Tacos de Cazón Veracruzanos

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide pot for poaching
• •Slotted spoon or kitchen spider
• •Wide heavy skillet or clay cazuela for the guiso
• •Cast iron comal for the tortillas
• •Tortilla press (prensa para tortillas), if making your own

Instructions

1. 1

   Clean and poach the cazón

   Rinse the cazón under cold water and rub it all over with the cut lime. Shark holds urea in its flesh, so a fresh fish rinsed with lime stays clean and sweet while a tired one smells faintly of ammonia, and no seasoning fixes that. Smell before you buy. Bring a wide pot of water to a gentle simmer with the 1/2 onion, the smashed garlic, the bay leaf, the 2 sprigs of epazote, and the tablespoon of salt. Slip in the cazón and poach 8 to 10 minutes, just until the flesh turns from glassy to opaque white. Pull it the second it is cooked through. Shark left too long on the heat goes to rubber and there is no walking it back. Lift the fish out and reserve half a cup of the poaching broth.

   Poaching is not boiling. Keep the water at a lazy simmer. A hard boil seizes the flesh and dries it out before the inside is done.
2. 2

   Shred the cazón

   Let the fish cool until you can handle it. Pull away any skin and feel for the soft central cartilage. Cazón is a shark, so it has cartilage, not bone. Lift it out. Shred the flesh fine with your fingers or two forks, the way you would deshebrar chicken. You want soft threads, not chunks. Threads carry the guiso and fold cleaner into the tortilla.

3. 3

   Build the sofrito in olive oil

   Heat the olive oil in a wide skillet or clay cazuela over medium. Olive oil, not lard. This is the one corner of Mexico where the Spanish hand reaches into the pan, and the dish would not taste like Veracruz without it. Add the chopped onion with a pinch of salt and cook until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook one minute more, until you smell it.

4. 4

   Stew the jitomate

   Add the chopped jitomate and cook over medium until it breaks down and loses its raw, bright edge, 10 to 12 minutes. Stir now and then and let it reduce into a loose, glossy sauce. Stir in the chipotle, the olives, and the capers, and cook 3 minutes more to let the smoke and the brine settle in. Taste here, before you reach for the salt.

   Olives and capers are salt bombs, and the poaching already salted the fish. Salt the guiso last, never first. There is no fixing a salty pot.
5. 5

   Fold in the cazón and epazote

   Add the shredded cazón and the chopped epazote and fold everything together. If the pan looks dry, loosen it with a splash of the reserved poaching broth, but only a splash. The guiso for a taco has to be dry. A wet guiso soaks through the tortilla and leaves you holding a rag. Cook 5 to 7 minutes, until the flavors marry and the mixture is moist but holds together on a spoon. Taste one last time for salt.

   Fresh epazote is the backbone here, that resin-and-mint pungency no other herb gives. Dried works in a pinch at a fraction of the punch. Never swap in cilantro. Different herb, different dish.
6. 6

   Warm the tortillas

   Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium-high. Warm the corn tortillas one or two at a time, about 30 seconds a side, until they are pliable and freckled with light brown spots. Corn, hand-pressed if you can. El maíz manda aquí, corn rules here. Flour tortillas belong to the north, not to the Gulf. Keep the warm ones wrapped in a cloth servilleta so they stay soft.

7. 7

   Fold and serve

   These are tacos suaves, soft tacos, not fried crisp. Spoon a line of the cazón guiso down the center of each warm tortilla and fold it over. Serve right away, with a bowl of frijoles negros on the side, the black bean that rules this coast, and set out the chiles en escabeche, the crushed chiltepín, and the lime halves so each person brings their own heat. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Cazón is dogfish shark, and outside the Gulf coast you will have to ask for it. A good fishmonger can get dogfish, the same family, and should be able to tell you where it came from. Buy from someone who can. If you truly cannot find it, a firm white fish or a well-drained can of good tuna is what home cooks reach for. Understand it is a compromise, not an upgrade. You lose the particular sweetness and the thread-like shred that make cazón cazón.
• •Fresh epazote or nothing close to it. It grows like a weed and any Mexican grocer will have it. Dried works at a fraction of the punch. Do not reach for cilantro to replace it. They taste nothing alike and the dish stops being a Veracruz cazón.
• •Some Sotavento kitchens use manteca and there is no shame in it. But the olive oil is the veracruzana signature, the taste of the port, and I would not trade it here. La manteca es el sabor in Michoacán. On this coast, the oil of the Spaniard is the flavor.
• •Serve frijoles negros, not pintos. The black bean rules the Gulf and the pinto belongs to the north. A pot of black beans, brothy or refried with a little epazote, is the right plate for these tacos. Así se hace y punto.

Advance Preparation

• •The cazón guiso can be made a full day ahead and refrigerated. The jitomate, olive, and caper flavors deepen overnight. Reheat gently and loosen with a splash of water if it tightened up.
• •Poach and shred the cazón up to a day ahead and keep it covered in the refrigerator. Build the guiso the day you serve.
• •Do not assemble the tacos until serving. Warm the tortillas and fill them at the table so they stay soft and never go soggy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 360g)