Cemitas Poblanas

As tradition built it

Cemitas poblanas

First sold at Mercado Victoria . Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 cemita roll (sesame-studded)
• 2, sliced, per 4 cemitas avocado, sliced
• 400g, per 4 cemitas local cow's-milk cheese, thinly sliced
• 1 cup, per 4 cemitas papalo leaves
• ½, sliced, per 4 cemitas onion
• to taste chipotle, pickled in piloncillo syrup

Method

1. Fill the roll with avocado, thin slices of the cheese, papalo leaves and onion.
2. Add chile, principally chipotle pickled in piloncillo syrup, for heat and sweetness together. Papalo, not coriander, is what actually defines the sandwich: a cemita made with coriander instead is not making the same sandwich at all.

What a modern chef changes

Sous vide pickle, live-fire toast, concentrated herb

Method

1. Pickle the chipotle in a controlled sous vide bath at a low, steady temperature, for a more even absorption of the piloncillo syrup than a simmered stovetop pickle gives in the time most home cooks allow it.
2. Toast the sesame-studded cemita roll itself briefly on a Big Green Egg's hot zone rather than under a grill, for a genuinely drier, more even crust.
3. Dehydrate a portion of the papalo to a coarse powder in the spice grinder and dust it over the finished sandwich alongside the fresh leaf, doubling the herb's presence without doubling its raw sharpness.