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Chochoyotes

Each dumpling dimpled with a fingertip, so broth gets inside it instead of running off a smooth ball.

Not vegetarian — contains lard.

Ingredients

Method

  1. EACH DUMPLING IS DIMPLED WITH A FINGERTIP, so broth gets inside it instead of running off a smooth ball. That dimple is the whole thing and it is what the name describes. A plain ball of masa dropped into soup cooks into a dense sphere with a sealed surface: the broth touches only the outside and the middle is bland masa. Pressed in the centre with the tip of a finger to make a deep thumbprint, it has a well that fills with broth and a much thinner floor beneath it, so the liquid reaches nearly the middle and each one tastes of the soup it was cooked in. It also roughly doubles the surface area, which is why they cook in eight minutes rather than fifteen.
  2. THE DIMPLE GOES ALMOST THROUGH. Deep enough that the floor under it is two or three millimetres. A shallow dent closes up as the masa swells in the broth and the dumpling finishes as a ball after all.
  3. THE LARD IS WHAT STOPS THEM DISSOLVING. Sixty grams to four hundred of masa, worked in thoroughly. Masa and water alone slump and break up in simmering liquid and cloud it with starch; the fat binds the dough enough to hold together for the eight minutes it needs.
  4. THEY GO INTO LIQUID THAT IS SIMMERING AND NOT BOILING. A rolling boil knocks them against each other and against the pan and they shed their edges. The surface should be barely moving, and they are not stirred -- the pan is shaken if anything.
  5. THEY ARE MADE SMALL, ABOUT THE SIZE OF A WALNUT. Larger and the middle is still raw masa at eight minutes, and cooking them longer starts to break them up from the outside. Small, with a deep dimple, is the whole design.
  6. The lard worked thoroughly into the masa with the salt, by hand, until completely smooth and evenly distributed.
  7. Divided and rolled into balls about the size of a WALNUT -- about 24.
  8. Each one DIMPLED in the centre with the TIP OF A FINGER, pressed deep so only 2 or 3 mm of masa is left beneath the well.
  9. CHECKED: the dimple must be deep. A shallow dent will close up in the broth.
  10. The broth or soup brought to a BARE simmer -- the surface barely moving.
  11. The dumplings lowered in one at a time, dimple UP, in a single layer.
  12. Simmered 8 MINUTES. NOT stirred; the pan shaken gently if needed.
  13. ONE LIFTED OUT and cut open to test: it should be set right through with no raw masa in the centre.
  14. CHECKED: the wells should be holding broth. If they have closed, the dimples were too shallow.
  15. Served in the broth they cooked in, two or three per bowl.
  16. They go into bean broth, mole de olla, or any soup that wants bulking.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes