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Papadzules

The green oil pressed out of the pumpkin seed paste and drizzled back over the top, which nothing else here does.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg.

Ingredients

the seed sauce

the filling

the tomato sauce

to assemble

Method

  1. THE GREEN OIL IS PRESSED OUT OF THE SEED PASTE AND DRIZZLED BACK OVER THE TOP, and nothing else on this site does that. Toasted pumpkin seeds ground to a paste release a startling amount of dark green oil when the paste is squeezed in the hand or pressed in a sieve -- two or three tablespoons from two hundred and fifty grams. It is collected in a cup and set aside. The paste, now drier, is let down with epazote water into the pale sauce the tortillas are dipped in; the oil goes back on at the very end, over the finished dish, in a thin green line. Left in the paste it would make the sauce greasy and it would separate on the plate. Taken out and put back on top it is the thing people remember about the dish.
  2. THE SEEDS ARE TOASTED DRY AND MUST NOT COLOUR. Stirred constantly on a dry pan four or five minutes until they puff and pop. Browned, the sauce goes khaki and tastes bitter, and this is a dish whose whole appearance is pale green under red.
  3. THE SAUCE IS LET DOWN WITH EPAZOTE WATER, WHICH IS MADE FIRST. Water simmered with a sprig of epazote for ten minutes and then strained. It is what carries the flavour into a sauce that is otherwise only seeds and salt, and plain water leaves it tasting flat.
  4. THE SAUCE IS WARMED AND NEVER BOILED. Pumpkin seed sauce splits as surely as a mole verde does, and for the same reason -- it is a suspension of ground seed, not a thickened liquid. Warmed to just below a simmer in a bowl over hot water is the safest way, and it is taken off the moment it is hot.
  5. THE TORTILLAS ARE DIPPED AND ROLLED AT THE LAST MOMENT AND THE DISH IS SERVED WARM, NOT HOT. Everything is at the same gentle temperature -- warm sauce, warm eggs, warm tortillas -- and it goes to the table within a couple of minutes of being assembled. It sits very badly: the tortillas absorb the pale sauce and the whole plate goes uniform within ten minutes.
  6. The pumpkin seeds toasted on a DRY pan over a medium heat, stirred constantly, 4 to 5 MINUTES until they puff and pop. Taken off STILL PALE. Cooled.
  7. The 600 ml of water simmered with the epazote sprig 10 minutes, then STRAINED and kept warm.
  8. The cooled seeds ground to a stiff paste in a blender or grinder, with no liquid.
  9. The paste SQUEEZED by the handful, or pressed in a fine sieve, and the dark GREEN OIL collected in a cup. Two or three tablespoons will come out. SET ASIDE.
  10. The pressed paste worked with the warm epazote water, a little at a time, to a smooth pale green sauce the thickness of single cream. Salted.
  11. For the tomato sauce: the tomatoes charred on a dry griddle 10 minutes, blended with the onion and garlic, then fried in the oil 10 minutes with the WHOLE habanero and the salt. The habanero LIFTED OUT.
  12. The seed sauce warmed in a bowl set over hot water, to just below a simmer. NEVER boiled.
  13. The tortillas warmed 20 seconds a side on a dry griddle and kept in a cloth.
  14. Each tortilla dipped in the warm seed sauce, laid flat, filled with chopped egg and ROLLED.
  15. Three per warm plate, more seed sauce spooned over, then the hot tomato sauce across the middle.
  16. THE RESERVED GREEN OIL drizzled over in a thin line, and served 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