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Sotavento Veracruz's ripe plantain molotes, sweet dough folded around black beans with epazote and queso fresco, then fried until the edges turn dark, glossy, and serious.
Veracruz, the Sotavento, the humid lowlands around the Papaloapan River and the port kitchens where plantain, black beans, and frying fat know each other well. This is where these molotes live. Not in the north with flour tortillas. Not in a generic snack tray. Southern Veracruz has its own hand.
The plantain must be ripe, almost black on the outside, yellow and sweet inside. That sweetness is not decoration. It is the dough. You boil the plátano macho with its peel on so it keeps its body, then mash it while warm with just enough masa harina to make it obey your hands. Too much masa and you lose Veracruz. Too little and the molote opens in the oil. The señoras who taught me in Tlacotalpan did not measure with fear. They felt the dough and corrected it.
The filling is black beans, refried in manteca de cerdo with white onion, garlic, and epazote. Then queso fresco, crumbled, salty against the sweet plantain. The salsa on the table is chile seco, tomato, garlic, and a little vinegar, because Veracruz likes acid where the coast asks for it. This is the Afro-Veracruz line on a plate: plantain, beans, oil, heat, patience. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
Plantains arrived in Mexico through Spanish colonial trade routes that moved African, Caribbean, and Atlantic ingredients through ports including Veracruz during the 16th and 17th centuries. In the Sotavento, Afro-Veracruz communities folded plantain into daily cooking alongside native corn, beans, chiles, and herbs, creating dishes that do not fit the flattened idea of Mexican food as only tortilla and salsa. Molotes de plátano macho show that coastal Veracruz cooking is both Gulf and inland, African-descended and Indigenous, practical and deeply regional.
Quantity
4
skins mostly black, ends trimmed
Quantity
1 teaspoon
divided
Quantity
1/2 cup, plus more only if needed
for tightening the plantain dough
Quantity
2 cups
with 1/3 cup of their broth
Quantity
3 tablespoons
Quantity
1/2 medium
finely chopped
Quantity
2
finely chopped
Quantity
2 large sprigs
Quantity
6 ounces
crumbled
Quantity
2 cups
for frying
Quantity
3
roasted on a comal
Quantity
6
stemmed
Quantity
1
stemmed and seeded
Quantity
1
roasted on a comal
Quantity
1 tablespoon
Quantity
1/4 cup, plus more as needed
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
Quantity
for serving
Quantity
for serving
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| very ripe plátanos machosskins mostly black, ends trimmed | 4 |
| kosher saltdivided | 1 teaspoon |
| masa harinafor tightening the plantain dough | 1/2 cup, plus more only if needed |
| cooked black beanswith 1/3 cup of their broth | 2 cups |
| manteca de cerdo | 3 tablespoons |
| white onionfinely chopped | 1/2 medium |
| garlic clovesfinely chopped | 2 |
| fresh epazote | 2 large sprigs |
| queso frescocrumbled | 6 ounces |
| pork lard or neutral oilfor frying | 2 cups |
| Roma tomatoesroasted on a comal | 3 |
| dried chile de árbolstemmed | 6 |
| dried chile anchostemmed and seeded | 1 |
| garlic cloveroasted on a comal | 1 |
| white vinegar | 1 tablespoon |
| warm water | 1/4 cup, plus more as needed |
| kosher salt for salsa | 1/2 teaspoon |
| crumbled queso fresco (optional) | for serving |
| thinly sliced raw white onion (optional) | for serving |
| lime halves (optional) | for serving |
Put the whole ripe plantains, peel still on, in a pot and cover with water. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt. Simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, until the skins split and a knife slides through the flesh without resistance. Boiling them in the peel keeps the plantain from drinking too much water. That matters when you need a dough that can be shaped.
Drain the plantains and let them cool just until your hands can handle them. Peel them and mash the warm flesh in a bowl until smooth. Work in the masa harina and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. The dough should feel soft, sticky, and heavy, but it should not run through your fingers. If it collapses, add masa harina one tablespoon at a time. No me vengas con atajos. Feel the dough.
Melt the manteca de cerdo in a skillet over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and cook until translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Stir in the black beans with their broth and the epazote. Mash with the back of a spoon until thick and spreadable, 8 to 10 minutes. The beans should pull away from the pan in a soft mass. Remove the epazote stems. La manteca es el sabor.
Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the chile de árbol and chile ancho quickly, turning often, until fragrant and slightly puffed. Do not blacken them. Roast the tomatoes and garlic on the same comal until blistered. Blend the chiles, tomatoes, garlic, vinegar, warm water, and salt until loose but not watery. This salsa should cut the sweetness of the plantain, not bury it.
Rub your hands with a little water or oil. Take a golf-ball-sized piece of plantain dough and flatten it into an oval about 1/4 inch thick. Put 1 tablespoon refried black beans and 1 teaspoon queso fresco in the center. Fold the dough over the filling and pinch the edges closed. Roll gently between your palms into a plump torpedo. If you see cracks, patch them now. Oil finds every weakness.
Heat the lard or oil in a heavy skillet to 350F. Fry the molotes in batches, turning carefully, until the outside is deep golden brown with darker mahogany spots, 3 to 4 minutes per batch. Do not crowd the pan. The plantain has sugar, so it darkens faster than corn masa. Dark is good. Burned is not.
Lift the molotes onto a rack or brown paper to drain. Serve warm with chile seco salsa, more crumbled queso fresco, thin raw white onion, and lime halves. They should be crisp at the edge, soft inside, sweet from the plantain, salty from the cheese, and earthy from the beans. Así se hace y punto.
1 serving (about 115g)
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