Our recipe for Cochinita Pibil called for one ingredient we'd never heard of before: achiote paste. This is a Mexican spice blend fairly specific to Yucatan and Oaxacan cuisine. We couldn't find the paste itself, but we did get an education in what it is, how it's made, and what it's used for! Do you ever cook with this spice?
Achiote is made from ground annatto seeds. On their own, these reddish-brown seeds have a woodsy aroma and a subtle earthy flavor. They also turn foods brilliant shades of yellow, orange, and red depending on cooking method and other ingredients. In fact, it's used commercially to color things like butter, cheddar cheese, and even some cosmetics!
These seeds can be ground into a powder, which is referred to as both annatto powder and achiote powder. They can also be simmered in oil to create brightly colored achiote oil. When ground with ingredients like garlic, vinegar, oil, and salt, it becomes the achiote paste called for in our recipe.
Achiote turns up in one form or another in many major Mexican dishes, from mole sauce and tamales to certain stews and bean dishes. It can be used in a marinade or dry spice rub for grilled meat or mixed with oil to brush onto seafood. It sounds like once you start cooking with it, finding ways to use it is not really a problem!
The seeds are said to be incredibly hard. Several sources recommended soaking the whole seeds in warm water for ten minutes before grinding them in a spice grinder or with a mortar and pestle. The whole seeds can also be used on their own and then removed before serving, like bay leaf or cardamom pods.
Here are a few sources for buying annatto seeds, achiote powders, and achiote pastes:
• Annatto Seeds from Penzeys Spices
• Achiote Powder from Gourmet Sleuth
• Achiote Paste from Gourmet Sleuth
• DIY Achiote Paste Recipe from Chow.com
How do you use achiote or annatto in your cooking?
Related: From the Spice Cupboard: Fenugreek
(Image: Gourmet Sleuth)
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In Filipino cuisine, we use it for this peanut butter & oxtail stew called Kare Kare. We also use it for a cured pork dish called Tocino.
It's fairly cheap to get at Asian markets.
In Nicaraguan cuisine, we use it for pork depending on the cut because we don't like the pale color of pork in some dishes. Also in some soupy rice dishes and other stewy dishes.
We are able to find it from the ethnic markets down here in South Florida, and from some of the supermarket chains even.
It is also used to condiment rice and marinate chicken
I've used the seeds to flavor oil to saute rice in for yellow rice. The paste can be used the same way, it's great for arroz con pollo.
I use it anywhere I would use pimenton, which is to say on just about anything. I like the musty smoky quality it has without the spicieness.
I first became acquainted with it while living in Ecuador where it's used in soups, rices and on meats.
And I LOVE Muenster cheese - the anatto-colored orange rind is the best part!
Annatto is used extensively in Filipino cuisine, mainly as a colorant in pancit dishes or kare-kare, but it does figure prominently as a flavoring ingredient in barbecued chicken inasal.
Annatto can be bloomed in hot water as well as oil.
When I was in the Yucatan, I learned that the standard achiote 'recado' (spice paste) that's sold in grocery stores usually involves a lot of clove. So people often associate achiote with that clove flavor--but really the achiote is mostly for color.
However you use it, be careful: It stains! Ruined a dress and shirt making cochinitas for the Lost finale.