Destination
Puerto Vallarta
The story
Lomitos de Valladolid are the pride of the small colonial town of Valladolid, a two-hour drive from Mérida on the road to Chichén Itzá — a Sunday-morning dish so specific to the town that ordering it anywhere else in the Yucatán marks you as either a Vallisoletano or a food tourist. Pork loin is diced into small cubes, browned hard, then finished in a thick tomato sauce built on onion, garlic, sweet pepper and a pinch of achiote, until the pork is glossy and coated. It's spooned onto soft corn tortillas, topped with a wedge of hard-boiled egg (the marker of a real Valladolid lomitos), a stripe of pickled red onion and a few drops of chile habanero salsa.
Method
In a bowl, toss the pork cubes with the salt, pepper and oregano. Leave 15 minutes at room temperature.
Combine all pickled-onion ingredients in a non-reactive bowl and squeeze the onion with your hands. Leave 30 minutes minimum.
Warm the lard in a wide heavy pan over high heat until shimmering. Add the pork in a single layer (work in two batches if needed) and brown 4 to 5 minutes without stirring, then toss and brown another 3 minutes. Lift out and reserve.
In the same pan, lower the heat to medium. Add the onion and green pepper; cook 6 minutes until soft. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more.
Whisk the achiote paste into the Seville-orange juice in a small bowl until smooth. Tip into the pan with the tomatoes and cumin. Cook 8 minutes, stirring often, until the sauce has thickened and turned deep red-orange.
Return the pork to the pan with the stock, bay leaf and sugar. Bring to a gentle simmer, cover partially and cook 35 to 40 minutes over low heat until the pork is fork-tender and the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Discard the bay leaf. Taste and adjust salt.
Heat a dry comal or heavy pan over medium-high. Warm the tortillas 20 seconds per side until soft and pliable. Stack in a tea towel to keep warm.
Spoon 2 heaped tbsp of the lomitos onto each warm tortilla. Top with a quarter of hard-boiled egg, pushed lightly into the meat. Add a small pile of pickled onion, a few drops of habanero salsa and a scatter of coriander. Serve immediately with lime wedges.
Tips
- Cut the pork small. Lomitos means "little loins" and the cubes should be 1cm or less. A larger cube gives you pork stew; the small cube is the marker of the Valladolid dish.
- Achiote paste (recado rojo). This is the red-orange annatto-and-spice paste that runs through Yucatecan cooking. Any Latino grocer sells it. Do not substitute paprika — the flavour is completely different.
- The hard-boiled egg is not optional. Every Valladolid stand tops the taco with an egg wedge and the taco isn't a lomitos without it. Boil the eggs 9 minutes for a set yolk that holds together when quartered.
- Habanero salsa on the side. Yucatecan habanero salsa is fierce and served in small squeeze bottles, not spooned. Chiltomate salsa (roasted tomato with habanero) is the classical accompaniment; even a shop-bought habanero hot sauce works.
- Sunday morning is the traditional time. In Valladolid, lomitos is a post-Mass breakfast dish, not a weeknight dinner. At home, make it Sunday morning and eat it standing up in the kitchen, one taco at a time.
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