Pan de Cazón

Built as a stack of alternating tortillas, beans and fish, then cut in wedges like a cake.

Fish. Not vegetarian — contains fish, lard.

Ingredients

the fish

• 600 g dogfish, or any firm white fish
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 3 tomatoes, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 tablespoons oil
• a sprig of epazote
• 1 teaspoon salt

the layers

• 12 corn tortillas, as on their own page
• 400 g refried beans, as on their own page, made with black beans

the sauce

• 600 g tomatoes
• 1 habanero, left whole
• 2 cloves garlic
• ¼ onion
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 teaspoon salt

Method

1. IT IS BUILT AS A STACK AND CUT IN WEDGES LIKE A CAKE, which is what separates it from everything else made with tortillas on this site. Nothing is rolled, nothing is folded, nothing is dipped and laid side by side. A tortilla, beans, a tortilla, fish, a tortilla, beans, and so on -- three or four tiers of it on a plate -- and then sauce poured over the whole dome and the thing cut from the top down like a gateau. Every slice therefore has all the layers in it, which is the entire design, and it is assembled per person rather than in a dish.
2. THE FISH IS POACHED, FLAKED, AND THEN COOKED DRY WITH TOMATO AND ONION. Poached fifteen minutes and flaked, then fried with the onion, tomato and garlic until the pan is almost dry. A wet filling in a horizontal stack runs straight out of the sides and down the plate, and the tortillas below it go to mush. It should hold a heap on a spoon.
3. THE BEANS ARE THE MORTAR AND THEY ARE SPREAD TO THE EDGE. Stiff black refried beans, right out to the rim of each tortilla. They glue the tiers together, and a stack built with beans only in the middle slides apart as the knife goes in.
4. THE HABANERO GOES INTO THE SAUCE WHOLE AND COMES OUT. One, unpierced, simmered in the sauce and then lifted out. It gives a clear habanero perfume and a moderate heat; split or chopped it gives a sauce that most people at the table cannot eat, and this is a sauce poured over everything rather than added by each person.
5. THE TORTILLAS ARE WARMED AND USED AT ONCE, NOT FRIED. Twenty seconds a side on a dry griddle. Fried, they are too rigid to stack flat and the tiers rock and slide; cold from the packet, they crack as the knife goes down. Warm and soft is what stacks.
6. The fish poached in salted water 15 MINUTES, drained and FLAKED, bones removed.
7. The 2 tablespoons of oil heated and the onion, garlic and tomatoes cooked 8 minutes, then the flaked fish and the epazote added.
8. Cooked 10 MINUTES until ALMOST DRY -- it must hold a heap on a spoon. The epazote removed. Kept warm.
9. For the sauce: the tomatoes charred on a dry griddle 10 minutes, then blended with the garlic and onion.
10. Fried in the 1 tablespoon of oil 10 minutes with the WHOLE habanero and the salt, then the habanero LIFTED OUT. Kept hot.
11. The refried beans warmed and kept spreadable.
12. The tortillas warmed 20 SECONDS a side on a dry griddle and kept in a cloth.
13. ON EACH WARM PLATE: a tortilla, beans spread TO THE EDGE, a tortilla, a layer of fish.
14. Repeated -- tortilla, beans, tortilla, fish -- three tiers in all, finishing with a tortilla.
15. The hot sauce poured over the whole stack to cover it completely.
16. CUT IN WEDGES from the top down, like a cake, and eaten at once.

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