooked) black-eyed peas
Lard and masa for tamales
Proceed as in previous recipe. The very cheap version leaves out the pork.
Chanchamitos (simple tamales)
Yucatecans love multiple diminutives. "Chanchamitos" means "little little little ones"--Maya chan, "little," is doubled, and the Spanish diminutive ending added for good measure.
1/2 lb. salt pork or fresh pork
1 branch epazote
1 1/2 kb. masa
1 square of recado rojo
3 tbsp. lard
Salt to taste
Corn shucks
Chop up the pork. Boil with the epazote. Then dissolve some masa in the stock to thicken it to thin sauce consistency.
Mix the rest of the masa with the recado, lard, and salt.
Make tamales in the usual way, but only 1/4 to 1/3 the size of regular ones.
Variants: These can be made with any sort of meat that will do for a filling, including leftovers.
(Conaculta Oceano 2000b:17)
Chaya Tamales (also called "Braza de Reina"—"Queen's Arm"--or sometimes "Braza de India")
Boil chaya leaves. Roll any kind of tamale or similar food in them, using the same technique as for stuffing grape leaves or cabbage leaves. Eat the whole thing, chaya leaves and all.
As the name implies, these are usually made long and rather slender, like a girl's forearm.
One good filling mix:
1 kg chopped tomatoes
½ onion
3 small chiles or 1 chile xkatik, chopped
Oil for frying
Salt
Hardboiled eggs, chopped
Fry up the tomatoes, onions, and chiles (to a sofrito). Mix with the eggs. Use for stuffing the tamales.
Hojasanta is very often used instead of, or even with, chaya.
Chaya-stuffed Tamales (Ts'otobij Chay; "Dzotobichay" on restaurant menus)
As the name suggests, this very popular dish is thoroughly Maya, surely pre-Columbian. The name means "chaya stuffing" or "chay with filling stuffed into it" (Maya ts'ot, "to stuff something into a hollow space").
1 lb. chaya (swiss chard if you can't get chaya)
3 lb. masa
1 lb. lard
8 eggs
1/2 lb. sikil (ground squash seeds)
Salt and pepper to taste
Chaya leaves for wrapping
6 tomatoes
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
Some chile, optional
Chop the chaya and mix with the masa, lard and salt.
Cook the eggs and chop finely. Mix with the sikil.
Make tamales the usual way (the egg mix inside the chaya-masa mix), steaming for an hour.
Roast the tomatoes, onions and garlic. Add whatever chile is desired. Mash. Serve as sauce for the tamales.
This recipe invites creative interpretation. You can stuff it with anything, as long as the stuffing is not strong-flavored enough to kill the delicate chaya taste.
(Conaculta Oceano 2000b:18)
Chulibuul with sikil
Chulibuul means "stewed beans."
2 lb. young fresh beans from the field (substitutes: frozen limas or black-eyed peas)
2 lb. masa
3 onions
Branch of epazote
4 garlic cloves
1 lb. sikil
Salt to taste
Cook the beans. Mix the masa with a little water. Chop finely the onions and epazote. Grind the garlic.
Mix all, and cook slowly and carefully. Add half the sikil. Serve with the rest of the sikil sprinkled over it and with tomato sauce poured over it.
Fresh variant: Use sweet corn kernels instead of masa. Cook the beans first; add the corn and just bring to boil, no more. The result bears a great resemblance to succotash, except for the sikil.
Toksel variant: If this is made without any maize--just the beans and sikil--it is "toksel."
Out in the fields, farm workers heat stones in the campfire and drop them into this stew to cook it. Stone soup?
(Conaculta Oceano 2000b:21, with much added)
Codzitos
Another mestiza-Maya word: Kots' (codz in the old spelling), "something rolled up," with the Spanish diminutive ending added. These are the simple, finger-food version of enchiladas.
Roll fresh or freshly-fried tortillas around tomato sauce with Mexican cheese or ground or shredded meat.
A fancy version at the wonderful Hacienda Teya--a restaurant in a restored henequen estate east of Merida--rolls the codzitos around shredded boiled chicken, then covers them with k'utbi p'ak, then crumbles fresh white cheese over all.
Eggs a la Motul (Huevos Motuleños)
Motul is a large, historically important town in central Yucatan. This dish is a standard breakfast all over the Peninsula.
2 tortillas
Lard
1 tomato
1/4 onion
2 oz. ham
2 eggs
Oil
Salt to taste
1-2 oz. refried black beans
Several green peas (necessarily canned in Yucatan, where peas don't grow, but much better if fresh)
Tomato sauce
Fry (saute) the tortillas in the lard.
Cut up the tomatoes and onion in small pieces. Fry.
Cut up the ham into small pieces. It can be fried also (but usually isn't).
Fry the eggs.
Now cover the tortillas with beans; the beans with the eggs; the eggs with the tomato, onion and ham; and the whole thing with tomato sauce. Garnish with the peas (or mix them in with the tomato and onion, earlier step).
Chickpeas or other vegetables can be used. Various garnishes exist. Much of the quality of the dish depends on the ham; get the best.
Of course, the true Yucatecan eats this mammoth breakfast with habanero sauce--the perfect wake-up at seven in the morning!
Empanadas
Make small tortillas from masa. Fold them around any filling—beans, chopped meat, chicken, k'utbi p'ak, etc., in any combination—and fry. Serve with sliced cabbage, onions in lime juice, or other topping over them.
Enchiladas a la Quintana Roo
10 tortillas
1 cup shredded cooked spiced chicken
3 oz. Mexican sharp white cheese, crumbled
1 onion, chopped
2 ancho chiles
2 pasilla chiles
1 oz. almonds
1 oz. peanuts (optional)
1 cup chicken stock
1 tbsp. lard
Salt to taste
Fry the tortillas in lard. Roll them around the chicken. Top with cheese and onion.
Seed and toast the chiles. Grind with the almonds and peanuts. Blend with the stock and season. Cook quickly to thicken and pour over enchiladas.
Fish Tamales
3 garlic cloves
1 tsp. cumin seeds
3 tbsp. achiote
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 lb. fish fillet
4 tbsp. lard
1/2 onion, chopped
2 tbsp. cilantro, finely chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1/2 cup bitter orange juice
2 lb. masa
Banana leaves
Grind up the garlic, cumin, and one tbsp. of the achiote with the salt and pepper. Cut up the fish and rub this recado into it.
Heat half the lard. Fry the vegetables in it. Add the fish and then the bitter orange juice.
Mix the masa with the rest of the lard and achiote, and some salt.
Make tamales the usual way.
Green Corn Tamales with Chicken
Grains from 30 sweet corn ears
1/2 lb. lard
1 tbsp. sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 lb. pork loin meat, cooked
Meat from 1 small chicken, cooked
5 chiles
1/2 tsp. black pepper
2 cloves
2 garlic cloves
1 small piece of cinnamon stick
Salt to taste
Grind the kernels. Mix in the lard, sugar, salt, milk and soda. Beat.
Shred or cut up the meat. Seed and toast the chiles. Grind all the flavorings. Mix all, and make tamales in usual way.
Variant: red recado has been known to work its way into these, though it is a fairly strong flavor for green corn tamales, and tends to kill the delicate flavor of the green corn unless very small amounts are used.
Hojasanta Tamales
Make as for Chaya Tamales, above, or wrap any tamale in hojasanta (mak'ol or mak'olam in Yucatec Maya) and then in banana leaves. Steam or bake in pib. The hojasanta leaves are edible, but not the banana leaves.
Joloches (joroches)
From Maya jooloch, "corn shuck, dried corn leaf"--presumably from the appearance of the dumplings, like corncobs in the shuck.
1/2 lb. ground beef
1/2 lb. ground pork
1 lb. tomato
1 onion
1 bell pepper
3 garlic cloves
Red recado
1/2 cup vinegar or bitter orange juice
1 1/2 lb. masa
2 tbsp lard
Salt to taste
1 lb. cooked black beans
3 oz. sikil
Cook the meat with the tomato, a strip on onion, half the bell pepper, three garlic cloves, salt, some water and the recado diluted in vinegar or juice.
Mix the masa with lard and salt. Form cones and stuff with the meat mix. Close the tops with masa.
Chop and fry the rest of the onion and bell pepper.
Warm up the beans and add the fried vegetables.
Add in the cones and cook 15-20 minutes.
This is one of those common, standard recipes that is infinitely variable. Almost any ingredient can be left out or decreased in quantity, and other common ingredients sometimes find their way in.
For instance: A quick-and-easy village form of the above is simply:
Squash flowers
Onion
Salt
Masa
Boil the flowers with the onion and salt. Form the masa into little cones and add in. The cones should look like the flowers; presumably this is the original inspiration of the dish.
Or we can have:
Joloches with Longaniza
1/2 lb. longaniza
2 tomatoes
1 onion
1 xkatik chile
1 lb. masa
Lard
Salt to taste
Kabax beans
Cut up the longaniza and vegetables. Fry the longaniza, and then the vegetables in its oil. Make small masa dumplings filled with this mixture. Flatten and fry. Add to the beans and serve.
Panuchos
As popular as salbutes (for which see below). A typical workers' breakfast, using up the remains of dinner from the day before.
2 lb. masa
1 lb. mashed black beans (cooked with two branches of epazote; left over from yesterday)
3 red onions
Leftover breast meat from a turkey roasted in red recado
Juice of 4 bitter oranges (or 8 limes)
Tomato and chile sauces
Lard
Make small tortillas. These have to be homemade and 3-4" across (about half as big as regular ones), so they will puff up.
Cook on griddle or frying pan. Hopefully, they will puff up, leaving a hollow center (like pita bread or Indian puris). This center is known as saay in Maya.
Stuff the hollow with mashed beans.
Fry (sauté) the bean-stuffed tortillas in lard.
Shred the turkey meat and put on top. Shredded lettuce or other vegetables can be added. (Chicken or other meat can be used, though turkey is traditional and particularly good.)
Cut up the onion and marinate in the salt and orange juice. Serve separately. Also serve separately the k'utbi p'ak and chiles. Panuchos are very much an eaters'-choice type of food.
Papadzules
Papa ts'uul means "rich people's food." (Ts'uul, or "dzul," is now used to mean "foreigner," but seems originally to have meant "rich person.") This may, however, be a folk etymology; Cherry Hamman explains it as "papak', to anoint or smear, and sul, to soak or drench" (Hamman 1998:94). Either way, economic progress has come, and this is now a relatively humble staple dish, typically found on the breakfast menu.
1 egg
1 tomato
Bit of habanero chile
1 sprig epazote
Oil
4 tortillas
2 oz. sikil
Salt to taste
Hardboil the eggs. Chop or mash up.
Boil the tomatoes, chiles and epazote. Drain, but save the water. Blend. Fry in oil.
Dissolve the sikil in the reserved cooking water. Mix half of this with the oil. (This is what people generally do now, and I have watched it many a time, but Hamman tells you the ancient way: roast and grind the squash seeds yourself, mix with water, and knead till they produce some oil. See Hamman 1998:94; also Conaculta Oceano 2000b:18). Spread on the tortillas. Then spread on these the egg mix and roll up.
Pour over the roll-ups the rest of the sikil sauce, and the tomato sauce.
Variant: a much more elaborate version involves mixing the sikil with stock, epazote, onion, garlic and chile, and serving the whole with marinated onions (red onions cut up, blanched, and marinated in vinegar or bitter orange juice with spices and chopped habanero chiles).
Another variant involves boiled chaya (or spinach, one bunch) and 3 tbsp of cut-up chives.
Polcanes
Maya pool kaan, "snake head," with a Spanish plural! The name comes from the resemblance between the opened-up dumplings and a snake's head with mouth open. Another common and cheap market snack.
2 lb. black-eyed peas (fresh or briefly cooked to soften)
1/2 lb. sikil
1 tsp. ground chile
1 lb. masa
3 tbsp. lard
Salt
Cook the beans. Drain. Mix with sikil and chile.
Mix the masa with the lard and salt. Stuff with the beans. (Or mix flour and masa, make a thin skin and stuff like ravioli.)
Steam or pib-bake in corn husks like tamales, or deep-fry like hush-puppies.
For eating, split and fill with tomato sauce.
Salbutes
Something of a national dish of Yucatan. The name is from Maya tsajil but', "fried minced meat." As with such "small eats" the world over, the best place to get these is down at the marketplace in the morning, where the working people are stoking up for a hard day's work. Salbutes become a powerfully nostalgic flavor for those who regularly eat them in such circumstances.
Make small tortillas from fresh masa. Deep-fry in very hot lard. While these are still as hot as possible, pile on them shredded cooked chicken or turkey (preferably cooked in red recado), chopped cabbage or lettuce, marinated onion (see previous recipe), tomato slices, radish slices, and/or anything else desired.
This is often accompanied by the chicken or turkey stock; black beans; and lime slices. As the Maya name implies, they are often topped with fried minced pork instead of poultry. In fact, they are topped with just about anything: beans, tripe, chorizo, etc. A good market stall will have alternatives, the eaters choosing what they want.
Sopes
Fry small, thick tortillas. Top with anything interesting.
Some toppings noted at Merida markets and fiestas include:
Nopal salad (prickly pear pads cooked, cut up, and marinated in oil and vinegar with spices)
Nopal cut up in chocolate mole (made by cooking and mixing chocolate tablets and ground chiles)
Any and all meat, preferably cooked in red recado, shredded
Beans or beans and meat, usually refried black beans
The sopes are then usually further topped off with lettuce or cabbage, various sauces, etc., over the meat.
To'obi joloch (Sweetbread Tamales)
Boil sweetbreads until tender. Chop; eliminate tough membranes. Mix in a handful of chopped shallots and 2 cups sikil.
Use to fill tamales in the usual way.
Vaporcitos ("little steamed ones")
A very common, minimalist sort of snack.
Mix masa, lard and cooked black-eyed peas. Make this mix into tamales—no filling added—and steam. Eat with Tomato Sauce.
The same thing baked in a pib is called xnup'.
Wedding Tamales
This is the full-scale tamale of Yucatan. The main ingredients can, of course, be varied, according to what is available.
1 chicken
1 lb. pork
1 cube red recado
1 tbsp. steak recado
2 lb. tomatoes
1 tbsp. ground allspice
1 small head of garlic, roasted and bashed
Branch of epazote
1 lb. lard
Chile and salt to taste
Masa
Cook the meats. Dissolve the spices in vinegar and add. Add other ingredients. Bone the meats and make tamales in the usual way, using some of the stock, or grease skimmed from it, to add to the lard.
SOUPS
"Barriana" soup
Silvia Luz Carrillo Lara, in Cocina Yucateca (1995:17-18), reports that this is a true "mestiza" soup, found in many old cookbooks. This is an adaptation of her recipe. It is a relatively "Spanish" dish, preserving the flavors of the Spanish Colonial world. Like all such recipes, it seems to be dying out in Yucatan, but variants of it can still be found. The Spanish ancestors of this dish are still around in southern Spain, and use leftover bread instead of masa, the latter being an obvious Mexicanization.
1/2 lb. masa
1 tomato
1/2 red onion
1 bell pepper
1/4 cup lard ("Maya lard" recommended)
3 pints chicken or beef stock, freshly made
12 olives
2 tbsp. capers
2 tbsp. raisins
2 tbsp. chopped almonds
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch of saffron (optional)
Break the masa into small pieces and fry them in the lard. Chop the tomato, onion, and pepper, and fry them separately. Add the masa. Then add the stock and cook ca. 10 minutes. Add the other ingredients and cook until all is heated.
Variants without the masa, often with different thickenings, exist.
Chaya Soup
8 or more fresh chaya leaves
1 chayote
1 potato
1 summer squash
1 onion
3 garlic cloves
1 tsp. ground oregano
6 cups water
1 chipotle chile in vinegar or marinade
Salt to taste
Chop the chaya finely. Cut up the other vegetables. Cook all.
Obviously, this recipe can be varied at will. The basic idea is chaya plus other vegetables—a mix of starchy and crunchy ones—and standard Yucatecan spicing.
(Conaculta Oceano 2000b:24)
Covered Soup
This is what Mexicans call a "sopa seca," a "dry soup." This isn't an oxymoron, just the standard term for a soup that includes enough starch to absorb all the free liquid. Such dishes have a Moorish origin; they are related to pilaf. This one is thoroughly Spanish, and thus out of place in a book about the true mestizo cookery, but it is far too typical of Yucatan to leave out. It represents a large class of popular recipes transported from Spain to Yucatan virtually without change. It also provides insight into what was imported from Spain in the old days: capers, saffron, oil, vinegar, wine, and olives were staples of trade.
For the "stuffing":
A large chicken cut up, or any small poultry
3 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp. oregano
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
1 stick cinnamon
2 cloves
6 allspice berries
1/4 cup vinegar
For the rice:
1/2 lb. rice
5 tbsp. oil
2 xkatik chiles
2/3 lb. tomatoes
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp. saffron
1 bunch parsley
1 banana leaf
3 oz. lard
For the final assembly:
1 oz. lard
2/3 lb. tomatoes
1/2 cup stock
2 oz. bottled green olives
1 tbsp. chopped parsley
4 tbsp. sherry
1 oz. capers
3 oz. Mexican white cheese
Cut up the poultry. Grind the onions, garlic and spices, rub onto poultry, and marinate overnight.
Soak the rice for an hour or more. Drain and fry in the oil. Add chopped chiles. Roast the tomatoes and blend with the onion and garlic. Soak the saffron in 1 oz. water. Add all these to the rice, cover, and simmer over very low heat for a while--not till fully done.
Spread the banana leaf with lard, in a baking dish. Put half the rice mix on this.
Then fry the poultry in the final 1 oz. lard. Add tomatoes (roasted and chopped) and stock. Then add olives, parsley, sherry and capers.
Cover with the rest of the rice mix, fold the banana leaf over, and bake 10-20 minutes at 375o.
Sprinkle with broken-up white cheese for serving.
Much simpler variants exist, converging on the familiar "Spanish rice" of Mexican restaurants everywhere. This is basically a pilaf with peppers and tomatoes instead of Moorish ingredients. Rice is fried with chopped onion, then spices and other ingredients are added, then liquid to cover ½-1" deep, then all is simmered at the lowest possible heat till the liquid is absorbed. Standard in Yucatan are simple "Spanish rices" with chicken cooked in red recado, or other variants, added to the tomato-onion-pepper basic formula.
Lentil Soup
1 lb. pork
1 tbsp oregano
2 cups lentils
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 onion, chopped
Red recardo, 1 oz.
2 mild chiles
1 carrot
1 chayote
1 platano
2 potatoes
Salt
Pepper
Boil the pork and lentils till the lentils are tender but not quite thoroughly done. Add other ingredients and finish cooking.
Sopa de Lima (Bitter Lime Soup)
This soup requires a strange lime-like citrus fruit, the lima agria, with a unique flavor. Note that it is a lima, not a limón (lime or lemon). It is fact the Thai lime, easy to find in any Oriental market. (No one knows how it got to Yucatan.) The Yucatecan bitter lime should be fresh for this soup, but I get acceptable results with dried Thai lime and a bit of fresh ordinary lime. It is also possible to use ordinary lime only. This is done even in Yucatan if bitter limes are not available. The real lima is preferable, though.
This is probably the most famous single Yucatecan dish, after cochinita pibil. Yucatecan restaurants far from Yucatan all carry it, if only for nostalgic reasons. They often can't get the real lima agria, so don't judge this soup by versions you may have had outside Yucatan.
For the stock and meat:
1 chicken
Salt and pepper, to taste
4 cloves
1 tbsp. dried oregano
4 garlic cloves
1 tsp. cumin seeds
Enough water to produce 8 cups stock
For the soup:
2 tomatoes
1 onion
1 xkatik chile (or other mild chile according to your preference)
1 tsp. vinegar
1 lb. tortillas, cut in strips or wedges and fried in lard
1 bitter lime
Cook the chicken with the other stock ingredients. Eat the dark meat (cook's privilege). Shred the white meat.
Blend the tomatoes, onion, chiles (seeded and soaked), vinegar, beer and salt.
Combine all: into the stock, mix the blended vegetables; the shredded chicken; the fried tortilla strips; and the cut-up lime. A few sqeezes of ordinary lime juice are good too.
Variants: Chicken cooked in red recado is often used, and adds to the flavor.
A couple of tablespoons of beer find their way into some versions.
The fried tortilla strips are dispensable.
Squash Soup
1 tomato
1 bell pepper
3 oz. butter
6 small summer squash
6 or more squash flowers
Salt and pepper to taste
In a saucepan, chop the tomato and pepper and fry in the butter. Add water and the cut-up squash and flowers.
Variant: a couple of ounces of chopped ham can be fried with the tomato and pepper. I prefer the vegetarian form, however.
Tortilla Soup
1 lb. beans
6 tortillas
Oil for frying
1/2 onion, chopped
1 serrano chile, chopped
2 sprigs epazote
2 tomatoes, roasted and skinned
1/2 lb. chorizo, taken out of its casing and fried
Grated Mexican sharp white cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
Cook the beans in enough water for the final soup.
Cut the tortillas in wedges and fry. Fry the onion, chiles, and epazote. Add the beans and tortilla strips.
Blend the tomatoes with salt and pepper.
Combine all ingredients--sprinkling the chorizo and cheese over the top.
White Bean Soup (Yucatan form of a very popular Spanish dish)
1/2 lb. white beans (traditionally small white limas, but ordinary white beans will do)
1/2 white onion
2 tomatoes
1/3 lb. of chorizo, or 1 small chorizo and 1 longaniza
1/4 head of cabbage (optional)
1 green pepper
1/4 lb. Spanish, Virginia or similar flavorful ham
Salt and pepper to taste
Cayenne pepper to taste (optional)
1/2 lb. potatoes
Wash the beans. Then soak, and boil in the same water until beginning to be tender.
Chop and fry the tomatoes, onions, pepper, cabbage, ham, and chorizo. Add seasonings.
Combine these with the beans. Cut up the potatoes, add, and cook all till the beans are tender.
A sprinkling of marjoram and oregano--fresh or dry—is good. One can also decorate with chopped parsley, or even (untraditional but good) cilantro.
SEAFOODS
Baked Fish I
1 large fish (preferably fairly oily)
3 garlic cloves
1 onion
3 oregano leaves
5 bay leaves
1 glass white wine
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt to taste
Marinate the fish in the other ingredients for an hour. Bake.
This can also be done on the stove top in a heavy saucepan. Try adding xkatik chiles.
The fish is often even better if rubbed with red recado or otherwise marinated beforehand.
Baked Fish II
1 large fish
3 oz. olive oil
1/2 lb. potatoes
1/2 cup vinegar
6 tomatoes
1 onion
2 xkatik chiles
1/2 tsp. ground cumin or cumin seeds
6 leaves oregano
4 bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
Chopped parsley
Grind the spices (except the bay leaves) and blend with vinegar and some oil. Rub into fish.
Cut up the vegetables. Put the fish on the bay leaves and cover with the vegetables mixed with the rest of the oil. Bake.
Variant: Lard is used instead of olive oil. Butter can be used.
This can be done on the stove top also, in a heavy saucepan.
Chiles Stuffed with Dogfish
See also following dish.
1 piece, ca. 1 lb., of roast dogfish
Branch of epazote
4 tomatoes
1 onion
6 xkatik chiles
Vinegar
1/2 lb. lard
1 cube red recado
Boil the dogfish with epazote. Flake and fry with onion, tomato, and epazote (all cut up). Separately fry some of the onion and tomatoes.
Roast the chiles, wrap in a cloth and leave for a while, then skin and seed. Stuff with the dogfish mix. Fry.
Add the rest of the onion and tomatoes, with the recado, to the boiling stock. Cook down and pour this sauce over the chiles.
A much more elaborate version of this occurs in Patricia Quintana's wonderful book The Taste of Mexico (pp. 274-275).
However, only a true dogfish addict would go to the trouble of making even the simple form with real dogfish, and I strongly recommmend using regular shark, or (still better) codfish, or some other firm white-fleshed fish. I always do. I admit it—I am not fanatical about dogfish.
Chiles Stuffed with Seafood
Quintana Roo variant of a universal Mexican dish.
6 large poblano chiles, or bell peppers
1 lb. mixed seafood: shrimps, crabmeat, fish, shellfish
Lard
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Oregano to taste
3 tbsp. cilantro, finely chopped
2 lb. tomatoes
1 onion
1 xkatik chile
1 habanero chile (if tolerated)
Sear the large chiles or bell peppers. Seed. They can be peeled also.
Cut up the seafood (the more variety the better). Fry quickly with the spices. Stuff the chiles. Fry and serve.
Separately, chop the tomatoes, onion and other chiles, roasting any or all if desired. Fry quickly. Serve this sauce over the chiles.
Tomatoes or other vegetables can be stuffed similarly.
Conch in Escabeche
Conch is, alas, getting rare due to overfishing and pollution, and this magnificent dish may not be with us long. However, the loss is not total, for any seafood can be cooked this way. Abalone or other relatively chewy sea food should be particularly good, but now abalones are rare too. One reader suggests scallops—not very close, but perfectly acceptable.
1 lb. conch meat
Juice of 2 bitter oranges or 6 limes
1 onion
5 oz. oil
1/2 bottle vinegar
2 xkatik chiles, roasted and seeded
6 oregano leaves
1/2 tsp. toasted cumin seeds
1 roasted head of garlic
4 bay leaves
Pinch of nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
Boil conch till tender. (For a conch, that can vary from several minutes to an hour, depending on the maturity of the conch, but for scallops a very few minutes is quite enough. Small scallops need little more than being brought to the boil.) Leave to cool in the orange or lime juice. Cut up.
Fry the onion lightly in the oil. Add the other ingredients. Boil quickly.
Marinate the conch in this.
Dogfish Pudding
1 1/2 lb. dogfish
1/4 tsp. oregano
2 branches epazote
1 onion
2 large chiles in vnegar
1 lime
4 eggs
1 tbsp. lard
1 oz. breadcrumbs (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
Sauce:
2/3 lb. tomatoes
1 onion
1 tbsp. lard
1/4 cup dogfish stock
Garnish:
2 avocados
1 head of lettuce, preferably buttercrunch or red leaf
1 bunch radishes
Boil the dogfish with the oregano and epazote; save the stock. Shred the fish. Chop and fry the onion. Add the fish with the epazote leaves. Chop and add the chiles. Fry quickly.
Beat the eggs with some lime juice, salt and pepper. Blend into the fish mix. Put all in mold. Top with breadcrumbs if desired. Bake at 350o.
For the sauce, roast the tomatoes. Blend with the onion. Fry in the lard. Add in the stock. Put over the pudding.
Garnish with avocado and radish slices and lettuce leaves.
I have not brought myself to using dogfish (see Chapter 2) in this. Use any white-fleshed fish, cod being probably best because it has enough flavor and texture to stand out in this pudding.
Fish a la Celestun
1 onion
1 bunch parsley
2 tomatoes
Fresh chile, to taste
1 red snapper or similar fish
4 cloves
1 tsp. pepper
Pinch saffron
Frozen peas (optional)
1/4 cup Vinegar
Salt to taste
Chop the onion and parsley. Fry. Add the tomato and chile, roasted and blended. Add the fish and spices and vinegar; cook in the sauce till nearly done, about 15 minutes. Add the peas (if wanted) and finish cooking, 5-10 minutes.
In Celestun, a charming old fishing village famous for its flamingoes, the fish is usually fried first, sometimes grilled, and then covered with the sauce after it is cooked. The Celestunians use canned peas, having no frozen ones available.
Fish Fajitas
A creative response to the fajita craze. This version is an elaboration of that of the Faisan y Venado restaurant in Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Quintana Roo.
1 lb. white fish fillet (not too delicate a species), cut into strips
Salt and pepper
Juice of 2 limes
4 oregano leaves
Pinch of cumin powder
2 cloves
Ground dried chile
1 onion
1 green pepper
1 tomato
Marinate the fish in the spices.
Cut vegetables into strips. Stir-fry with the fish.
Fish in Green Sauce
A classic Arabo-Spanish recipe, which has evolved into countless variations in southern Mexico. Compare variants in Chapters 2 and 4.
1 large bunch parsley
1 sprig oregano
1 bunch green onions with tops (trim off the ends)
1 bunch cilantro
6 tomatillos
2 xkatik or other mild green chiles
2 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
6 tbsp. vinegar
1 onion
Salt to taste
Oil
1 fish
Blend up the greens and flavorings in the vinegar. Fry in oil. Add the fish and cook.
Variants: This may be the most variable dish in the Yucatan Peninsula. Everybody has his or her own version of it. You can use any mixture of the green ingredients, in any quantity. You can vary the spicing at will. You can fry, grill or boil the fish first. Sometimes, people don't fry the green sauce first, but just fry or bake the fish in the sauce. In fact, you don't even have to have a fish. This sauce is used for other seafood and even for pork.
Here, for instance, is another version:
1 fish, ca. 2 lb., or 2 lb. of fillets or fish steak
5 garlic cloves, roasted
1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. black pepper
Salt
4 tbsp. chopped Italian parsley
1/3 lb. tomatillos
2 xkatik chiles
2 green onions with the leaves except for the very tips
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup oil
Clean the fish. Grind the spices and rub into the fish. Leave for an hour in cool place. Blend the other ingredients (greens, vinegar and oil). Put over fish. Cook in a covered dish over a slow fire.
Note that in this version the green sauce is not fried.
Yet another version, almost unbearably good, uses some hojasanta leaf.
Octopus in Its Ink
3 large octopi
6 garlic cloves, chopped
2 lb. tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup olive oil
2 large onions, chopped
2 serrano chiles, chopped
Lard
3 bay leaves
1/2 tsp. ground pepper
1 pinch ground cumin
1/2 tsp. ground oregano
1 tbsp. parsley, chopped
2 tbsp. vinegar
Salt to taste
Take out the ink (remove ink sacs from octopi) and save it. Wash the octopi and rub with 1 clove of the garlic, mashed. Simmer, with a tomato, one onion, and lard, till octopi are tender. Then clean off membranes etc. and cut up.
Chop and fry the rest of the garlic, the chiles, and the other onion. When colored, add the bay leaves, the rest of the tomato, the pepper, cumin, oregano, parsley and the octopus ink dissolved in vinegar. When this begins to boil, add salt and the octopus. Boil a few minutes, till done.
Squid in its ink is made more or less the same way.
At this point I cannot resist mentioning a dish from Tampico's great seafood restaurant, the Restaurante Diligencia: seafood petrolera. This is basically the above recipe with other seafoods--shrimp, fish roes, some fish, clams or oysters--cut up and added. The name is a sick joke; Tampico has offshore oil, and thus oil spills at sea. This dish looks exactly like the aftermath of an oil spill. However, it tastes heavenly. The roes in particular "make" the dish.
Pampano
One whole pampano, about 2 lb.
2 tbsp. vinegar
1 tbsp. oregano
3 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
1/2 cup beer (optional)
4 sliced tomatoes
1 sliced onion
2 xkatik chiles, chopped
4 potatoes, cooked and sliced
3 oz. butter
1/2 cup chopped parsley leaves
Salt to taste
Put the fish in a baking dish.
Make a sauce of the vinegar, spices and herbs, and beer (if used).
Cover the fish with the sauce. Add the vegetables. Put the butter and parsley over it. Bake 30 minutes at 350o.
Variants: use fish steaks of other fish; add cilantro to the parsley; rub the fish with red recado; etc. Like the foregoing, this can be wrapped in leaves.
(Conaculta Oceano 2000b:37)
Rice with Seafood
Another of those infinitely variable recipes. More typical of Campeche than Yucatan.
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1 onion, chopped
Oil
1 lb. seafood (mixed, or cut-up squid, or shrimp, or other)
1/4 cup vinegar
Several sprigs parsley, chopped
2 roasted tomatoes
2 cups rice
Salt and pepper to taste
Fry the garlic and onion in a little oil. Add the seafood. Add the vinegar. If octopus or squid are among those present, mix in the ink.
Add the parsley and tomatoes, chopped finely.
Separately, fry the rice. Add water and simmer over very low heat. When almost done, add the seafood.
Variant: This is the minimal recipe. Most people would add bay leaf, oregano, green peas, and bell or chile peppers (chopped). Many would add spices including clove, cinnamon, cumin and allspice--all in very small amounts. Some would throw in a carrot, or summer squash, or chayote, or anything else interesting and available.
Salpicon de Chivitos
Tiny sea snails with shells like curled goat horns (hence their name—"chivitos" means "little goats"). This is good with any shellfish. I first encountered it in a tiny cafe on an isolated beach on the north coast of Yucatan.
Boil the shellfish. Mix with their own weight (or a bit more) of raw chopped tomato, onion and cilantro. Dress with salt, pepper, dried oregano, lime juice and a bit of oil.
Samak Mishwi
Arabic for "roast fish." I have seen it Yucatecanized to "samik mishul." This is one of the relatively recent Lebanese contributions to the Yucatan world. It is as un-Maya a recipe as could be imagined, but I find fascinating the adoption of Lebanese culture in the Yucatan Peninsula.
2 fish
Olive oil
1 garlic clove
2 limes
4 oz. tahini (ground sesame seed paste)
6 sprigs parsley
Brush the fish with olive oil and grill.
Serve with sauce: Mash the garlic cloves with salt and mix with the lime juice and sesame paste. Thin this with water as needed.
Garnish with chopped parsley.
This sauce is a version of the famous taratur sauce of the Mediterranean.
Shrimps in Chirmole (or Chilmole)
Chilmole (Nahuatl for "chile sauce") is a very widespread recipe type, deriving from central Mexico, and based on a rich sauce of ground dried chiles, usually thickened with masa. In central Mexico there is a whole conoisseurship of dried chiles, but in Yucatan there is not much choice.
1 lb. fresh or dried shrimp
4 oz. dried chile (ancho, morron or the like)
1 onion
3 garlic cloves
3 Tabasco peppers
6 peppercorns
1/2 tsp. achiote
4 large oregano leaves (or 1 tsp. ground oregano)
2 cloves
1 lb. tomato, chopped
1 branch epazote
2 oz. masa
3 eggs
Salt to taste
Boil the shrimps, peel and clean.
Toast the chiles and grind with the onion, garlic and spices. Combine with the shrimps, the stock they were boiled in, the tomato, the epazote and the salt.
Dissolve the masa and cook down the whole into a thick sauce. Serve decorated with slices of hardboiled eggs or other garnishes.
Warning: note that this recipe uses lots of chile.
(Conaculta Oceano 2000b:33)
Shrimp in Escabeche
10 garlic cloves
1/2 cup oil
2 lb. raw shrimp
Red onion
1/2 lb. carrots
4 bay leaves
1/2 cup cider vinegar
Chiles to taste (strong green ones, like jalapeños or serranos)
Large sprig of thyme
Large sprig of oregano
4-6 cloves
Pinch of cinnamon
Salt and pepper to taste
Fry half the garlic, chopped, in some of the oil. Add the shrimps. When these are cooked, cool and peel them.
Separately, chop the onion and fry in oil. Boil the carrots very quickly with the bay leaves, and cut up.
Grind up the other 5 garlic cloves, the vinegar, and the spices.
Combine all the above. Heat and serve. Will keep indefinitely in the refrigerator, improving in flavor.
This recipe is used with all sea food, especially firm ones. It is actually best with conch, but conch is rapidly becoming unavailable everywhere. It is extremely good with scallops, or with scallops, shrimp and clams.
(Conaculta Oceano 2000b:33)
Snook in Escabeche
As explained in the Introduction, robalo in southeast Mexico is what is called "snook" in the southern US. It's a flavorful, slightly oily, white-fleshed fish. Any equivalent fish will do; even salmon works fine for this one (texture and richness being more important in this case than flavor and "white fish" qualities).
4 robalo steaks
1 tsp. steak recado
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1 pinch ground oregano
1 pinch cinnamon
1 pinch ground allspice
2 garlic cloves
2 heads of roasted garlic
4 bay leaves
Vinegar
Salt to taste
Fry the steaks till not quite done. Cool.
Dissolve the spices in the vinegar and some water. Add the fish steaks. Boil quickly.
Snook in Orange Juice
Fish:
2 lb. snook fillets
Juice of 1 bitter orange or a few limes
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. oregano
Juice of 3-4 bitter oranges (or equivalent)
Sauce:
1/4 cup oil
2 cloves garlic
2 onions
2 bell peppers
2/3 lb. tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste
1 sprig or more parsley
Marinate the fish in the orange juice, to which the ground spices are added.
Roll the fillets and fry very lightly. Cover with bitter orange juice. Bake at 350o.
Meanwhile, make the sauce: Fry the garlic and onions, chopped, in the oili. Add the chiles and tomatoes, roasted. Add the salt and pepper. Then add the chopped parsley. Cook.
Serve the fish with the sauce poured over.
Tik'in-xik
A very widespread traditional Maya fish dish. Its ancestry must go back to ancient times.
1 fish (2-3 lb.)
3 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
Juice of 1 bitter orange
2 tsp. achiote
1 tomato, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1-2 xkatik chiles, seeded, roasted and cut in strips
3 tbsp. butter (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
Hojasanta and/or banana leaves
Clean the fish and slash its sides. Blend the spices, garlic, achiote and orange juice. Rub this recado well into the fish. Marinate for several minutes to overnight, according to preference.
Line a baking dish with banana leaves (or substitute). Wrapping with hojasanta leaves and then banana leaves gives better flavor. Put the tomato, onion and chile slices on it. Wrap well in the leaves and bake in a slow over for 30 to 45 minutes.
Originally, of course, this would have been made in a pib, and you can still do this if you are very good at wrapping. It is also made on the grill, which is easier.
Fish steaks marinated in the recado and simply grilled (without the wrapping) are also excellent.
If you can't find banana leaves, wrap in any flavorful leaf, or put some fennel or bay leaves around the fish and wrap all in aluminum foil.
Variants: Cinnamon can be added to the recado. All quantities can be, and are, varied according to what's cheap, available, or preferred. This is a notably variable dish; every restaurant has its own recipe.
(Conaculta Oceano 2000b:37)
Worker's Shrimp
1 lb. tomato
1 onion
3 garlic cloves
1 tsp. achiote
1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
5 allspice berries
1 oz. bottled green olives
1 oz. capers
A few raisins
1 sprig parsley
6 tbsp. oil
2 bell peppers
2 xkatik chiles
4 summer squash
2 chayotes
1/2 lb. potato
2 platanos
3 tbsp. vinegar
1 1/2 lb. shrimp (shelled and cleaned)
Roast the tomatoes. Blend with the onion, garlic, spices (ground), olives, capers, raisins, and parsley. Fry this sauce in the oil. Cut up and add the vegetables and cook ca. 20 minutes. Add the shrimp and cook till done, about 10 min.
The olives, capers, and raisins were originally elite Spanish ingredients, and are optional here. Leaving them out gives a more Maya dish—more like what workers really eat.
Fish in Vinegar
An escabeche variant.
2 lb. fish, preferably robalo steaks but any firm-fleshed fish will do
4 bay leaves
1/2 bottle cider vinegar
1 onion
1 carrot
1 bell pepper or mild chile
4 potatoes
Oil
4 tomatoes
Oregano
Few sprigs parsley, chopped
Pinch of nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
Set a bit of water to boil, with the spices. Cook 10 minutes and take out fish. Chop the vegetables and cook in the vinegar and stock. Add a biot of olive oil. Pour over the fish and serve.
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