Tacos Dorados de Atún Veracruzanos

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for toasting and warming
• •Wide skillet or 12-inch clay cazuela for the guiso
• •Blender for the salsa
• •Wooden toothpicks (palillos) to pin the tacos
• •Slotted spoon or kitchen spider for frying
• •Wire rack or tray lined with paper for draining

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the salsa roja

   Heat a dry comal over medium and toast the cascabel chiles about 30 seconds a side, pressing them flat. They puff and smell nutty when they are ready. Do not let them blacken. Cascabel turns bitter the second it burns, and there is no fixing it later. Drop the chiles into a bowl of hot tap water, not boiling, and soften them for 15 minutes. On the same comal, char the 4 jitomate until the skins blister and split. Blend the drained cascabel, charred jitomate, chipotle, the 2 garlic cloves, the 1/4 onion, and the salt with a splash of water until smooth. Pour into a small pot and simmer 10 minutes, until it darkens and tightens. Taste for salt. This is your salsa roja de chipotle.

   Hot water softens the chile and lets the flavor come through clean. Boiling water cooks the skin and pulls out a bitter edge. The difference is a salsa that tastes like chile and one that tastes like burned rubber.
2. 2

   Start the sofrito

   Warm the olive oil in a wide skillet or clay cazuela over medium heat. This is where the Spanish hand shows. The a la veracruzana guiso is built on aceite de oliva, not lard, because the port got olive oil first and never gave it back. Add the chopped onion and cook until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the minced garlic and cook one minute more, until you can smell it but before it takes on any color.

3. 3

   Cook down the jitomate

   Add the 5 chopped jitomate and a good pinch of salt. Cook, stirring now and then, for 12 to 15 minutes, until the tomato breaks down and the mixture goes thick and jammy and the oil pools red at the edges. Do not rush this. Wet, raw-tasting tomato makes a loose filling that steams the tortilla from the inside and never lets it crisp. The whole dish lives or dies here.

   If your jitomate are pale and hard out of season, a Veracruz cook reaches for ripe ones in another form before she settles for bad fresh ones. Good canned whole tomatoes, crushed by hand, beat a sad winter jitomate every time.
4. 4

   Add olive, caper, and chile

   Stir in the sliced olives, the capers with their tablespoon of brine, the chopped jalapeños en escabeche, the bay leaf, thyme, and marjoram. This is the moment the guiso becomes veracruzano. Salt and brine from the olives and capers, the herbs the Spanish brought, the chile named for Xalapa. Cook another 5 minutes to let everything marry.

5. 5

   Flake in the tuna

   Add the tuna chunks. Cook, breaking the fish apart with a wooden spoon as it turns from pink to opaque, about 6 to 8 minutes. Let any liquid cook off until the filling looks glossy and holds together on the spoon, never soupy. Taste and adjust salt and pepper. Fish the bay leaf out. Spread the filling on a plate to cool. A cool, dry filling rolls tighter and fries cleaner than a hot, wet one.

   The everyday Lenten version in Veracruz home kitchens uses good canned atún en aceite, drained and folded in at the end instead of fresh. That is not a shortcut, that is how families actually cook through Cuaresma. Buy it packed in olive oil, not water, and you lose nothing.
6. 6

   Fill and roll the tacos

   Warm the tortillas on the comal until soft and pliable, a few seconds a side. A cold tortilla cracks the moment you roll it. Lay a line of filling across the lower third of each tortilla, roll it tight, and pin it shut with a toothpick. Keep the warm tortillas wrapped in a cloth as you work so they stay flexible.

7. 7

   Fry until dorado

   Heat half an inch of oil or melted manteca in a skillet over medium-high until it shimmers and a corner of tortilla bubbles fast on contact, around 350F. Fry the tacos a few at a time, turning, until they are deep gold and crackling all over, 2 to 3 minutes. That is what dorado means. Golden. Lift them onto a rack or paper, never stacked, or they steam each other soft.

   Watch the oil. Too cool and the tacos drink fat and go greasy. Too hot and the tortilla scorches before it crisps. If the oil smokes, pull the pan off the heat for a minute and let it settle.
8. 8

   Dress and serve

   Pull the toothpicks. Pile the tacos on a blue-rimmed peltre plate or a barro platter. Top with shredded lettuce, a drizzle of crema, crumbled queso fresco, and sliced radish. Spoon the salsa roja de chipotle over the top or set it alongside. Frijoles negros refritos on the side, not pintos, this is the Gulf coast, and lime to finish. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Do not skimp on the capers. My mother's notebook says it in the margin and the woman who wrote it knew Veracruz better than I do. The salt and brine from the olives and alcaparras are half of what makes this taste a la veracruzana. Buy olives with the pits in and pit them yourself if you can. They taste better than the pre-pitted ones swimming in tired brine.
• •A wet filling is the enemy of a crisp taco. Cook the guiso down until it holds its shape on the spoon, then let it cool before you roll. Hot, loose filling tears the tortilla and steams it soft in the oil. Patience here is the whole difference between a dorado and a sad floppy taco.
• •If you cannot find chile cascabel, lean on the chipotle alone. Cascabel brings a round, nutty body and chipotle brings the smoke and the heat. Both are Veracruz chiles. Guajillo and ancho belong to the central highlands, so leave them in the highlands where they belong.
• •Fry these to order and eat them the moment they drain. A tacos dorado that sits goes soft, and a soft dorado is no longer a dorado. If you are feeding a crowd, keep the fried ones on a rack in a low oven, never stacked, while you finish the rest.

Advance Preparation

• •The tuna filling can be made one day ahead and refrigerated. It rolls better cold, and the flavors of olive, caper, and tomato deepen overnight.
• •The salsa roja keeps three days in the refrigerator and reheats fine. Make it ahead so the chipotle and cascabel have time to settle into the jitomate.
• •You can roll the tacos and hold them pinned in the refrigerator for a few hours, then fry them just before serving. Do not fry ahead. A fried dorado waits for nobody.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 470g)