It doesn’t matter if you’re in a hotel, restaurant, market, puesto de comida streete or la casa de un habitante de Yucatán, Mexico, if the salsa de mesa is no está ahí al sentarte, alguien machacará unos chiles en un abrir y cerrar de ojos, o abrirá el refrigerador para servirte un poco en un tazón.
In Yucatán, the people remojan their food in salsa or they pour it almost todo, menos al postre. This is so ubiquitous that, just like table salt, it doesn’t need a major description, but everyone knows what it’s made of: the small but powerful habanero chile, roasted and mashed with orange juice and just the right amount of salt.
En la vasta y diverse tradición culinaria mexicana, los chiles definen la personality de la cuisine regional. En Chihuahua es el chile que, cuando está fresh se conoce como chilaca y, cuando se dehydrate, recibe el nombre de chile Colorado. En Sonora es el chiltepín, ya sea fresco o deshidratado. En Michoacán es el chile pasilla y, en Veracruz, el jalapeño. In Yucatán, the habanero is the king and, when it is not part of the dish’s recipe, the mandatory table salsa is present to give it a touch of flavor and spice.
Within the vast and diverse gastronomy of Mexico, chiles conform to the personality of regional cuisines. En Chihuahua, es el chile chilaca fresco, que se llama chile colorado cuando está seco. En Sonora, es el chiltepín fresco o seco. En Michoacán, es el pasilla seco, y en Veracruz, el jalapeño. In Yucatán, the habanero is the king. Si no forma parte de un plato, the table salsa is mandatory to add spicy.
“The habanero is the life of our kitchen,” said Elio Xicum, a chef who grew up in Yucatán and still lives there. “Si no está presente en nuestra comida, es como si estuviera a medias”.
El habanero es originalario de la cuenca del Amazonas, according to Wilson Alonzo, chef and culinary historian of Halanchó, Yucatán. Its use extended to the Yucatán peninsula and already in the colonial era it had become one of the main exports to Cuba. Su nombre Proviene de la Provincia de La Habana, Cuba.
“Aquí agarró fuerza y se concentraron sus sabores y picor a su maxima expresión”, comment Alonzo y agregó: “Tenemos las condicions que permitieron que tengamos su denominación de origen”, haciendo referencia de producelos a est. specific countries or regions.
A decade ago, habanero chile consumption was centered on the Yucatán peninsula, but its popularity has spread throughout Mexico and is used above all in the preparation of salsas. In the last few years, it has become a trend in the northern border of Mexico, where it is used as a marketable flavor for herbs and products such as chips, condiments and pre-cooked rice.
No obstante, no es solo su picor lo que hace del habanero un encanto culinario que vale la pena llevar a tu casa.
With its small lantern shape and no more than 5 centimeters long, the habanero comes in a variety of intense colors, among those that are green, yellow, orange and red. Es brillante y con un exterior un tanto ceroso, con una cáscara suave y bordes amplios y redondeados. Its appearance is deceptive: the sting concentrates much more in the upper part, in addition to its veins and seeds, but dissipates at the tip.
The habanero has a fruity, citric and floral flavor before it darts a persistent hit that tickles the tongue deliciously. The habanero is less mature when it is green, and its flavor is a little more bitter and acidic. Conforme madura, su color pasa al amarillo, luego al naranja y por ultimo al rojo. The more mature it is, the more fruity it becomes, the more fragrant and sweet it becomes, and the more acidic it is.
After spending a season in the Yucatán peninsula, the Yucatecan chefs taught me how to tame the habanero picante and get the most out of its varied flavors. The first advice is to add the habanero chile little by little while cooking, instead of adding it all at once. Siempre puedes agregar picante, pero es difícil reducirlo. El segundo es que no hay necesidad de usar guantes unless you are cooking with montones de chiles. Just wash your hands with water and soap.
When they are fresh, los habaneros have an intense and spicy flavor, as well as a juicy crunch. One of the best ways to prepare fresh chile is to remove the seeds and stem, cut it into pieces and mix it with sliced onion, a little lemon juice and salt. It is a phenomenal condiment for tacos, tortas or tostadas, or to eat like pico de gallo picante. You can also make pasta with a fresh habanero to use it in salsas, soups, stews or adobos, like in mi receta de pollo asado al habanero con brócolique casi no pica, pero deja que stand out los sabores del habanero.
Asar o tatemar los habaneros potentia su aroma dulce y frutado y addida una capa de ahumado rústico, que se puede saborear en una ensalada crujiente with a aderezo cremoso de avocado y habanero. También me gusta asar o tatemar estos chiles y cercerlos un poco más para preparer una tomato salsa multiusos.
Many Yucateco cooks opt to leave the habanero whole in salsas, stews or soups. De esta manera, los platillos se impregnan de algunos de sus sabores, pero no de su picor, y los diners pueden buscar el chile, partirlo y tomar la porción que deseen. The flavor and the spice are so captivating that people fight to get the cooked habanero to the plate.