Pambazos

The whole closed roll dipped in thin guajillo sauce and then griddled, so the crust itself is red and sauced.

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

Ingredients

the sauce

• 6 guajillo chillies, stalks and seeds removed
• 2 cloves garlic
• ¼ onion
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 250 ml water

the filling

• 300 g chorizo, skinned and crumbled
• 3 potatoes, peeled, diced small and boiled tender
• 1 small onion, finely chopped

to assemble

• 4 bolillos, as on their own page
• 3 tablespoons oil, for the griddle
• 150 g crumbly white cheese
• shredded lettuce
• 4 tablespoons soured cream

Method

1. THE WHOLE CLOSED ROLL IS DIPPED IN THIN GUAJILLO SAUCE AND THEN GRIDDLED, so the crust itself is red and sauced. Nothing else on this site treats bread that way. The roll is filled and closed FIRST, then held by the ends and lowered into a shallow dish of thin guajillo sauce, one face and then the other, so the outside of the crust takes up a red coat. Then it goes onto an oiled griddle and that coat fries onto the bread. What comes out has a slightly chewy, faintly crisp red skin that tastes of chilli before any filling is reached. A torta, by contrast, is never dipped at all; sauce inside it would make it soggy.
2. THE SAUCE MUST BE THIN -- POURING CREAM, NOT PASTE. Guajillos soaked and blended with a full two hundred and fifty millilitres of water. A thick sauce sits on the crust in a wet layer that never dries in the pan and the roll goes limp; thin, it penetrates the first millimetre of crust and the rest evaporates on the griddle.
3. IT IS DIPPED QUICKLY AND NOT SOAKED. In and out, a second or two a face. Held under, the crust drinks all the way through to the crumb and the pambazo collapses on the spatula.
4. IT IS FILLED BEFORE IT IS DIPPED, AND THAT ORDER IS FIXED. Dipped first and then split, the knife drags the wet coating into the crumb and the inside turns pink and soggy. Filled, closed, dipped, griddled -- in that order.
5. THE FILLING IS CHORIZO AND POTATO AND IT MUST BE DRY. The potato is boiled, drained properly and crushed into the chorizo fat until the pan is almost dry. There is already moisture coming at the bread from the outside; a wet filling attacking from the inside at the same time leaves nothing holding the roll together.
6. The chillies toasted on a dry pan 30 SECONDS a side, soaked in hot water 20 minutes and DRAINED, the water discarded.
7. Blended with the garlic, onion, oregano, salt and the 250 ml of water to a THIN sauce -- it must run off a spoon like pouring cream. STRAINED into a shallow dish.
8. The chorizo cooked in a dry pan 8 minutes until the fat runs, the onion added for 4 minutes, then the boiled potato crushed in.
9. Cooked until the pan is ALMOST DRY. Kept warm.
10. The bolillos split horizontally, hinged, and filled with the hot chorizo and potato. CLOSED.
11. A griddle set over a medium heat with the oil.
12. Each filled roll held by the ends and DIPPED briefly in the thin sauce -- 1 to 2 SECONDS a face, no soaking -- until the outside is coated red.
13. Laid straight onto the oiled griddle and cooked 3 MINUTES, pressed lightly.
14. TURNED and given 3 MINUTES more, until the red coating has dried onto the crust and is faintly crisp.
15. Opened slightly and the lettuce, cheese and cream pushed in.
16. Eaten at once, in the hand, over a plate.

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