Chicharron Prensa

[nonblonde007]

At a mexican market the other day, I bought a slab of something labeled Chicharron Prensa because it looked interesting. The butcher didn't speak english so was unable to answer any questions I had. Could someone please tell me what it is and how to use it, do you eat it plain, cook it, put it into a recipe, etc.? Thanks

[Lisa Shock]

Is it raw or cooked? (is it a raw slab of meat, or a big dry sheet?)

[nonblonde007]

It's a dry, pie shaped roughly 2 inch thick slab, it apears cooked, but I'm not sure. I kind of reminds me of a dry tureen.

[thayes1c]

There's a small thread about it over at rival food site chow.com (http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/497484), sounds like you reheat it in sauce and use it as a filling for. Sounds like it'd make some great tortas!

[MexChef]

Normally it is cooked... The complete name is Chicharron Prensado which literally means "pressed crackling". By pressed what they mean is that it was wrapped in a cloth (cheesecloth-like) after being deepfried, and all the fat wringed out...

It is common to dice it and mix it with green sauce (tomatillo, peppers, onions)

Cheers!

[nonblonde007]

Thank you, I will try that. I searched recipes and came up with nearly nothing.

[nonblonde007]

I also picked up a can of huitlacoche, any suggestions on how to get a good first impression from a can?

[Memo Rael]

On the chicharron prensado thing, you can eat it as is or do any or all of the following:

make tacos with it add lime salt some salsa and eat.

heat some green sauce which if made at home can be made by charring tomatillos, garlic, chillies (your choice, I like serranos) onion then add some cumin salt and pepper to taste and grind in a molcajete or blend, straining not required. Then add the chicharron to this and bring to temp, make tacos or eat for breakfast with tortillas too (make tacos)

The huitlacoche thing, don't worry about the can most huitlacoche comes in a can its very rare to get fresh. Add some corn oil to a pan heat, then add tomatoes, onions, chillies and some S&P to taste. After that smells like Mexico add the huitlacoche juice and all and cook lightly till hot then use this to make some of the follwing:

quesadillas: heat a tortilla add your favorite white cheese like monterrey jack or asadero or oaxaca or mozzarella and once the cheese is melted you can either flip it to brown the cheese if you like (in Mexico this is called planchada) then flip put some of the huitlacoche mix in there and eat with your favorite salsa or some eggs and stuff.

Raviolis make some cheese raviolis and use the sauce as a ragu real delicious sprinkle with some cotija cheese and crema if you like, you can also add some red or green salsa or if you are real adventurous try making the raviolis similar to mini tamales and then tell me how they went. Making tamales also sounds like a good idea.

Make wellington fillet and instead of using mushrooms to coat the fillet use the huitlacoche just make sure its really dry so your pastry doesn't become soggy.

[Panosmex]

I recently had a large taco of chicharrón prensado guisado, at the Birrería Don Rubén, in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán.

It was in a brick red chile salsa, and extremely rich. Although tasty, it was a bit too much for me, especially after a medium sized bowl of birria de chivo.

Chicharrón prensado guisado en salsa colorada, in its cazuela.