Recado negro

Recado negro, also called chilmole, is the black spice paste of the Yucatán Peninsula and the darkest-tasting thing in the Mexican pantry. It is made by burning dried chillies — genuinely charring them to ash-black, not merely toasting — and grinding them with garlic, oregano, cumin, cloves, allspice and other spices into a dense, almost tar-coloured block. The burning is the technique, and it is what makes the paste taste the way it does: deeply smoky, bitter in a way that reads as savoury rather than unpleasant, and quite unlike any other chilli preparation. Used with restraint it gives depth; used heavily it dominates everything. Its classic use is relleno negro, the Yucatecan turkey dish in which the bird is cooked in a black broth thickened with the paste and served with a hard-boiled-egg-and-pork stuffing. It also colours and flavours pavo en relleno negro at Christmas, and small amounts are stirred into soups, stews and marinades for pork. A little dissolves into a lot of liquid: a piece the size of a walnut is enough for a large pot. Break it up and whisk it into warm stock before adding it to the pan, or it will sit in lumps. In the UK, recado negro is sold in vacuum-packed blocks or jars by Mexican and Latin American grocers and by online Mexican food shops; it is a speciality item rather than a supermarket one. There is no substitute — the charred-chilli character cannot be approximated with smoked paprika or chipotle, which are smoky in an entirely different register. Keep it wrapped and refrigerated; the paste is dry and salty enough to last for months.