Destination
Puerto Vallarta
The story
Queso relleno is the Yucatán at its most theatrical — a whole Dutch edam cheese, red wax coat scraped off, hollowed out like a pumpkin, stuffed with a spiced pork-and-turkey picadillo, then baked or steamed until the cheese starts to slump and the filling is bubbling. It arrives at the table as a molten orange globe on a plate, dressed with kol (a white flour-thickened chicken-broth sauce that looks like béchamel but tastes of the Yucatán) and chiltomate (roasted tomato salsa with habanero). The waiter spoons filling and cheese onto your plate together, and you fold the whole thing into corn tortillas.
Method
Scrape the red wax off the edam. Slice off the top 1.5cm as a lid. With a small spoon, scoop out the interior, leaving a 1cm shell all around and at the base. Chop the scooped-out cheese roughly and reserve. Soak the cheese shell and lid in cold water 30 minutes to soften the outer rind — this stops it from cracking during cooking.
Warm the lard in a wide pan over medium heat. Cook the onion 5 minutes; add garlic and cook 1 minute. Add the pork and turkey. Break up and brown 10 minutes. Add tomatoes, capers, olives, raisins, almonds, recado blanco, oregano and salt. Simmer 10 minutes until thick. Off the heat, fold in the chopped hard-boiled eggs and the chopped reserved cheese. Cool to warm.
Whisk the masa harina into a small bowl with 100ml of the chicken stock until smooth. Warm the lard in a pan over medium heat; cook the onion 4 minutes until soft. Add garlic and cumin, cook 1 minute. Pour in the rest of the stock and bring to a simmer. Whisk in the masa slurry and cook, whisking constantly, 6 to 8 minutes until thickened to the texture of double cream. Season with salt and, if using, Seville orange juice. Keep warm.
Char the tomatoes, onion, garlic and habanero on a hot dry comal 8 minutes total, turning, until blackened in patches. Blend to a smooth sauce. Warm the oil in a small pan, tip in the sauce and salt, and simmer 10 minutes until thickened. Keep warm.
Pat the cheese shell dry. Pack the warm picadillo firmly into the shell, filling it to the brim. Set the lid back on top. It should look like an intact ball again.
Wrap the stuffed cheese in the softened banana leaf (or heavy foil), sealing so no filling escapes. Set on a plate that will fit in your steamer, or a heavy baking tin. Steam for 25 minutes over gently simmering water, or bake at 175C for 25 minutes. The cheese should be soft to the touch but still hold its shape.
Unwrap the cheese onto a warm platter with a lip (juices will run). The globe will be softened but intact; it may slump slightly. That's correct.
Spoon a generous puddle of kol over and around the cheese. Dot chiltomate over the kol in bright red stripes. Bring to the table and let guests see it before you split it open. Serve with warm tortillas, pickled red onion, coriander and lime wedges — everyone folds their own tacos, spooning cheese, filling and both sauces onto tortillas.
Tips
- Whole edam is essential. This dish exists because a whole Dutch edam has an outer rind that holds its shape when heated. A wedge of edam or a substitute like gouda will melt into a puddle. Find a whole edam at a good cheese counter or Latino grocer.
- Soak the shell in cold water. This softens the outer rind and stops it from cracking during steaming. Half an hour is enough.
- Kol is a Yucatecan white sauce, not a béchamel. It's thickened with masa harina, not flour and butter, and it tastes distinctly of corn. Masa harina from any Latino grocer is standard; plain flour is a passable substitute.
- Recado blanco is a spice paste. If you can find it at a Latino grocer, buy it. If not, the allspice-cinnamon-clove combination in the recipe covers most of the flavour.
- Two sauces, not one. Queso relleno is defined by the contrast between the white kol and the red chiltomate; using one without the other misses the point. Both are quick to make and hold well.
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