Molotes

Sealed into a pointed spindle with the filling inside and then deep fried, so it puffs away from the filling.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains a sausage whose meat the source does not name, cheese whose rennet the source does not name, chorizo, which is pork, pork.

Ingredients

the molotes

• 500 g masa, as on its own page
• 1 teaspoon salt
• oil, for deep frying, about 5 cm depth

the filling

• 2 potatoes, peeled, diced and boiled
• 200 g chorizo, as on its own page, skinned and crumbled
• 1 small onion, finely chopped

to serve

• soured cream, to drizzle
• 150 g crumbly white cheese
• shredded lettuce
• salsa verde, as on its own page

Method

1. IT IS SEALED INTO A POINTED SPINDLE WITH THE FILLING INSIDE AND THEN DEEP FRIED, so it puffs away from the filling. The shape is the dish: a ball of masa is opened out, filled, closed, and then rolled between the palms into a fat spindle tapering to a point at each end -- fifteen centimetres long and three thick in the middle. Dropped into five centimetres of hot oil it inflates, and because the ends are thin and sealed the whole thing puffs into a hollow shell with the filling loose inside it. That gap between shell and filling is what a molote is; a flattened stuffed cake fried the same way cooks solid.
2. THE SEAL MUST BE COMPLETE OR IT BURSTS. The masa is drawn up over the filling and pinched shut, and then the whole surface is smoothed between the palms so there is no seam and no crack. A gap anywhere lets oil in and filling out, and in five centimetres of hot fat that happens violently.
3. IT IS DEEP FRIED AND FLOATING, NOT SHALLOW FRIED. Five centimetres. It has to be able to inflate and turn, and in shallow fat the side resting on the pan sets flat and the puff is lopsided. This is also what separates it from the tlacoyo, which is pressed thin and cooked on a dry comal with no fat at all.
4. THE FILLING GOES IN COLD AND DRY. Potato and chorizo cooked, dried off in the pan and cooled. Hot filling generates steam inside a sealed shell immediately, and the steam finds the weakest point of the seal before the shell has set firm enough to contain it.
5. THE OIL IS AT A MODERATE HEAT, NOT FIERCE. A scrap of masa should bubble steadily and take about a minute to colour. Too hot and the outside hardens before the inside has generated enough steam to puff, and it comes out solid and dense.
6. The potato boiled, drained and dried in the pan. The chorizo cooked 8 MINUTES until the fat runs, the onion added for 4 minutes, and the potato crushed in.
7. Cooked until the pan is DRY, then COOLED completely.
8. The masa kneaded with the salt and divided into 8 balls.
9. Each flattened in the palm, a tablespoon of the COLD filling placed in the middle, and the masa drawn up and PINCHED SHUT over it.
10. Rolled between the palms into a fat SPINDLE about 15 cm long, tapering to a POINT at each end.
11. The whole surface SMOOTHED so there is no seam and no crack. Checked all over.
12. The oil heated to 5 cm in a deep pan over a MEDIUM heat, until a scrap of masa bubbles steadily.
13. Two or three lowered in at a time, FLOATING clear of the base.
14. Fried 4 to 5 MINUTES, turned once or twice, until deep golden and visibly PUFFED.
15. TESTED: one should feel light and hollow for its size. A heavy one did not puff -- the oil was too hot or the seal leaked.
16. Drained on a rack and served on lettuce with cream, cheese and salsa verde.

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