Estrujadas Huastecas

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Cast iron or clay comal
• •Tortilla press (prensa)
• •Heavy olla or stockpot for the beans
• •Blender or molcajete for the salsa
• •Wide skillet or cazuela for refrying

Instructions

1. 1

   Cook the black beans

   Put the rinsed beans in a heavy olla or stockpot with the half onion, the 4 garlic cloves, and one sprig of epazote. Cover with cold water by three inches. No salt yet. Salt early and the skins turn tough and split before the inside softens. Bring to a boil, then drop to a low simmer, partly covered, for about an hour and a half, adding hot water as needed to keep the beans swimming. They are done when one crushes to cream against the roof of your mouth. Now salt the pot and add the second sprig of epazote. In the Huasteca the bean is black, never pinto, this far east.

   Epazote is not optional and there is no substitute that does the same job. It cuts the heaviness of the bean and gives the pot that green, almost medicinal note that tells you the beans were cooked by someone who knew what they were doing.
2. 2

   Refry the beans

   Melt 3 tablespoons of the manteca in a wide skillet or cazuela over medium heat. Ladle in the beans with a little of their broth and mash them with a bean masher or the back of a wooden spoon. Keep working them until you have a thick, glossy paste that pulls away from the bottom of the pan in a sheet. La manteca es el sabor. The beans should be loose enough to spread but stiff enough to sit on a tortilla without running off the edge. Keep them warm.

3. 3

   Toast the chiles and peanuts

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the cascabel 20 to 30 seconds a side, until they smell toasty and darken a shade, never black. Cascabel is round and hollow and it rattles, that is the seed you already took out. Pull them off and toast the chiltepin for just a few seconds, they are tiny and fierce and they burn in a blink. Last, toast the peanuts, shaking the comal, until the skins darken and the kitchen smells roasted. Set the chiles and peanuts aside. On the same comal, char the whole tomatoes, turning them, until the skins blister and blacken in patches and the flesh goes soft.

   Cascabel is the body of this salsa and chiltepin is the spark. Start with 6 chiltepin if you do not know your guests. The wild chile hits harder than its size suggests. You can always add heat, you cannot pull it back out.
4. 4

   Blend and fry the salsa

   Cover the toasted cascabel with hot water, not boiling, and soak 15 minutes until soft and pliable. Boiling water cooks the skin and turns the salsa bitter. Drain. Into the blender put the soaked cascabel, the chiltepin, the charred tomatoes with their skins, the toasted peanuts, the 3 garlic cloves, and the quarter onion. Add 1/2 cup fresh water and blend to a puree that still has a little grain to it. The peanut is there to give body, you do not want it perfectly smooth. Heat 2 tablespoons manteca in a skillet until it shimmers, pour in the salsa, stand back because it will sputter, and fry it 8 to 10 minutes, stirring, until it darkens to brick red and a film of fat rises to the surface. That film is how you know the raw edge is gone. Salt to taste.

5. 5

   Cook the cecina

   Wipe the comal with a little manteca and set it over medium-high. Lay the cecina out flat. It is thin and already salted, so it needs only a minute or two a side. You want dark caramelized edges and a little char, not a pale gray slab. Pull it off, rest it a minute, then chop it into rough ribbons. Taste a piece. If it reads very salty, that is the cecina doing its job. The bean and the avocado are there to balance it.

6. 6

   Press and cook the tortillas

   If using masa harina, mix it with the warm water and knead 2 minutes into a smooth dough with the feel of soft clay. Press a little ball flat with your thumb, if the edges crack, the masa is dry and needs a spoonful more water. Rest it 10 minutes. Divide into 12 balls. Line a tortilla press with a cut plastic bag, press each ball into a round about 5 inches across, and cook on a hot comal, about 45 seconds on the first side and a minute on the second, until brown freckles appear and the tortilla puffs. Fresh masa from a tortilleria beats any harina if you can get it. The tortilla has to be fresh and hot for what comes next. A day-old tortilla will not estrujar.

   No me vengas con atajos. Store-bought tortillas are the one shortcut that breaks this dish. They are cold, dry, and stiff, and they crack into pieces instead of crushing into ridges. The whole plate is built on the hot tortilla off your own comal.
7. 7

   Estrujar the tortilla

   This is the dish, so pay attention. The second a tortilla comes off the comal, while it is hot and pliable, crush it. Grab it and squeeze, crumple it half-closed in your hand so the puffed layers tear open and the surface ridges up into folds and pockets. Use a folded cloth if your fingers cannot take the heat. The senoras in Tantoyuca just use their hands and do not flinch. Those torn ridges are the entire reason this dish exists, they catch the bean and the salsa the way a smooth tortilla never will. Work one at a time and dress it right away while it is hot.

8. 8

   Build the estrujadas

   Open the crushed tortilla on a warm peltre or clay plate. Spread it with a spoonful of the hot refried black beans, pushing them down into the torn ridges. Spoon the brick-red cascabel-peanut salsa over the top, then pile on a tangle of the chopped cecina. Crumble queso fresco over everything and lay two or three slices of avocado alongside. Add raw onion if you like and keep more salsa on the table. Eat with your hands, immediately, while the tortilla is still hot and the beans are still soft. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Buy cecina de res at a carniceria that sells it salted and sliced thin, the way it is sold across the Huasteca. If you cannot find it, slice top round paper-thin against the grain, salt it well, and let it sit an hour. That is a compromise, not the same thing. Real cecina has a cured depth fresh-salted beef cannot fake in an hour.
• •Chiltepin is a wild chile and it is not always on the shelf. If you cannot find it, chile pequin is the closest cousin and chile de arbol will do in a pinch, but cut the quantity, arbol is milder and you will need more to match the punch. The cascabel is the part you should not substitute. It is what gives this salsa its round, nutty body.
• •Do not skip the peanut. People who do not know this region leave it out and make a plain tomato-chile salsa, then wonder why it tastes like everywhere else. The cacahuate is what makes the salsa Huasteca. It thickens the sauce and gives it a toasty roundness that holds up against the salt of the cecina.
• •For the green version some Huasteca cooks make, swap the cascabel and tomato for tomatillo and serrano, charred on the comal the same way, and keep the peanut. Cada estado, su propia cocina, and within one state every cook keeps two salsas going.

Advance Preparation

• •The black beans can be cooked and refried up to 3 days ahead and refrigerated. The flavor only deepens, and a weeknight plate of estrujadas comes together fast when the beans are already done.
• •The cascabel-peanut salsa keeps 3 days in the refrigerator in a sealed jar. Warm it before serving so the fat loosens.
• •The tortillas cannot be made ahead. They must be pressed, cooked, crushed, and dressed one at a time, hot off the comal. That is the one part of this dish that waits for nobody.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 670g)